Prizes-- Am I Totally Off Base Here?

Helenahhandbasket

Hi all- I have the honor of co-hosting one of my best friend's baby shower next month. 

One of my responsibilities is organizing the games.  (I am not a fan of games personally, but the MTB is, so games it is.)

My question is about the "prizes"-  I know traditionally the prizes are things like scented candles, dish towels, fancy soaps etc.  Frankly I am bored to tears at the thought of gifting a candle, so I was thinking I could pick up nail polish in a few different shades of blue (she's having a boy) and give those as the prizes.

Weird, or no?  I know blue is an offbeat nail color for most, and there will be a wide range of age groups as guests.  The co-hostesses think it's a good idea, but I said I would run it by my "internet friends".

Opinions (or other suggestions?).  Please and thank you.

Samantha8604

I did something along those lines. We took a wine glass a filled it with nail polish, nail clippers, nail file, nail polish remover and a few other girlie things and then tied a blue bow around it. I saw the idea on pintrest but they used mason jars.

EastCoastBride

While it may not be boring, at the same time, it could be a huge waste of $$ and really not a true "prize" if someone wins it who would never wear blue polish. 

RebeccaY1

I think the nail polish idea is pretty cool.  

FemShep

For me, I'd rather have nail polish than a tea towel or scented candle. I like the PP suggestion to incorporate some other colors as well-maybe a pink too?

Helenahhandbasket

EastCoastBride said:

While it may not be boring, at the same time, it could be a huge waste of $$ and really not a true "prize" if someone wins it who would never wear blue polish. 

Good point-- but I don't think I have ever used any "prize" I won from a shower.  I though it would be at least memorable.

Helenahhandbasket

Darbie914 said:

I think it's cute, although I do agree with @EastCoastBride that it may not seem like a prize.  Perhaps more as a favor.  I did see this idea on Pinterest by giving nail polish as a favor with a tag reading "A Little Something for Your Mistle-toes."  Which would work given the shower is in December.

Perhaps you could give gift cards for $10 to Target/Starbucks/movies as prizes?  That's something that I would think most people would use.

I would love to-- but we have 60 guests attending.  I think I probably need at least 15 prizes for that number of guests- as we are having 3 different games/activities.  I was hoping to stay well under the 5.00 mark for prizes (closer to 2.00!)

 

 

neverblushed

I think blue nail polish is fine. Food is good as well.  

Thumbs down to candles and scented lotions.

Helenahhandbasket

Samantha8604 said:

I did something along those lines. We took a wine glass a filled it with nail polish, nail clippers, nail file, nail polish remover and a few other girlie things and then tied a blue bow around it. I saw the idea on pintrest but they used mason jars.

That's a great suggestion-- thank you!  I am on a really tight budget, but I might be able to swing something like that (minus the wine glass or jar).

Helenahhandbasket

jennish11 said:

You may want to try to have a few different types of prizes - nail polish being one of them.

That way if someone who you KNOW will not wear blue nail polish (like a grandmother) than you have other options as far as prizes to give.

Yeah-- that might be a good idea as well.  I guess I can't get away from buying potholders-- LOL.

SingleMom31

As someone that wouldn't wear blue nail polish on a bet, I wouldn't see it as a prize. I second the edible gifts idea above.

Another thought, how many games are you playing that you need 15 prizes? Even if MTB likes them, I wouldn't do more than 2-3 games... Nobody wants to sit through more than that. You don't need more than 1 or 2 prizes for each game... Personally, I'd do one $10 gift per game ($30) instead of 15 $2 gifts (still $30). Honestly most $2 items, unless it's food, I would end up tossing.

dufferoo

I love it! I also hate hate hate receiving lotions and candles. Ugh! Enough with that. They're usually the cheapest brands, too. I throw that stuff straight in the trash. I love the blue nail polish because it's a sweet little inexpensive trifle, which, to me, is what a prize should be. Blue has actually been really popular the last year-even Essie regularly includes blues in their collections- so I don't think it's too "out there" at all. Worst case scenario, the winner appreciates the cute little nod to a baby boy and then gives it to a friend or her daughter.

