Organizing a baby shower can be a great deal of fun. Using a baby shower theme helps to make the planning easier. Before you can decide upon a theme, you must decide upon the type of shower you want.

A formal baby shower will be more elegant, likely without games. An informal baby shower allows you to have games, whimsical favors and the like.

The bottom line is that a baby shower theme allows you to be more organized, streamline preparations and have everything from invitations to decorations and gifts all tie together to support this theme. Some popular baby shower ideas are listed here.

A tea party
A more upscale, elegant baby shower theme might include a tea party. While this type of baby shower doesn't leave much room for games, it's a graceful way to celebrate a new baby.

With fresh flower centerpieces on each table along with different teapots, plates and cups borrowed from relatives and friends, guests dress up and enjoy a menu of assorted teas, scones, fruit, salad, quiches and sandwiches.

The pampering shower
A baby shower where the guests pamper the mother-to-be is especially appropriate when the mother already has one or two children. Attention will be paid to the child for the first decade of his or her life; the same may not be true for the mom. A pampering shower serves as an opportunity for the guests to celebrate the giver of life.

Flowers, fancy chocolate favors, crystal glassware and fine china set the stage. Since this is the second or third child, mom likely already has everything she needs for the baby and the nursery. Therefore, to go along with the pampering theme, guests can bring gift certificates to spas, manicures and restaurants, or they can give comfortable clothing, pajamas, slippers, aromatherapy candles and anything else that will serve to pamper the mom-to-be.

A frozen shower
Another way to host a baby shower for the mom who already has everything she needs for the new baby is to host a frozen dinner baby shower. Because mom and dad will be spending most of their time caring for their new baby and his or her older siblings, they won't have a ton of time to prepare a four course meal every night for dinner.

Since most new parents want to settle in at home after baby is born, restaurant gift certificates won't be a help. But when guests bring a fully-cooked, freezable meal to the shower, the expectant family will have several weeks' worth of hot meals to eat, with very little trouble to prepare them.

Guests could be served frozen drinks and favors could be put into colorful storage containers.

A diaper-full shower
So what do you get the expectant mother who already has the high chair, playpens and bottles they need? Consider another costly item that mom and baby cannot live without diapers.

Over the course of the baby's early years, thousands of diapers will be changed. During a diaper baby shower, guests bring a full supply of diapers in varying sizes for the next 7-12 months of the baby's life. The key to the party is that the guests bring varying sizes of diapers so the baby can grow and use them all.

This baby shower theme lends itself to a variety of party games like "guess the type of chocolate bar in the baby's diaper" and light-hearted decorations like pretty paper "diapers" hanging from a string clothes line.

The book party
Books are a large part of a child's life, even as a newborn. For a book theme party, each guest brings a favorite book. At the end of the party, the expectant mother will have a plethora of books -- bedtime books, classic stories, board books, pop-up books, cushion books and more. On the inside cover of the book, the guest can write her favorite childhood memory reading this book or another heartfelt message to the mother and child.

In addition to books, guests can bring along a keepsake to go along with their chosen book. As for the decor, the room can be decorated in a princess theme, fairy tale theme, or nursery rhyme to go along with some of the books. Or the theme can find a specific favorite, like Goodnight Moon. In all, this party idea is a great way to start off the child's library.

Tying it all together
As the shower hostess, whatever your idea, frozen meals or diaper, and whatever your style, formal or informal, you can carry your theme over to the shower invitations to the decor. In fact, with the proper invitations from places such as Naptime Productions, your guests will know the theme and what they should bring. These items can be the unifying elements to any occasion.

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