How to Plan a Halloween-Themed Baby Shower

Congratulations: Either you or someone you are close to is going to have a baby, and it's time to plan the baby shower! Baby showers are so much fun, both to plan and to attend. And while it's not necessary to have a baby shower with a specific theme, I mean all those little pink and blue booties and other goodies are adorable, but how much more fun is it when you pick a specific theme for your baby shower?

One idea for picking a theme for your baby shower is to pick a theme from a holiday that falls within the month that your due date falls. Let's say your baby's due date falls in November. You could pick a fall theme or a thankful theme for your baby shower, perhaps even a baby Pilgrim theme. Any of these ideas can be a lot of fun to plan a baby shower around.

One of my family's favorite holidays each year is Halloween. We love the decorations and the costume possibilities. What if your baby's due date falls in October and you were to plan a Halloween themed baby shower? A Halloween themed baby shower opens up a whole cauldron full of super fun ideas! Personally I am not a fan of the extreme grisly side of some Halloween ideas so I will be avoiding those completely. I know Halloween has its roots in ancient paganism but I prefer to focus on the commercial and fun, sanitized version of Halloween. With that in mind, this article will detail a baby shower planning guide for you to plan your own Halloween themed baby shower.

The first step in planning a baby shower of any type is to choose the date, time, and place you will be having your baby shower. With a Halloween themed baby shower, it's a good idea to plan the baby shower at someone's house, especially if they have a large yard to have the party outside if the weather is good or if they have a large living area. If you have a large enough budget for your Halloween themed baby shower, you can hold the party at a restaurant that has a banquet room that you can rent for an afternoon or evening. A good time to hold a baby shower is when most of the guests will be available and not at work such as on weekends.

Will your Halloween themed baby shower include the guests dressing in costume? Wouldn't costumes be fun especially if each guest were to dress up as a baby character such as a baby witch, baby Dracula, baby Muppet, baby Mummy or any infant version of a character? If you decide to have a theme within a theme like that, you will need to put that on your invitations so the guests will know and can plan their costumes accordingly.

Don't forget to send out invitations to your baby shower guests. A verbal invitation is great but an actual invitation sent through snail mail will help set the entire tone of your Halloween themed baby shower. You can find Halloween baby shower invitations from several online websites. One website carries a Halloween Baby Shower invitation that is a pumpkin Jack O' Lantern with the words "Halloween Baby" above the Jack O' Lantern for $19.99 for a set of 10 invitations. The website also carries coordinating matching items with the same design. Another online site to order Halloween baby shower invitations is an ebay store, JMCreationz. They offer personalized invitations featuring a baby in a pumpkin in sets of 5 invitations with envelopes for $3.50.

The website, Tiny Tidings, offers a charming Halloween baby shower invitation with a child dressed as a pilgrim looking into a pumpkin cradle for $41.00 for 25 invitations. You can buy matching thank you cards at the same time you order the invitations. The Taylor Card Company has a large selection of Halloween cards that you can customize and print with your message which would include baby shower invitations. Prices at Taylor Cards start at $42.00 for 20 cards.

If you need a large number of baby shower invitations because you are inviting a lot of people, one way to buy your Halloween themed baby shower invitations is to consider ordering them from a printing company such as VistaPrint.com. At VistaPrint, you create your own baby shower invitations by choosing the picture you want, the type style, colors, message etc. You can also use your own photos for the invitations. Their prices are reasonable starting at about $7.00 for 10 cards and going up in price depending on the additional options that you add or if you upload your own photo or logo.

If you have a small budget for your Halloween themed baby shower, then you may want to consider making your own baby shower invitations. One website has a free and printable "Cute lil Pumpkin" baby shower invitation that you can print out and use scrapbooking materials to personalize and add some Halloween spirit to. The website also has a DIY invitation that is made with orange paper and cros grain ribbon here.

