Christmas Baby Shower

The table for the baby shower part of our celebration.

I used a mini tree that I already had with a set of lights on it.  I added baby girl themed ornaments and little babies. Another mom brought some cute pink baby shower plates and napkins. I brought some prizes for the kids and made a peppermint cake I had wanted to try for years. It had crushed peppermint on the outside and inside, giving it that baby girl pink color as well as a Christmas feel.

I got the idea for the little babies from Tip Junkie. I modified mine a little bit from that site. I didn’t want to use disposable diapers as my friend whom I was throwing the shower for plans to use cloth diapers again, so she has no need for disposable diapers. Instead of diapers, I rolled a onesie up for the ‘body.’ After that, I used the same idea of the washcloth and the sock. I didn’t go back and look at the site when I made them or would have added the ribbon they added, as that is such a cute touch. The other change I made was not drawing or gluing googly eyes onto the baby’s body as I didn’t want to ruin the onesie since it was part of my gift. I cut some eyes on my Cricut from Cricut – Once Upon a Princess(affiliate link) Cartridge and decided to tape them to the baby. Again, I didn’t want to ruin the onesie. The result is some slightly strange looking babies, but I knew that even though they were a little odd looking my friend would appreciate them even more for that! 🙂

Close up of the tree

See…she likes the odd looking babies I made!

For the games, I had the kids in mind a little more than the adults, after all our monthly socials are for the kids and I know that if we keep the kids happy, we keep the mommies happy! I did ask if the grown ups wanted to play, but they were of the same opinion as me with regard to games and baby showers….I’ll pass!

Our first game…Pin the Baby in the Manger

Our first game was Pin the Baby in the Manger. I saw other ideas such as pin the ornament on the belly or pin the baby in the stocking. But as our group is very diverse, we range from conservative to liberal and Christian to Hindu. I didn’t want to offend anyone with the idea of the pin the ornament to the belly (or raise any questions….like my kids would start asking quite loudly….”how did the baby get into that belly, Mommy?”), so I stuck with something I thought I might be able to draw and cut the rest out on my Cricut. As you can see above, my attempt at a manger was mediocre, but I thought the addition of some raffia as ‘straw’ helped a little bit. I used my Cricut – Once Upon a Princess Cartridge for the baby girls and I borrowed the Creative Memories ‘Tis the Season Cartridge(no longer available) from my consultant to make the gingerbread boys.

Hot Baby Bottle

The other game we played I modified some ideas that I found online. I was originally calling this a musical chairs game, but some other more knowledgeable mommies knew that this was really like playing hot potato…so it was renamed Hot Baby Bottle. I bought a couple of small baby bottles and filled them with Christmas M&M’s (they were sent home with the mommy to be…who doesn’t love some extra chocolate when they are pregnant!). We had Christmas music playing. The kids passed the bottle to the person on their right, if they were holding the bottle when the music stopped, they were out of the game.

So, at the shower, we taught our friend all her parenting options… you can pin your new baby in a manger and if that doesn’t work, just throw a hot baby bottle at her filled with M&M’s. Good parenting advice for sure! At least this isn’t her first child…she and her baby will be just fine!

Lastly, let me give you my nugget of knowledge learned that day. If you have a Christmas party and a baby shower together on one day, pay attention to what your children eat. Then don’t go to Costco and eat more sweet snacks while walking through the store. Because for a 5 year old apparently a cupcake, a slice of cake, some other sweets and a sample of peppermint bark at Costco = a 5 year old throwing up in the check out line at Costco(all over herself and the floor and even a bit on the conveyor belt!) Lovely! and ohhh so embarrassing! What does one say when this occurs? Ummm, so sorry, I’m going to take my child to clean up now, you can take care of this right? Can I admit that I was secretly glad it happened there, they had to clean it up according to their codes….so I didn’t have to…that’s bad to admit out loud and on a blog, but anyone who knows me knows I am phobic about these things. So, maybe it all worked out fine!

Happy Baby Girl to my friend D! I enjoyed putting your shower together and look forward to holding that sweet girl next year!

For more fun,  you can see this cute American Girl Doll Christmas ornament  I made or this cute quick, and easy pet gift basket.