Baby Shower Centerpiece Ideas

by Diane Warner

A super centerpiece is a sure-fire way to wow baby shower guests. And while you can always go with a professional floral arrangement or a decorated cake for your table centerpiece, Diane Warner, author of Diane Warner's Complete Guide to Baby Showers, has baby shower ideas that are clever, cute, and do-it-yourself!

"Diaper" a round bowl (preferable a small fish bowl) with a triangular-shaped piece of white flannel fabric, pinning it closed in front with a large diaper pin. Fill the bowl with fresh or dried flowers, or a plant. (At the end of the party this container can double as a door prize or as a gift from the hostess to the guest-of-honor.)
An arrangement of the mother- and father-to-be's baby photos or a poster-sized enlargement of one of the mother's baby pictures, mounted on an easel.
A flock of rubber duckies floating across a pond (large round or oval mirror). Tie pink or blue ribbons around the duckies' necks.
Inverted colander filled with lollipops stuck in the holes. Tie each lollipop with a pink or blue ribbon. Use heart-shaped lollipops for a Valentine's Day baby shower, Miniature clothesline and clothespin holding baby bibs, miniature diapers, baby clothes or doll clothes.
A small silk ficus tree or artificial Christmas tree hung with small snapshots of family members, plus a tiny basket holding a miniature baby suspended from one of the branches. The basket can be inscribed with the baby's name if one has already been chosen.
If it's Christmastime, use a miniature sleigh as the centerpiece with bundled-up baby doll sitting inside. If you have a Santa and reindeer to add to the display, all the better.
If it's Easter time, make a giant egg by wrapping a fish bowl with heavy white paper cut into a zig-zag at the top. Fill the egg with Easter basket grass and a baby peeking out over the top. Place colored Easter eggs around the baby.
If it's around Valentine's day, sit a baby doll on a heart-shaped pink cushion.
Make a sugar plum tree by spray-painting a tree branch white, inserting it into a block of modeling clay for stability, and decorating it with gum drops, candy kisses, and tiny satin ribbons. Sprinkle the ground beneath the tree with brown sugar and more gum drops that have "dropped" from the tree. Surround the tree with a fence made out of tiny peppermint sticks inserted into marshmallow bases.

Reprinted, with permission of the publisher, from Diane Warner's Complete Book of Baby Showers. Copyright 1998, Diane Warner. Published by New Page Books a division of Career Press, Franklin Lakes, NJ. 800-227-3371. All rights reserved.