So, your friend/colleague/sister/brother/”your person” is having a baby and it’s your job to plan the baby shower. Where to start? Luckily for you, we made this list with the help of Lisa from Ohbabyshower! Never want to miss useful articles like these? Sign up for our newsletter!

First things first: What is a baby shower?

A baby shower is a surprise party organised for the soon-to-be-mother. The goal is to spoil her and celebrate her becoming a mother. It’s the perfect opportunity to really shower her with gifts! Usually, a baby shower happens in around the 30th week of pregnancy. Also, traditionally, they are only for women. However, we’re not old fashioned and think you should invite whoever you think will make the soon-to-be mommy happy during her special day!

A baby shower takes about a couple of hours in which you’ll drink, eat, shower the mom with gifts, reminisce a bit, and play some silly games. The most important thing to keep in mind is that you think about who is becoming a new mother (or father) and what will make him/her happy. Does (s)he like to do games? Paint onesies? Measure bellies? Just always keep the mother/father to be in the back of your mind while planning, and you’re good.

Now, in order to organise a baby shower, we made you this easy checklist. So, let’s start planning!

1. Bring the band together

First of all, make a list of who is coming. That’s not as easy as it sounds! There’s a bunch of things to consider:

• Is there a good connection with the mother, mother-in-law, and/or sister(s)-in-law? Invite them!
• Men at a baby shower? Why not!
• A baby shower for the dad? Definitely!

Make sure everyone’s invited in a group where you can easily communicate with each other (Whatsapp/Facebook/send out pigeons/whatever you prefer). Also, think about where you want to have the baby shower. Will it be at someone’s house, the office, or maybe a nice restaurant? Furthermore, set a suitable date and time. We recommend giving your attendees a couple of options to choose from, instead of letting everyone pitch their ideas. Set the date, time, and, if discussed, the theme of the baby shower so everyone is on board.

2. The Honeypot

Now it’s time to make sure the parent-to-be will also be there. Appoint the person with the best poker face to lure him/her to the surprise shower. Make sure he/she has a solid excuse so the parent doesn’t know what’s going on.

3. Divide & Conquer

If everything is set with the time and date, there are still a lot of things to be decided on. First, and maybe most important for the actual showering, gifts! What is everyone spending? Do you all give your own gift or do you pitch in to give one (or multiple) gift(s) together? To help you out deciding what to give, we made a nice list of must-have baby shower gifts. It’s also not unusual for the mom-to-be to have a baby registry in which she tracks what she already has so you should probably check if she has that as well.

After you settled on the gifts, move on to food, drinks, games, and decorations. Ask what people like to make or are good at making (not everyone likes cooking as much as the other). You might want to pitch some food ideas to the group to make it easier. Here are some nice suggestions, courtesy of Ohbabyshower:

• Virgin cocktails
• CAKE! LOTS OF CAKE!
• Easy bites like mozzarella-tomato skewers, tiny hamburgers, cupcakes or brownies
• Wraps
• Healthy corner with snack tomatoes, carrot, cucumber, and some nice (hummus) dips

Just keep in mind that you don’t serve any raw cheese or raw meat, certain (shell)fish, or alcohol for the parent-to-be. Also, don’t use plastic cutlery and plates. Do we really need to say why…?

For games, there’s a lot you can do, and we really do mean A LOT. A classic (and might we say, always a big hit) is for everyone to bring a baby picture of themselves and let the mother/father-to-be guess who is who.

Another fun thing is to make a book with pictures of everyone who is present at the baby shower and let them write down their personal wishes for the baby. That, or let them describe the baby’s parents and what personal traits they like and don’t like to see the baby inherit.

4. Final touches

Don’t forget to also plan for the day itself, of course. Who is helping you decorate the room, set up the gifts, etc? Furthermore, you might want to give the guests a ‘thank you for coming’ party favour. It doesn’t have to be big, something like a scented candle or a nice bar of soap for instance. Just a small gesture at the end the day to say thank you for coming. Finally, the parent-to-be might want to give thank-you notes to all the guests which you could attach to this gift.

5. Last but not least

Don’t forget to have fun on the day itself! It’s a day of celebration that should be enjoyed by everybody. If things go a bit different than expected, don’t fret too much, it’s a celebration!

Did we miss any essential tips you would like to share with us? Why not let us know on our Facebook page?!