ArgyleBride

Little prizes are almost always throwaways anyway, so I say go for it!  Have fun!  I gave nail polish (from the dollar tree, no less) as prizes at a bridal shower.  It's just a fun little trifle, not likely to be treasured but who cares!

BakerMommy

I also would not use blue nail polish. Maybe you could find a bunch of blue things (stationery, pens, nice blueberry muffin mix, a candle for the traditionalists out there...) and let the winners choose.

missjaime16

I think the nail polish idea is cute though a lot of the baby showers I have been to had male guests, too. 

The best baby shower prize I have ever seen....was a bottle of booze. Classy? Maybe not. But people sure as heck wanted to win the games - lol!

Helenahhandbasket

chattychiqa said:

What about those little $1 bottles of hand sanitizer at Bath & Body Works, in shades of blue? M&M's packaged pretty, all blue ones? I also had turbie twists as shower prizes and they were wildly popular. You could order only blue ones and shape them into flowers or something.

That's actually a great idea @chattychiqa.  Thanks!

Helenahhandbasket

Happy_Yahoo_Personaler said:

Personally, the only person I know who wears blue nail polish is a 30 year old with the mentality of a 12 year old. Almost everyone else I know would not consider blue nail polish that they will never use to be a "prize."

LOL-- that's a little harsh.

A lot of stylish ladies I know well over the age of 30 regularly wear it-- including my 60 YO mom.  Maybe it's a regional thing, though.

StinaH

if you have a goodwill store near you, the glasses are 10 for $1. You could get your wine glasses there and clean and decorate them with a small budget.

Helenahhandbasket

@darbie914 we all know you have the mentalitly of a 12 year old though

Hegi627

If the MTB has a specific color theme in mind, I usually just go to the Dollar Store and grab what I can. I like the idea of blueberry muffin mix, Kroger here usually has Martha Washington brand for like .85 and then you can get a little muffin tin at the Dollar Store. 

Meery82

Helenahhandbasket said:

Happy_Yahoo_Personaler said:

Personally, the only person I know who wears blue nail polish is a 30 year old with the mentality of a 12 year old. Almost everyone else I know would not consider blue nail polish that they will never use to be a "prize."

LOL-- that's a little harsh.

A lot of stylish ladies I know well over the age of 30 regularly wear it-- including my 60 YO mom.  Maybe it's a regional thing, though.

I've seen plenty of respectable women wearing blue polish.

nah82

With a group of varying ages, your prize winner could be someone like my mom who never wears nail polish of any kind or an older aunt or grandma that would never wear blue.  An idea I saw on Pinterest and wished I had done for the shower I'm throwing is gift cards taped inside diapers.  They could just be $5-$10 cards for places like Starbuck's, Target, Subway, etc.  It was too late for my party because mom had already purchased a bunch of pocket calendars and Bath and Body Works hand soaps and antibacterial gels.

ETA: Sorry, didn't read through all responses before posting.

laurakaz13

I like the idea a lot!  Maybe put a few different colors of polish in there though. 

Samiantha101

I think I would reduce the number of prizes and buy better quality items. A $2 nail polish prize would probably go straight to the trash can.

laurendom

I say go for it. It's different.  I always get scented candles and scented lotion, that I never use, so I don't see how the risk is any different.

mmm50

I love the idea!  And there are shades of blue that can be professional and not too out there.  A bright blue might not be the best idea, but a dark navy blue or a sparkly blue would be great.

Another similar idea that I've seen is what a PP mentioned-- a mini manicure kit.  I made these for the girls at work for secretary's day from stuff I picked up at Kmart for around $5 each.  They each had a mini travel nail clipper, toe separators, a small bottle of nail polish remover, 2 mini nail polishes, and a file.  I wrapped each up in a mini bucket with clear wrap.

Frannavaldez9399

I went to a shower a few years back where all the prizes were baby things. I won a three pack of bottles??!!! There was a big prize of a large basket with all baby things inside. At the end of the shower the mother of the MTB came to me very quietly and told me that the prize winners were to present the MTB with the winnings!!! It was the strangest thing ever! At my shower 2 weeks ago, we had 1$ glass cups with mustaches on them filled with candy. All from the dollar store. Put them in a clear goodie bag that we had used for the favors... And put a pretty blue bow on them. Huge huge hit!! spent less than 3.00$ on each.

