It’s been one year since “COVID-19” became a part of pretty much every daily conversation and “quarantine” and “lockdown” became all too familiar. Many people had to scramble to come up with Plan B of hosting virtual baby showers or a baby shower by mail instead of an in-person event.
While things are starting to open up again and the vaccination program is rolling out across North America, we know many people are still planning virtual baby showers to keep baby safe. So, we’ve updated our virtual baby shower guide here to help you pull off a sweet soiree even if you have to wait to get together in-person.
Here are some of our tips and virtual baby shower ideas to get you started.
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Send out a virtual baby shower invitation
First, you’ll want to share your virtual bridal shower details with family, loved ones and friends. We’ve recently created several virtual baby shower invitations and baby shower by mail invitations that can be customized with your virtual shower details! We can customize any of our designs with the wording that best reflects the type of distance baby shower you’re planning to host.
Sending your virtual baby shower invitations
You can either mail, email or text your invitations to guests. Our invitations can easily be printed through our print partner, Prints of Love, or you can also print on white cardstock using your home printer. Read more about how to print our invitations.
If you do choose to print and send your invitations, read our helpful tips on how to address baby shower invitations first.
Video conferencing and app options for a virtual baby shower
There are a ton of free online meeting/video conferencing websites you can leverage for your virtual baby shower. This will allow guests to see each other, talk to the mom/parents-to-be (see my next couple points below) and allow guests to talk to one another.
You can use free conferencing software like Google Hangouts (guests will need a free Google/Gmail account to use it, if they don’t already have one), Zoom, House Party and even the FaceTime group chat feature (for up to 50 guests). Just research your options before communicating the details to guests to make sure they work for your virtual baby shower. Some apps have a restriction on how many people can join; others have a time limit if you’re using a free version.
If you have a lot of people you’re “inviting,” you may want to opt for only doing a virtual gift opening. This can be live-streamed using Facebook Live or Instagram Live on the mom-to-be’s social media accounts and you can just tell guests the time, date and mom’s profile so that they can tune in to watch.
Virtual baby shower gift opening
Most people will agree that one of the best parts of a baby shower (aside from baby snuggles, of course) is seeing all the adorable baby gifts! If the guest(s) of honor are comfortable with it, have them open gifts using video conference or FaceTime. Or, as mentioned above, if there are a lot of people you’re “inviting” to your virtual bridal shower, it might make more sense to just live stream the gift opening only using Facebook Live or Instagram Live.
If you are doing a virtual gift opening, you will want to put registry details and a “deadline” to mail cards or gifts on the invitation so that they arrive in time for the virtual gift opening. We suggest having the mom/parents-to-be sign up for an Amazon baby registry. That way, guests can view the items on the registry list and ship directly to the family’s home for hassle-free gift giving.
Virtual baby shower gift ideas
Most couples will have a registry set up. But sometimes as a first-time parent, you don’t always know what you need! Here are some of our favourite baby shower gift ideas that will be extremely useful and we know from experience the new parents will love to receive:
1) Diapers and wipes: you can NEVER go wrong with diapers! Baby will need diapers in ALL sizes, so don’t worry about only getting smaller ones that baby can use right off the bat. In fact, I often like to buy larger sizes for when the baby is older, as I find that is when things start to get more expensive and it really helps the parents out.
Also, baby wipes are an absolute necessity! I opt to buy sensitive wipes, as many babies are often allergic to the fragrances used in regular wipes and get rashes on their bottoms. Here are some of my favourite diaper and wipe products that got my kiddos through the first few years with few messes and reliable protection from leaks (and blowouts!)
2) Books: Help build baby’s library by giving books! Here are some of my favourites that I highly recommend:
3) Bath items and toiletries: You can never have too much baby shampoo and washcloths! Put together a bathtime essentials kit for the new little one – soap, shampoo, lotion, washcloths, a new towel, and a new bath toy or two. These are some of my favourite products we used when my little ones were babies:
We also really love the Blooming Lotus newborn bath (available in multiple colous) available from Pish Posh Baby:
Know a family who is on the go a lot or loves to travel? Then the Beaba folding bath is just what they need. This easy to transport bath collapses instantly to travel with you wherever you go.
