In spite of the current global pandemic, we still wanted to come together and celebrate one of life’s greatest milestones – having a baby! While we almost called it off many times, we are so happy that we were able to pull through and manage to celebrate with our loved ones.
Here are some tips, ideas and hopefully inspiration about how to throw a safe and simple party for everyone to enjoy – millennial style.
Safety Procedures
More important than the celebration of our baby, this was absolutely our main priority – keeping everyone safe. This is the rough outline of our event protocol:
- the event was held outdoors in our backyard within municipal capacity limits
- we separated our guests into separate time slots (family and very close friends), leaving time in between for cleaning and rest
- masks were mandatory for all guests, including ourselves (we also had extras available for our guests)
- sanitize immediately upon arrival and readily available
- cleaning supplies (soap, antibacterial wipes, extra tissues) readily available
- more chairs to promote less movement
- seating clusters to promote smaller social groups within the guests
- finger foods separated by portion to avoid cross contamination
- canned drinks for immediate recycling
- designated picture areas
- limit touching – ie. no hugging, no belly touching, etc
Decorations
Our baby shower theme was nature/woodland animals. You don’t have to pick a theme, but it does make it easier to narrow down the types of décor you want to use as well as your colour palette. We set up a few designated photo spots away from the seating area to prevent over crowding. Make sure tables are set up at least 6 feet apart. We created a dessert table with a wall backdrop as our primary photo area. The secondary area was created with a balloon ring at another corner of our backyard. Finally, we created a smaller photo spot with a onesie baby garland to fill in some blank space. Point is, use your decorations to space out your guests.
Food
We kept our food selection very simple and individualized to prevent as much contact as possible. We wanted our guests to be able to enjoy appetizers and finger foods without having to share. Basically, we pre-packaged as much food as possible into individual cups, and had premade sandwiches individually wrapped. Our menu went along the lines of:
- pre-packaged sandwiches,
- pasta cups,
- fruit cups,
- veggie spread (first rotation had cups, second rotation we ran out so we placed them on a serving tray with tongs 🙁
- quick accessible desserts,
- prewrapped cutlery
- disposable bottles and cans for drinks.
Activities
We always find it fun when baby showers incorporate games and activities for guests to participate in. We also considered activities and games that were contactless and offered small gift cards as prizes for the winners. Here are the simple games we played:
Price is Right. Participants have to guess the prices of baby items and the person with the closest total wins the prize. Everyone had their own sheets to fill out and tally their own answers. Our amazing friend hosted the game by reading the individual prices out loud. We laid out the items in question on the games table so our family and friends could reference. Funny how recently crowned parents won both times!
All you need to set this game up is:
- activity sign with instructions
- sheets to fill out (you can find free printouts all over the internet)
- pens
- baby items and individual/final totals for guests to tally
- prize for the winner
Balloon Race. Participants blow up a balloon and place it under their shirt, then place a ping pong ball between their knees and try to race down the designated track and be the first one to drop the ball into a party cup.
All you need for Balloon Race:
- activity sign with instructions
- balloons
- ping pong balls
- plastic cups
- prize for the winner
Belly Size Guess. Participants cut a piece of string that they think is closest to mom’s belly size. For this game.
All you need for Belly Guess is:
- activity sign with instructions
- string or yarn
- tape for guests to label their names
- scissors
- prize for the winner
Wishes for the Baby. Guests fill out a few lines to share their wishes for your baby!
All you need for Wishes for the Baby:
- wish sheets for guests to fill out (you can find free templates online)
- pens
- a container to hold the papers
Alphabet Book for Baby. Guests fill out an alphabet letter and picture. This is a great game if you have kids at your baby shower. The purpose is to collect all the alphabet sheets and bind them into a book for your nursery!
All you need for Alphabet Book:
- Paper with a single alphabet letter on each. Alphabet sheets (you can find free printouts online)
- Colorful markers
These were some of the ideas, inspirations, games and activities that we thought worked great for us, while also factoring in social distancing. We hope you found these ideas helpful for your next party event.
Of course, you can always add your own take to these, just remember when it’s party time the most important thing is to have fun!
Oh and by the way, congratulations!
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