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When throwing a baby shower, we often have quite a lot of things to factor in to the equation. Much like throwing any other social gathering, you no doubt want to focus on the guests to ensure they have the best time they possibly can.

Well, this means focusing on the things like the entertainment on offer and the food provided. That’s why you might wish to look at some of our baby shower table buffet ideas.

If you need some inspiration on picking stylish snacks and fantastic finger foods, try and focus on the following tips and ideas.

Choose a Theme

Before you do anything else, come up with a theme. For example, if you know the baby is going to be a boy, you might wish to go down the vintage ‘baby blue’ color scheme. The same goes if you know it is a girl. Then, you just need to find foods especially with the sweets that match-in with that color scheme, or add some paper toppers (picks) that will convey the theme.

Of course, you could even adjust the color of other foods by using some safe food dyes. Either way, a theme helps to dictate the entire experience!

Balance Savory and Sweet

Regardless of the theme, you should always look to try and find a balance between savory and sweet products. This is very important. For every little plate of little sausage rolls, pastries, and cheese bites, have a little bowl of popcorns, chewy treats, and the like.

Whether you want to have savory and sweet foods separated is another thing to consider. It is very popular these days to devote a table full of sweets only and another table for just the savory foods.

Try and focus on having as many mini foods as you can, too; this helps to make the buffet look even busier than normal.

Focus on the time of day

Another timing factor is the time of day you hold your baby shower. Therefore, your baby shower table buffet ideas should probably focus on that. If this is a morning or brunch buffet, then you want to get something that can enjoy a bit more simplistic food.

Every culture has its own approach to breakfast, but a fine mixture of things like yogurts, waffles, fruits, muffins and cupcakes, and – if you tend to go down this route – things like pancakes or even eggs can help to add a bit of extra depth to the food that is on offer.

Focusing on the time of the day is very important as it can play a pretty big role in making sure the experience is truly satisfying. It also helps you to avoid putting out foods that might not be eaten due to the time people have arrived at the shower.

Listen to your Guests

Before you commit to any foods, you should speak to the close circle of guests attending your shower. The reason why is that baby shower table buffet ideas should be based around what people need to avoid. For example, does anyone have a major nut allergy? If so, you might wish to avoid using nuts in any of the foods which are present on the buffet. You would also keep in mind about foods that mom-to-be should be avoiding during pregnancy.

A bit of planning around the potential risks to your guests can make sense. It can also be quite useful for making sure that nobody falls ill or has an adverse reaction to any of the food(s) which are being put out on the table.

So, focus on the baby shower table buffet ideas that can avoid foods with high allergy risks and what mom-to-be should avoid. Checking with guests for the presence of major allergies can also help to avoid any nasty surprises, too.

Back Up your Buffet with Liquids

From pots of tea to cans of soda, you should look to have as much liquid as you can. Naturally, filling out a table with bottles of water, kettles, teapots etc. can be very useful for making sure everyone who comes along can be well hydrated.

You don’t want to take any needless risks when it comes to having a ‘dry buffet’. Of course, for some baby showers, you might also wish to have a few ‘adult’ refreshments, so look out for some nice bottles of wine etc. you could put out there.

If nothing else, make sure you put out as much tea, coffee, and water as you can so that everyone who comes along can find a drink that suits their tastes. With all of that finger food and buffet eating, you want to avoid anything feeling like they are dried out!

Ensure it is self-serving

At a baby shower, one of the most forgotten baby shower table buffet ideas comes from ensuring it can be self-served. Ensure there are ample utensils and cutlery so that nobody is waiting around. And remember, the hosting team are part of the party, too; don’t have your buffet set up so that someone has to spend all evening standing serving.

You should try and build all of your baby shower table buffet ideas around having a lot of self-service so that people can come and go as they please. This might sound obvious, but it can have a pretty major impact on the quality of your buffet experience as a whole. Have a sign even setup to let guests know they can help themselves.

So, be sure to look at ensuring that the buffy can be self-serving as much as possible. It helps to keep things flowing and it ensures that nobody feels like a staff member as opposed to a guest.

Have some fun!

Lastly, remember that this is all about having some fun and enjoying the company of people wishing you well for the future. When taking on any baby shower table buffet ideas, always factor in the theme, the guests, and the time of the day; it is the easiest way to ensure a happy, positive experience for all who come along.

Baby Shower Table Set Up Ideas

The Covid-19 has altered the state of the world and changed the way our day-to-day lives work. From new social distancing norms to mandated stay-at-home orders urging isolation for months, this is a situation that feels very much like time has stopped. But the fact is, life is still going on, and people are still experiencing important milestones in their lives, such as new babies on the way, weddings, anniversaries, etc.

We don’t know how long the world itself will be at a standstill like this, and celebrating these big milestones in our lives that continue on no matter what, is significant. There are ways to do this while still being safe and healthy during this pandemic, so if you’ve got a little miracle on the way, never fear! Below, check out the amazing ways you can still host a baby shower during COVID-19. 

Baby Shower during COVID-19 Options

Virtual Baby Shower

We are so lucky to be in a time of video messaging in the forms of apps like Zoom, Skype, and FaceTime. There are one of two ways that you might choose to celebrate, but regardless of which you go with, send out invitations! We have plenty of free instant download digital invitations in variety of designs. Just because everyone can be together doesn’t mean you can’t make this celebration feel like a true one. Adorable invitations are a way to get into the spirit of celebrating the upcoming bundle of joy.

Livestream:

If you’re looking for something a little more low key and quiet, you can settle in your baby’s nursery with the gifts your loved ones have sent to you by post. Then, have all the guests hop on a conference video call through a shared app so that everyone can experience watching you open your gifts, and they can see the nursery you’ve created! If you don’t have access to Zoom, you can even live stream on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat. This is convenient and easy for everyone, no matter what devices they’re on.

