Baby Shower - ideas please

[VeryHungryKatypillar]

I'm organising a baby shower for a friend and wonder if anyone has any views/ideas on format. Nibbles, cake and chat? Or a more organised approach with games? If so, what games? Pin the dummy on the baby? (this is said tongue in cheek btw... I think)

Any ideas or help gratefully received.

I've never been to a baby shower but have a friend who went to one recently. There were games, one of which involved the guests blind tasting various jars of baby food and guessing the flavour.....sounds disgusting to me but apparently it went down well! You'd probably get lots of ideas if you google it - particularly from america where baby showers are really popular.

I went to a friend's baby shower in the summer. It was a good excuse to get the girls together and to have a bit of a giggle before the baby was born. The mum to be was asked what 'bits' she needed before hand and everyone chose what to buy eg cotton wool, wipes, muslins, sleepsuits, vests etc. We also got one boy and one girl helium baloon and decorated fairy cakes with pink and blue icing. Enjoy!

More disgusting but tasty than guessing baby food flavours is guess the melted chocolate in the nappy. Caramac has a striking resemblance to newborn poo for any attendees who have a baby already .

Also, a baby products 'price is right' game of can be fun - choose items e.g.nappies, wipes, baby food, cots, prams etc and do multiple choice costs.

Also, match the celeb with the baby name if you're into that kind of thing...

helloooo! i went to a baby shower last summer and now i am planning 1 for my best friend in may. my sister im laws was great gues the object in the bag, put things like breast pad, nappy, nappy sack, bottle, talc etc in a gift bag with tissue paper and guests feel around. also all guests wear a dummy or rattle charm around neck, you musnt say 'baby' if you do someone will take your charm. the person at the end with the most charms wins. thought it was really cute idea when i plain white baby towel was brought out with fabric pens for us to decorate. there was also an advice book doing the rounds for advice on pregnancy birth and beyond, im desperately trying to find a cake in the mod mom range, anyone know where i can get 1?

I had a baby shower a couple of weeks ago and it was a good laugh. I guess it depends on your taste (and your friends!) but they can be tame or a little wilder...

They dressed me up in a giant romper suit with bonnet and bib! We played games like match the celebrity mum with the baby. I also had to match my friends with the baby photo they had all brought along. On the more yukky side I had to guess what was in the nappy by smell and taste - things like branston pickle, marmite, curry sauce etc... Very funny and a little stomach-turning!

We ran a sweepstake on the birth - £1 to enter and the neareast guesser gets the booty!

Other games include: get your friends to guess the circumference of your belly by cutting a piece of string/ribbon to what they think is right. A drinking game using babies bottles - who can drink the bottle the fastest...

On the cake front we had little cupcakes with pink or blue decorations on the top.

Have fun!

Thanks all so much for your suggestions, this is helping loads. I think I would be an ex-friend if we made the mum to be dress up in a rompersuit though! Fair play to you OrangeAnne, you must be a good sport!

One of my friends organised a videographer specialised in maternity & baby films and she filmed my baby shower in April which was great fun ! She was there for 2 hours or so and gave me the film a week later on DVD. The girls chipped in. Great idea ! Here is the link

sorry messed up the link, here
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showing my penchant for crap tv but here goes- there was an episode of Girls of the playboy mansion where they had a baby shower.

Games involved races in teams to dress baby dolls in nappies & babygros then a buggy slalom assault course thing. (you could borrow dolly buggies from whichever friends have them)

Also had a sweepstake on how many cms the baby bump was and when it would be born.

The decorations were loads of balloons and big lollipops, sweets etc.

Not really my thing but looked like fun.