GET THE PARTY STARTED

GUESS WHO?

Ask your guests to bring photos of themselves as a baby or toddler. Ask each guest to drop the photo in a box near the entrance of the party. Later, each guest chooses a photo out of the box and guesses out loud who the person in the picture is. If they get it wrong, then ask all the guests to have a go until they get it right. You’ll have lots of fun giggling at your childhood photos – flaws and all!

THE GIFT OF GIVING

While it is very exciting to welcome a newborn baby into this world, it’s also nice to think of those less fortunate. Ask each guest to bring a little something extra to the baby shower (like a tin of formula, baby toiletries or some nappies), and then you can donate these to a charity of the new parent’s or parents’ choice.

CAKE REVEAL

If the baby shower is where the baby’s sex will be revealed, why not let the cake do the job? Make sure the icing is a neutral colour (like white or silver), so no one will know the sex until the cake has been cut. Make the inside of the cake either pink or blue. (If you are baking the cake, you can buy ready-made cake mix and just add food colouring.) Record the reveal, and then send it to friends and family who couldn’t make it to the event.

CRAVING TABLE

We all know how pregnant women sometimes need marshmallow-flavoured popcorn. So make sure to keep your guest of honour happy by providing foods you know she’ll love. Ask the new-mom-to-be what has been her most memorable craving. Have these treats at the baby shower with a sign saying: “The cravings table.” Also remember to keep foods pregnancy friendly and have a variety of herbal teas on offer.

PRINT ME PRETTY

Get the guests to make a one-of-a-kind designer collection for the new baby. Buy babygros and fabric paint in fun pastel colours, and make potato-printing blocks. Do this by halving a potato and using a cookie cutter to make a shape on the potato. (Fun shapes such as hearts and stars are great.) Guests can then dip the potato into some paint and paste it onto the vest. Just make sure to put some newspaper between the front and the back of the vest to stop the paint spreading through.

NAFF NAPPIES

This is a great game to play when not everyone at the baby shower knows each other. Put the guests into random teams of two. Give each team a baby doll and a nappy. They must then put the nappy on the doll. Once everyone is comfy, blindfold one of the partners, and make sure both participants put one hand behind their back. You’ll have your guests in fits of laughter in no time.

NAPPY CAKE

The notorious nappy cake is always a crowd pleaser and it is a great present for the host to give the new-mom-tobe. A nappy cake is usually a three-tier structure made up of nappies. You can then add other small gifts like dummies, toys and clothes to the cake. Visit Youtube for tutorials on building your own nappy cake. They also make great centrepieces. ●