4) Carriers, swings and newborn sleep spaces
Let’s be real – babies fall asleep in the darndest places, and sometimes, you need somewhere to put them and some way to free up your hands from holding the little one! Thankfully, there are lots of great items you can get for the parents-to-be to have around the house to do just this. Here are our favourite must-haves (and yes, I think you pretty much need all of them!)
5) Door latch cover: If you’ve never heard of these, trust me – they are a Godsend! My kids could sleep through anything, even a vacuum being run right next to them while they slept in their bouncy chair. But if I checked on them and ‘clicked’ the door latch as I was trying to slowly close the door while they were sleeping, I might as well have tripped the alarm at the Louvre. Madness ensued! Trust me, get one of these babies to keep your little one in Snoozeville.
6) Utensils, plates, and sippy cups: Again, the family may already have some or all of these items, but trust me, they’ll need more! Plastic gets grungy, chewed up and discoloured quickly, or else the older sibling will still be using the items from before, so new items like these are still necessary.
The silicone plate below is great – it sticks to the surface and makes for an easy clean up!
I’ve personally bought this Eric Carle gift set as a baby shower gift several times, and it’s ALWAYS a hit! Plus it’s a complete dining set, so it comes with a plate, bowel, utensils and cup.
I threw in the fork and spoons here because you can never have enough utensils – they’re always getting dropped on the floor, or you go through so many that you’re constantly pulling them out the dishwasher anyway.
Lastly, you can never have enough sippy cups! If the little one is anything like my two little dragons, they’re constantly carrying around their sippy cups and leaving them who-knows-where, so it’s always nice to have some extra ones on hand when you don’t feel like going through a scavenger hunt for 45 minutes before bedtime.
7) Sound or sleep machines: Yes, there’s a good chance the parents-to-be may have already acquired a sound or sleep machine with the first baby, but chances are, the older sibling is still using theirs and baby will need a new one. Sound machines are the only thing that got my kids to sleep, and they still use them to this day at four and six years-old!
The Fisher Price Wonder aquarium is an absolute Godsend. I’m not kidding you, someone told us to get this for our first born (we never received it as a gift) because they swore that the first time we used it, our little guy would sleep through the night…and he did! It was magical.
The Sleep Sheep was also a favourite in our house – and best of all, it can be wrapped around crib bars, hooked onto door pulls, etc. so you can travel with it anywhere and easily find somewhere to set it up. Plus it’s soft and snuggly if the little one wants to sleep with it as they get older.
The Soundspa lullaby projector below is also a favourite in our household – both kids have one! It plays a variety of soothing sounds as well as has three lullabies to choose from, and it has interchangeable disks that put images on the ceiling for the little one to watch.
We don’t personally own the turtle light and sound plush, but several of our friends do and swear by it! Plus it looks really cool at night in a dark room – it lights up and looks like there are a million little stars all over the ceiling and walls, plus they can change colour, too, which is always fun for the little one to watch and get sleepy.
8) DIY baby food supplies
I know it might sound extra, but making your own baby food is really simple, easy and honestly, less effort than running to the store to buy the store-bought jars (also, my kids refused to eat store-bought food for some reason, so there’s that).
I actually ended up doing this right off the bat because someone bought me a Baby Bullet for a baby shower gift (again, tick this off in the ‘didn’t know I needed one’ category), and I ended up LOVING it!
Post-partum care for Mom
One of the best gift ideas I always love is post-partum gifts for the new Mom. Here are some of our favourite post-partum gifts from Earth Mama Organics to help the new mom have a speedy postpartum recovery:
Virtual baby shower games
Just because you’re hosting a virtual baby shower, it doesn’t mean you can’t still have some fun games!
I have several baby shower games in my Etsy shop that you can still use for an online baby shower! These are available to download instantly as soon as payment clears. Simply purchase my games, download them and email them to your guests. Have guests print them off and you can still all play together that way.
Looking for virtual bridal shower ideas?
Be sure to check out our awesome ideas for how to throw a virtual bridal shower or bridal shower by mail, too!
I hope you enjoyed our virtual baby shower ideas! Please share this post on Pinterest if you found it useful so that others can get ideas, too.