Buying gifts for the new mother and baby will be easier for the guests if they are registered with a large company such as Babies "R" Us. It's also best to include that information on the invitations when you send them out.

Once you have your invitations mailed out, your thoughts may turn to Halloween costumes to wear to the Halloween themed baby shower. I have put together a list of more than 23 Halloween costume idea articles which you can see here.

What about decorations for your Halloween themed baby shower? You can use any Halloween decorations. Perhaps you can pair certain Halloween icons together such as black cats and pumpkins or pumpkins and skeletons and mummies or you can use a combination of all the different Halloween icons. Add pictures or cut outs of babies among all the Halloween decorations to add to the real baby spirit of the baby shower which really is a party to celebrate the birth of a new family member. If the sex of the baby is known, you can even add small pink or blue baby accessories among the Halloween decorations.

One place to find Halloween decorations is your local thrift store. As Halloween approaches, thrift stores put out their Halloween items for reasonable prices. If you don't find enough Halloween decorations that way, ask around your neighborhood and family members to see if they have Halloween decorations that you can borrow for the Halloween themed baby shower. Make sure to accompany the request with an invitation to the baby shower! Another low-priced source for Halloween decorations is your local dollar store.

If you have the budget for Halloween decorations, you can find numerous decorations at department stores such as Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and Target. Most large towns also have a party supply store and a seasonal Halloween store as well. You can find an amazingly selection of decorations at these types of stores. If you prefer to buy your Halloween decorations online, you can find excellent and coordinating selections of baby shower/party supplies at these four websites: spirithalloween.com; partycheap.com; partyamerica.com; buycostumes.com.

When it comes time to choose the cake for your Halloween themed baby shower, how about choosing a cake that just screams Halloween? You can have a cake that is as simple as a sheet cake with Halloween decorations and/or toys on top with Halloween colored frosting (i.e. orange, purple, black). You can turn your sheet cake into a graveyard with crushed Oreo cookies as dirt and light-colored oval shaped cookies as headstones with candy corn and candy corn pumpkins placed randomly around. You can even buy a cake or cupcake pan in different Halloween shapes such as pumpkins, spiders, and ghosts such as those available from shopbakersnook.com. If you prefer to have cupcakes for your Halloween themed baby shower, you can find recipes and decoration ideas at several different websites such as those at Pillsbury.com.

If you will be having food as your Halloween themed baby shower, check out the recipes for different fun Halloween foods at FamilyFun.com. I have put together a list of more than 23 articles that relate to Halloween and different Halloween foods you can make that you might find helpful here.

Games are always fun to play at any baby shower and there are games that can be adapted to a Halloween themed baby shower such as Mummy trivia. Guests write down a clue about themselves and the mother-to-be tries to figure out which clue describes which guest. Another game is the Mummy's Diaper. Divide the guests into two equal teams and give each team rolls of gauze. Each person on the team wraps the gauze around themselves to make a mummy diaper and then passes the gauze to the next team member. The first team with all its members in mummy diapers is the winner. You can have a Pumpkin Carve Off. Divide the guests into groups of two or three people, give each group a pumpkin, knives and spoons and have each group carve their pumpkin with a baby theme. Time the pumpkin carving and limit it to about twenty minutes or so. Put tea lights in each pumpkin and light them as baby shower decorations. The mother-to-be can choose the winner. You can find other baby shower game ideas at babyshower101.com.

Small gifts and party favors can be handed out to winners of the shower games. A door prize can be given out by putting each party guests name in a plastic pumpkin and then having the mother-to-be pick one name. The door prize can be a simple gift basket or a gift certificate to a local candy store.

Your Halloween-themed baby shower can be as simple or as elaborate as you want it to be. And with a Halloween theme, there is no way you can have too many decorations. Remember, this is supposed to be a fun celebration of a new birth so avoid anything too gross or gory and concentrate more on the silly and fun aspect of Halloween so you and your guests can help the new mother-to-be get ready to welcome her new baby into the world.