Baby Shower Open House (Long!)
Ladies, I need some advice.
My sister and sisters-in-law are throwing my baby shower. Rather than hosting it at a meeting space or in the church basement in my town of 1,000 people, my sister came up with the idea of having the shower at my house in an open house format.
DH and I bought the house last summer and it needed some work, so we never had a housewarming party or invited anyone other than immediate family over. Now that we have completed much of the renovations including the nursery prior to the baby's arrival, my sister thinks we should use it as an opportunity to invite friends and extended family over to see our home. I can see the benefit in this, because I think that people might feel more comfortable stopping by to see the baby after he is born, if they have been invited to our home in the past.
I have searched online and it seems like these types of showers are being more common, at least in certain parts of the country.
Here are my questions:
Gift opening. Should I open the gifts as they are brought in and display them for everyone to see, or should I wait towards the end?
Games. I know there won't be time to have large organized games, but my sister has come up with some smaller games that can be done as individuals or in small groups at various stations around the 1st floor. Does that sound ok?
If anyone has even planned or attended a shower like this, I would appreciate any advice. I want to make sure it's a nice event and isn't seen as gift-grabby or tacky.
TIA!
Re: Baby Shower Open House (Long!)
To me, an open house type shower would have no organized games. You could have a onesie decorating station, or an advice box, things people can do at their leisure individually, but nothing that involves more than one person or any sort of organization.
I would also not expect that you would open the presents at all during this event. I would expect you and DH (and perhaps the hostesses and grandparents-to-be) would open them privately later. I would be upset if I came early, brought a gift and missed the gift opening later, but would also feel awkward if I walked in late and you had already open the gifts. If you open the gifts when people arrive, it takes time away from your mingling and the guests mingling, which is the idea of an open house.
I would just serve finger foods, cake and punch, do an individual station or two and forgo anything organized. Truth be told, if someone has a gift they are dying to see you open, they will simply request for it to happen.
Have a good time!
IMO, I am not a fan of this type of event because to me basically it is like a cattle call to get as many gifts as possible, rather then a social event to enjoy with the soon to be mom. But maybe that is just me? If I could not host an actual event where the amount of people could fit in my home at the same time and enjoy everyone together, I would choose another location.
If you were to do it, I would definitely open the gifts as they come - part of the fun of showers is to enjoy the mom opening gifts. I would be upset if I took time to come up with something creative and thoughtful and then my gift got clumped together with 50 other boxes and bags in a corner.
As far as games, IMO you should skip them. The whole purpose of games is to be used as an icebreaker for people to get to know each other. In an open house type of environment - people will not be there long enough to mingle with others they don't know.
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Unlike the previous poster I do not find these types of baby showers to be gift grabby (under certain circumstances). I have been to several of these and the mom's to be chose to have them, for they live in a small town and pretty much know everyone. It was hard for them to exclude any member of their family or friends. I know they all invited close to 75-85 people and more than half were family.
As for gifts, one of the mom's opened them two different times during the shower and any guests that did not have their gifts opened were not offended. At the other two showers, the moms did not open the gifts at the shower and opened them later.
Food at all of them were finger foods and stuff that could be easily prepared and replenished if needed (sandwiches, dips, crock pot dishes, etc). The cake was cut halfway through and just set out for people to eat when they liked.
I have never played any games at these showers. We all did sign a framed mat for the baby's room and I have also decorated onesies.
Have fun. I know sometimes they can be a bit crazy, but try to enjoy yourself and have a good time.
Thank you so much for the comments. I think that I have a better idea of what to expect.
There will be between 75 and 100 people invited to my baby shower. I had approximately 80 attend my bridal shower (again, small town and big family) and felt guilty because I didn't have a chance to talk to everyone. As this shower will be on a Sunday, I hope guests will like the idea of stopping by for a short time after Sunday dinnner or coming early to chat if they don't have anything else going on. I just feel like asking guests to take at least 2 hours out of their Sunday when they might not even get to talk to the guest of honor is a lot to ask.
Thanks again for your comments.
I have never been to a shower like this, but it sounds like a good idea for you. I do think you should open up the gifts as they come, because I am like a few others, I like to watch my gift get opened. I also think the snack/finger foods is a great idea! Have fun at your shower.