My friend and her husband are due to have their first baby this week. Despite everything going on her other friends and I didn’t want this momentous occasion to pass unmarked so we set about organising a virtual baby shower in order to celebrate. This worked really well as some of her friends live far away so couldn’t attend a socially distanced event in person. I’m going to share everything we organised including game ideas, decorations and a very special baby book to help others that might need some tips. We managed to keep it a surprise up until she sat in front of the computer and we have her husband to thank for doing such a great job setting up for us!
1. Refreshments
I LOVE an afternoon tea and it’s my go to for any event! It’s also really easy for everyone to get hold of. I delivered scones, cream and jam to local ladies and those further away baked or sourced their own. Partnered with a pot of tea it was a delicious way for us all to celebrate the same way.
2. Decorations
We decided on making some very simple but effective homemade decorations. We ordered pastel card from Amazon and cut little baby vest shapes out in a variety of colours and stuck them to some jute string so everyone decorated their little ‘stations’ in the same way though she didn’t realise until the end! Mum-to-be had some helium balloons and a sash to wear too.
3. Games
Searching the internet threw up A LOT of options for baby shower games but these particular ones worked really well on video call. A simple Powerpoint presentation is all you need. We didn’t think we would need all these games but I’m glad we had them all planned anyway as they were needed to keep things going online.
- Who’s that baby? Everyone sends the host a baby picture of themselves and everyone has to guess who is who.
- The price is right: Show everyone pictures of popular baby items and get them to guess how much they cost. Choose a particular supermarket and stick with that and don’t include items on offer. Remember to include weights, volume or pack sizes.
- How old was mum? Get 10-12 images of the mum-to-be growing up and get everyone to put them in age order.
- Baby names: Using the parents-to-be names (if they are married it might help to use mums maiden name for more letters) everyone has to see how many baby names they can make from those letters
- Who’s baby? Do you know your Cria’s from your puggles? Get a list of animals and what their babies are called and see how many people know. P.S. that’s an alpaca and a platypus!
- Baby anagrams: Either make your own or find a list online of popular baby items made into anagrams. Just check them over to make sure some of the terms used aren’t too American that people won’t be able to guess them.
4. Gifts
We had all chipped in to gift the parents-to-be a larger item on their wishlist and get mum a pamper set. The one we ordered ended up being a bit naff so we bulked it out with a few extra bits like candles, bath oils and some rainbow macaroons. We got some baby gro’s and a teddy and some books for baby along with a cute set of milestone cards.
The final gift was a bit like a guest book but as we weren’t attending in person we had to organise this ahead of time. Everyone wrote a selection of letters to the parents and to the baby along with quotes and verses that they thought were helpful. The scrap book from Hobbycraft had a lot more pages than the bits we put together so we made extra pages that turned it into a baby record book with the other bits thrown in periodically.
It made for a really good time and a nice get together before the baby comes. I can highly recommend doing this if you can’t get together for a more traditional baby shower.
Emma xx