ArgyleBride

Happy_Yahoo_Personaler said:

Frannavaldez9399 said:

I went to a shower a few years back where all the prizes were baby things. I won a three pack of bottles??!!! There was a big prize of a large basket with all baby things inside. At the end of the shower the mother of the MTB came to me very quietly and told me that the prize winners were to present the MTB with the winnings!!! It was the strangest thing ever! At my shower 2 weeks ago, we had 1$ glass cups with mustaches on them filled with candy. All from the dollar store. Put them in a clear goodie bag that we had used for the favors... And put a pretty blue bow on them. Huge huge hit!! spent less than 3.00$ on each.

What the actual tacky fuck?!?!?!

^Umm, yeah.  This.

Meery82

ArgyleBride said:

Happy_Yahoo_Personaler said:

Frannavaldez9399 said:

I went to a shower a few years back where all the prizes were baby things. I won a three pack of bottles??!!! There was a big prize of a large basket with all baby things inside. At the end of the shower the mother of the MTB came to me very quietly and told me that the prize winners were to present the MTB with the winnings!!! It was the strangest thing ever! At my shower 2 weeks ago, we had 1$ glass cups with mustaches on them filled with candy. All from the dollar store. Put them in a clear goodie bag that we had used for the favors... And put a pretty blue bow on them. Huge huge hit!! spent less than 3.00$ on each.

What the actual tacky fuck?!?!?!

^Umm, yeah.  This.

So gross.

SparkySharky

Helenahhandbasket said:

Happy_Yahoo_Personaler said:

Personally, the only person I know who wears blue nail polish is a 30 year old with the mentality of a 12 year old. Almost everyone else I know would not consider blue nail polish that they will never use to be a "prize."

LOL-- that's a little harsh.

A lot of stylish ladies I know well over the age of 30 regularly wear it-- including my 60 YO mom.  Maybe it's a regional thing, though.

I just removed mine. Granted, it was kind of purple-y blue, but comfortably in the blue category. It looked pretty good.

SparkySharky

How about a grab bag of a bunch of blue stuff: blue nail polish, blue eye shadow, blue M&Ms, blue hand sanitizer, blue earrings, etc.? The winner just gets to reach in blind and they get what they get. Giving different things also opens up the possibility of the winners trading if someone else has something they like better (not so much a possibility when everyone gets the same thing).

SparkySharky

Happy_Yahoo_Personaler said:

To clarify - I'm not saying that wearing blue polish means you have the mentality of a 12 year old.  I'm saying that the only person I know in RL who wears blue polish has the mentality of a 12 year old.  Like, will dye her hair purple because it's some actor's favorite color and he'll be on TV that night on a show she watches. 

If the rest of you can pull off blue polish, go for it.  I personally can't.  I get far to distracted by the color. 

:P

I did get distracted with my blue fingernails. Almost like I was on LSD or something - everytime I caught a glimpse of my nails, I thought there was a big bug on my hand. The first two times are funny, after that I got twitchy.

MickeyM04

So this is totally different, but my nanny just had a baby shower and her sisters did something I thought was cool.  She did not want any cheesy games so they had everyone pick a number at the beginning of the shower and then at one point they started calling numbers and as they called yours you got up and you got to pick a prize.  And they had a lot of really cool stuff ranging from nail polish to a bottle of wine to a cookbook, etc. but then they also had the typical scented candles, picture frames, things like that.  So the people who went first snagged the "cool stuff" whereas the people who went at the end got the more typical gifts.  This is more an idea if you don't want to do games but just throwing it out there.  Also keep in mind they did need to get enough gifts for everyone at the shower to get one...but then this also served as the "party favor" as well. 

In terms of prize ideas, the stuff that went first was a cool looking set of silver bangle bracelets, the cooking stuff (cookbook, serving utensils, etc.) and the wine.  Definitely not typical shower prizes in my mind.

librarianlady

I like the little antibacterial bottles from BBW and chocolate. If you're letting people choose the prizes, a couple of blue nail polishes could be a fun option.