TIPical Mary Ellen host Mary Ellen Pinkham shares clever ideas for hosting a fabulous baby or wedding shower.
Wedding Shower
- Fill a tray with items a new couple could use on their honeymoon--a bottle of champagne, glasses, a candle, chocolates and other items that might be nice to have on a honeymoon (figure A). Show the tray to your guests, then give each a sheet of paper and ask them to write down all the items they remembered on the tray. The one who remembers the most gets a prize.
- Play a trivia game that features questions about the bride and groom. This is great for a couple's shower.
Baby Shower
- Send out invitations for the baby shower that are folded like a baby's diaper, held together with diaper pins (figure B). By the way, the appropriate time for sending out shower invitations is two to four weeks in advance for local guests, and four to six weeks for guests who will have to travel.
- Ask all of the baby shower guests to bring a photo of themselves as a baby. The person who matches the most adults with their baby photos wins a prize.
- Pass around a journal during a baby shower and ask each guest to write down his or her parenting advice. Give it to the mommy-to-be after everyone has contributed, or present it as a gift in the hospital right after the baby is born.
- Purchase an assortment of baby foods and take off the labels. Pass around samples for the guests to taste and smell. Whoever guesses the most correct flavors wins a prize.
- Have your guests break up into teams and hand each team a watermelon. Each team must decorate the watermelon the way that they think the new baby is going to look. Equip the teams with yarn for hair, diapers, permanent markers, felt and glue. The team with the best-looking or silliest-looking baby wins a prize.
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