Zoom Zoom:

But, if you want to go all out like you would if you could be together with your party guests, you can do that, too! For this, you’ll need a video conferencing app (such as Zoom, as mentioned) so that you and all of your loved ones can share the screen together. For this type of baby shower celebration, give info to your guests in the invitation beforehand to be prepared to play whatever games you’ve decided on. You might even choose to send baby shower packets to your guests, which can include game materials and baby shower favors. You can even include ingredients to simple recipes so that every guest can enjoy the same baby shower treats that they themselves easily whip up! Things like minimal ingredient cookies and muffins are ideal for this.

Virtual Baby Shower Games

Some easy and fun games to play remotely with each other are Baby Bingo, Guess That Celebrity Baby, Who knows mommy best, and Would She Rather. I love printable activities because it is super easy to send guests digital versions of these. Guests can print it out at home or if they don’t have a printer, they’ll just need a paper and a pen to write down the answers ready to share with the rest of the guests. To make it more interactive, you can personalize the Guess That Celebrity Baby Game to include photos of the guest! You’ll need to get the guests to send their baby photo to you, yes, it may sound like a lot of work, but trust me it will be worth the effort!

There are other virtual baby shower games you can purchase online. One great shop is ThinkGames, where you can find all sorts of virtual games using powerpoint. Some games are Battle Trivia, and Jeopardy game. The battle trivia has up to 10 rounds, but you can skip or delete rounds you don’t want to use as they are very customizable!

Drive-by Baby Shower!

Like the Virtual baby showers, Drive-by Baby Showers are the new take on traditional showers. It is one of the most popular hosted baby shower during COVID-19. They are also known as a Baby Shower Parade, Curb-side Baby Shower or Drive Thru Baby Shower. This innovative idea involves asking your would-be guests to create signs and decorate their cars before cruising by your place to drop off gifts, pick-up food, and wish you well. It goes without saying that this keeps both you and your loved ones safe while still allowing you to celebrate for the special day.

Drive-by Baby Shower is an option that would work well if your close friends and families live in the same city. They would also need a car of their own as carpooling with friends that we are so used to would not be possible with social distancing in place.

A drive-by baby shower won’t replace the traditional baby showers, but it is certainly fun and definitely won’t be an event to forget!

What is Drive-by Baby Shower?

Drive-by Baby Shower is where the guests drive by the Parents-to-be’s home and celebrate them with honking, cheers and gifts. Preferably, you’d want to organize the time well so that there’ll be a line of cars outside, but if you are inviting over 30 guests, you’d want to make sure you set the time frame appropriately so that the road would not be totally blocked, as the last thing you’d want is complaints from the neighbors.

Hosting a drive-by baby shower might seem a little daunting, definitely a new challenge for you as no one has planned for one before nor been invited to it. Don’t worry, it is not as hard as you might think, a lot of the hassles are actually taken away when you compare it to the traditional or virtual baby showers.

Drive-by Baby Shower Invitation

For invitations, you could send a group chat or prepare a digital invitation to email or you can still send out paper invites! The main details would include the date and a 30 minutes time frame for when the guests are to drive by. If you are inviting more than 30 guests, you may want to extend the time frame to an hour. Rsvp won’t be necessary but if gifts are planned, be sure to add the registry details. You may want to take this opportunity to mention if the gifts are to be mailed or dropped off from a safe distance. 

Wording for Drive-by Baby Shower Invitation

?  “It’a a Drive by Baby Shower to honor xxxxxx
Since we can’t be together to celebrate today, let’ shower the family in a different way. Drive by to show your love and support. follow the signs to enjoy curbside treats, favors and a card/gift drop.”

?  “Beep, honk, shout & wave! It’s a drive by baby shower honoring parents-to-be xxxxx. Since we can’t be together today, let’s shower the family in a different way. Beep, honk, shout, and wave. It’s a drive by baby shower parade!”

Decorating for Drive-by Baby Shower

You can still decorate for the event, but it does not need to be elaborate. You can keep the decorations minimal with balloons or a large poster backdrop, a gift table by the curb, and comfortable chairs for the parents-to-be with their favorite music playing in the background. This would set the mood perfectly. Having a game just as the guests drop off their gift might also be fun. A suitable game would be a guessing game such as “guess how many jelly beans are in the jar.” A winner could have a movie voucher mailed to them.

Favors for Drive-by Baby Shower

Although baby shower favors aren’t essential, if parents-to-be are expecting to receive gifts, I think it would be nice to prepare favors for guests to pick up as they drive past.

6 Foot Block Shower!

If your loved ones live nearby and if the current restriction allows, why not gather in person with the necessary precautions to celebrate? By keeping things outside, and guests standing at least six feet from one another, you can all still be together and party for the baby on the way!

You can prepare goody bags with treats, games, and favors prior to the event and leave those in a spot in your driveway or yard for guests to pick up separately. You can do this same method with guests individually dropping off gifts in a certain area. Just remember—this idea for a baby shower is probably only possible if you have plenty of outside space, as the logistics for at least six feet of space would not work indoors.

Simple Drop-Off.

Here is another option for a baby shower during COVID-19. This is ultra-simple for everyone and completely stress-free. You can hold a simple drop-off and greet. Guests can drop off their gifts at your doorstep and say hello, and you can send them home with premade bags of baby-themed treats and fun favors. Hassle-free, no contact, and your loved ones still get to show up to celebrate you and your new baby.

Photo Inspirations & Pinterest Board:

Here are some photos of baby showers during COVID-19. It didn’t stop the planners and host from throwing a memorable baby shower party!

Follow Virtual Drive By Party Inspirations on Pinterest.