How to Host a Virtual Baby Shower
Hosting a virtual baby shower? You’ve come to the right place for tips and ideas for virtual baby shower decorations, food, games and more!
If you’ve found yourself in a situation where hosting an in-person baby shower isn’t an option, I’m sharing tips for hosting a virtual baby shower instead.
Let’s face it, there are a lot of reasons why a virtual baby shower may be the best solution.
Why host a virtual baby shower?
Perhaps the mom-to-be is on bed rest, family is away on military leave or scattered around the country, or social distancing for all is required.
Whatever the reason, showering mom-to-be with love and support as she awaits her new baby is the most important thing to remember.
Virtual Baby Shower Invitations
As with a typical baby shower, work with the expecting mom on the guest list. It might be helpful to keep the numbers manageable if you plan to do a virtual log-in with all guests.Â
Invitations can be sent in-mail or online. There are lots of online invite options. A few of my favorites are
- Paperless Post
- Minted
- Evite, etc.
- You can also get creative and use a platform like Canva to make your own digital invitation and attach to an email to all guests.Â
Tips for Hosting the Shower
Guest list and invites are pretty standard, but where are you actually going to host the party is important with a virtual baby shower.
Nowadays, most people are familiar with online meeting and virtual conference platforms which are a creative way to let mom-to-be see all her guests for the virtual shower.Â
A few suggestions for virtual baby shower hosting options are working through a platform like Zoom, Google Hangout, or Skype.
You want to be sure you list this information out in the invitation so guests can create a login and check connections prior to the shower.
It might even be a good idea to ask guests to log-in 5 or 10 minutes prior to the mom-to-be to work out any connection issues. That way, mom-to-be can hop right in to the smiling faces of her friends and family!
Keep in mind various time-zones when planning the baby shower and try to accommodate mom-to-be as much as possible!
Virtual Baby Shower Decorations
Decorations are one of the trickier elements to recreate for a virtual baby shower. Here are a few ideas I came up with to brighten the setting for your virtual party.
If mailing traditional invitations, add in a few balloons in pink or blue to the envelope. Ask guests to blow them up and have them displayed in their screen view so your virtual shower looks oh so festive!
Ask guests to wear pink, blue or perhaps white for gender-neutral showers. How pretty would it be to see a screen of gorgeous pink hues for a girl’s shower (and blue for a boys)? It’s these little touches that will make the mom-to-be feel special!
Consider sending the mom-to-be balloons as well as a cute banner or garland as well. She can display it behind her during the shower.Â
Flowers are also a large part of most showers so if budget allows, I’d send the mom-to-be a bouquet delivery the day before the shower. She can display them next to her during the shower and enjoy them for the days after!
Virtual Baby Shower Games
Games are one of the best parts of any baby shower! How do you do them with you’re not in-person, however?
Game Idea: Baby Pictionary
Take turns playing baby-related pictionary! There are some platforms for facilitating this online, but I suggest asking mom-to-be and guests to have paper and pen ready to go. Then text or email guests with their assigned drawing like “baby carriage” or “baby wipes” while other guests try to guess!
Game Idea: How well do you know Mom?Â
Send out a fill-in-the-blank questionnaire via email prior to the shower and ask guests to fill out their answers. Let mom-to-be reveal the true answers and see who knows her the best!Â
Virtual Game Prizes
Send out a fun egiftcard or Amazon gift card to the winners of your virtual baby shower games!
Virtual Shower Snacks
While foods are one of my favorite parts of hosting a baby shower, it is tricky with a virtual shower.
My suggestion is to have a cake or treat delivery sent to the mom-to-be around the shower date so she can enjoy with dad-to-be!
Another way to incorporate foods into the shower in an unconventional method is to have all guests email in favorite, easy dinner recipes.
The new parents will have lots of new recipes to prep and freeze ahead of baby’s arrival! Hint: I love this Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup!
Virtual Present Opening
One of the best parts of any baby shower is watching everyone ooh and aah over sweet baby onesies and adorable gifts. The fun can continue virtually if mom-to-be is comfortable with opening the gifts on camera.
Be sure guests have mailed gifts to her in time for the shower. As host, help mom-to-be with thank you notes by quickly jotting down each gift and gift-giver.
Email her the list after the party and perhaps mail out a cute pack of stationery so she’ll have one less thing to worry about!
If you have other virtual baby shower ideas, please leave them in the comments below!
Hopefully a few of these tips will help you with your own virtual shower. Though it may not be ideal, going the extra mile to host a shower even when distance is an issue will mean so much to the parents-to-be!Â
Thanks for posting these clever ideas. Your blog is beautiful! Be well <3
I learn so much every time I come to your website. I am in the situation of having to change with a group a baby shower for our daughter-in-law. Her Mom and family worked so hard on the “live” baby shower and now we have to adapt. Thank you so much for so graciously sharing your ideas. I appreciate this so much!
My daughter in-laws Virtual Baby shower will,be on Zoom next month. Invites were emailed as was the zoom invites. We wanted to make it extra special for her during the pandemic. There will be a nice back drop announcing the shower beautiful flower arrangement and as she doesn’t care for balloons as they are bad for the environment so we chose paper honeycombs with paper tassels and paper lanterns. Several more decorations, and a sweets table decorated cake and cookies. Cotton candy push ups, a punch drink, mints and a salty snack. Will have a few games and open presents. All in smaller amounts since only few allowed to attend, the rest will be on zoom. Will video all the decorated areas and email to the zoom attendees.
Oh I love All those ideas! My daughter is due this fall. Her hubby, left overseas due to the military. We are now Trying to figure out what we will do for her as far a baby shower goes. She has been very sad with all this situation and I want to make sure she has something special for her first baby, even if it’s virtual.
My worry is that we have so much family (about 80ish) who would like to participate in any shape or form in a baby shower. I’m not sure how a virtual baby shower can be arranged with so many people and how to go about it!
Thanks for sharing!
Lymari
Hi! I have been asked to host a virtual shower with that many people too. How did it go? What did you do with that many people
My mother-in-law is planning my virtual shower for our first baby and we have close to 80 invited. What we are doing is a virtual family shower on Saturday and a virtual friends shower the following day. Doing it this way will make it less overwhelming and a bit more manageable while still allowing everyone to participate. Additionally, doing them separate and following days allows for a nice break for mom-to-be and still allows for decorating just one time :)
We’re planning a virtual shower and we’ve asked everyone to RSVP because we’re going to use some of our shower budget to mail a small pkg to each person that RSVP with participation . It will contain a favor and a few little decor items for them to set up around them during the shower.