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Hosting a baby shower is a great way to say congratulations to the parents-to-be, and themed showers on a budget can be a fun and inexpensive way to throw the shower. Here are three fun and easy baby shower themes with tips on how to make them all your own.
The Bookworm
Go with the theme of children’s books and ask that each person bring one book with a handwritten note inside for the baby on the way. You can create a whole shower theme around this really easily.
Invitation – For invites, print out a page from your favorite children’s book, or use pages from a vintage book if you can find one that has spine damage and is worth recycling. Glue it to card stock. In the center, glue plain white paper with your invite wording written in the book’s style. Be sure to let everyone know to bring their own book! If you’re in a pinch, you can pick up a pack of Baby Shower Invitations already made. Just look for a design based around the theme.
Game – This is a fun game for everyone to play at this sort of shower: Name that author! You can stick with either children’s books or branch out to other genres, but give the title of a book and have guests write down the author’s name. Set a timer and ask 10 of these questions. The person with the most correct answers at the end of the game wins. You can even list characters in a book, famous lines, or movies based off these books to mix up the trivia questions.
Party Favor – What better party favor for a bookworm-themed baby shower than to send everyone home with their own personalized bookmark? You can make these in several ways, and they can be very inexpensive. Make them from scrapbook pages, card stock, or even buy a bookmark kit. Include baby’s due date on it in a vintage-looking library book due date stamp to continue the theme and make them personalized to your party.
Treat – For a very simple treat that goes well with this theme, make gummy worm book worms. Bake some cupcakes and place gummy worms on top. Serve them atop a large children’s book (to protect it you can cover the outside in plastic wrap) and place a sign next to it that says “Book Worms.”
Say Cheese!
Make a shower around—you guessed it—pictures! Moms love showing off pictures of their babies, so decorate the tables with sonogram photos and photos of the expecting mom’s other children.
Invitation – Send out a picture of the happy family or the mom-to-be’s baby bump and write the invite info on the back. This is a simple way to provide a photo to friends and family that they can keep and a cute way to invite them to the shower.
Game – A fun game idea is to have guests bring their own baby photos and have everyone guess who is who. It’s a good ice breaker game that encourages socializing and can get some laughs from the crowd. Or try deviating from classic Baby Shower Games and bring out a fun trivia board game based around picture clues.
Party Favor – For a favor, send everyone home with a personalized picture frame. You can buy some affordable, plain ones and decorate them yourself or provide materials for people to decorate the frames as they sit at the party. That doubles as a game and a favor!
Treat – Make the cake a photography-themed masterpiece. Have a two-layered cake and on the top place a camera (a fake, toy, or disposable works well). Along the base of the cake, place small picture frames filled with sonogram photos and maternity photos.
Ready to Pop!
Mom is ready to “pop” and so are these cute balloon party themed ideas!
Invitation – Make colorful, polka-dotted or striped invites on paper, roll them up, stuff them inside a deflated balloon, and attach instructions to blow up the balloon and pop it for the invite to be shown.
Game – Have each person sculpt a balloon animal or play a game where they hold the balloon between their knees as they complete an obstacle course. The first one to complete the course without dropping or popping the balloon wins!
Party Favor – For the favor, play “Pop” music at the shower and send each guest home with a copy of the CD that you played at the shower. You can even send guests home with a glass bottle of pop, a small bottle of bubbles to pop, or their balloon animals. No matter what you come up with for this theme’s Baby Shower Favors, they are sure to turn out cute!
Treat – For treats, balloons are one of the easiest themes to accomplish. Make a batch of cupcakes and frost them in a variety of colors. Place all the cupcakes on a white board. At the bottom of the board, glue down a silhouette cut-out of a pregnant woman. Then, draw lines with a marker to the base of the cupcakes to create the look that the cupcakes are a bunch of balloons she is holding. You can create cookies shaped like balloons, and of course decorate around the entire room with, yep, balloons!