Gender-neutral baby shower: how to ditch the blue and pink
Many couples choose not to find out the gender of their baby until they're born, or opt not to share it with everyone. In these instances, a gender-neutral baby shower is the perfect option. Here are some ideas for hosting one.
Choose a theme
When it comes to themes for a gender-neutral shower you are spoiled for choice with heaps of variety to choose from. Word-play themes are very popular – things like 'What will it bee?' – (geddit? 'bee'?!) or a night-time theme using the first line of the popular nursery rhyme 'Twinkle twinkle little star, how we wonder what you are'. Other choices like a 'Hello Baby!' tagline are also popular, and you can incorporate these phrases on your invitations and as cake or cupcake toppers.
Other ideas may be to include a nod to the parents passions or hobbies, for example, with teacher parents you might have an ‘alphabet theme’ where you can get busy in the kitchen baking some alphabet cookies or using a favourite childhood book to base your theme around. For example, if the expectant Mum loves Alice in Wonderland you could plan a tea party around the book with décor to match. If parents are avid travellers, then a ‘Hello World’ theme incorporating maps and other travel items is also a fun option. Or you could choose to celebrate the season that baby is going to be born in; if it is a summer baby, you could host a summer pool party theme with pineapple decorations, blow up flamingos and barbecue fare.
Pink and blue are to be avoided!
Keep your colour scheme away from the typical blues and pinks used at traditional showers. Colour schemes like yellow, grey and white or muted green and taupe make for a classy and beautiful event. You can bring your colour scheme and theme into all aspects of the shower, for example, if you have a star theme you can have gold or yellow star shaped balloons, star topper decorations on yellow iced cupcakes, star shaped biscuits and so on.
Don’t know the sex of the baby? Make it a game!
You can also incorporate the anticipation of the baby’s gender into the activities at the baby shower. Some fun ways of doing this are having a ‘boy or girl’ board where people can either put up a sticker or a magnet on what gender they think baby will be. This makes for a fun conversation starter between guests also. Guests can also give their input into possible baby names for the new arrival. Set up a couple of jars, some pieces of paper and pens and guests can write down potential boys' and girls' names and put them in the jar for the parents to ponder over later.
Whatever you decide, having a gender-neutral shower presents you with so many options to host a fantastic event. Have fun planning!
