During this pandemic, it’s not quite as easy to get together with loved ones to celebrate special moments. Babyshowers included. It’s of course sad that we don’t get to celebrate these moments with each other in person, but let’s be honest; there are worse things going on right now. So, let’s try to look at the bright side and come up with fun alternatives, such as a virtual babyshower. Is your best friend, sister or another loved one expecting a baby soon? Then read this article in which I explain how I planned a virtual babyshower, and hopefully you’ll feel inspired by the end of the article.
Please note that the hyperlinks in this article are mainly for products/websites based in the Netherlands. Just give me a shout if there is anything I can do to help locate some products/services abroad.
Surprise!
First of all, should you just need a little nudge in the right direction; I found that planning a virtual babyshower is a lot less complicated. It was also easier to keep it surprise. When I was planning the babyshower, in the Netherlands we were still allowed to have three guests over at home. So, I had planned to go over to the mom-to-be’s home with all the gifts and decorate her living room. The other guests would be joining digitally.
Gifts
About three weeks prior, I invited everyone and send thema link to an online wishlist. It just so happened that her wishlist came up in a conversation just before I started planning her babyshower. So I didn’t have to worry about raising suspicion by asking what was still on her wishlist. The great thing about online wishlists, is seeing what other guests have already purchased. I also added any extra gifts other guests told me they had arranged to the wishlist (obviously I did note they were already bought), just to avoid the mom-to-be receiving duplicate gifts.
I also asked everyone to send their gifts to my address. Keep in mind, that this might mean that you will have to wrap all the gifts yourself. This has pro’s and cons. I personally think I am not great at gift wrapping. But, I did like that most gifts were wrapped in a similar style paper which made it more aesthetically appealing on the day of the babyshower.
Decorations
I wanted to ensure that there was festive feeling, so I thought it was important to decorate. I got several different balloons, including a pastel blue ‘it’s a boy’ balloon. I also got some balloons and a blue table cloth from Ali Express. I was glad to find products which indicated the delivery time to be within three weeks. And they were true to their word, I received the products well within that timeframe. I do have a tip: we had filled the balloons ourselves which means they won’t float. This worked out fine for our decoration purposes, but it is something you have to consider while planning your decoration.
I also asked the attendees to fill in a guessing game. I sent them the template and asked everyone to email their replies. I then wrote them on the card myself and displayed them on a piece of string with mini pegs.
And, of course, we had to have a ‘it’s a boy‘-sash.
Sweets
I don’t mind baking at all, but it always takes up so much of my time. Since I was running short on time, I found some cool inspiration on Pinterest for easy babyshower sweets. The sweets were really only meant for decoration anyway. Since the other guests were going to join digitally, I did not intend to start eating during the babyshower anyway.
Mini stroopwafels (this is a typical Dutch cookie)
My favorite snack were the decorated mini stroopwafels. I bought the minis at the grocery store. I then melted a 200 gr bar of white chocolate by breaking the bar up into little pieces and placing them in a microwave-friendly bowl. I set the microwave to 750 watt and took at the bowl every 30 seconds to stir. After about 3 rounds the chocolate had completely melted and was ready to use. I then dipped the stroopwafels into the melted chocolate and then immediately sprinkled them with ‘Ocean Mix‘ sprinkles by Dr. Oetker. I sprinkled the stroopwafels by holding them over a plate. This way I could save the sprinkles that didn’t make it for the next cookie.
Tip: I had a fair amount of melted chocolate left after having decorate the whole bag of stroopwafels. It might be an idea to first only melt half of the chocolate bar and see how far that takes you. Then you can always melt some more if necessary.
White Chocolate Oreos
I also decorated white chocolate Oreos. These are super easy to make. I bought a (very cheap) crême brûlée torch. Because I am not likely to use the torch any time soon again, I did want to spend too much on it. I then just lightly torched one side of the Oreo and sprinkled it with the Ocean Mix. Slightly press on the sprinkles while the chocolate is still warm to ensure they stick on it.
I really liked the way the Oreos turned out. But for some reason they had a funny flavor. Maybe it was because of the torch, but we ended up not eating these cookies after the virtual babyshower had ended.
The Dutch version of Chocolate Kisses
No, I am not referring to Hershey’s Chocolate Kisses, but to these Chocolate Kisses. They are chocolate covered marshmallow treats. I have to be honest with you and confess that I don’t really care for these treats, since I’m not a fan of the flavor. But, I had seen a great example on Pinterest and wanted to use them as decoration. These were also super easy to make. You have to first remove the bottom of the Chocolate Kiss. I failed my first try since I placed too much pressure on it. You have to place the Kiss on its side and lightly tap on the edge of the bottom with a knife. Then carefully remove the bottom. I then decorated it with the ‘Ocean Mix’ sprinkles and placed them in small blue cupcake wrappers and then placed ‘baby’ cupcake toppers on half of them.
Since it was a virtual babyshower, I did want to keep it fairly simple. Which is why I didn’t want to splurge on the cake. I normally am a big fan of having a beautiful cake as the focal point at events. But in this case, I kept it simple and ordered a cake topper which I used to decorate one of our favorite pies.
Virtual fun
I sent all the attendees a link so they could virtually attend the babyshower. I had also asked them to send a baby photo of themselves and I made a PowerPoint presentation of all the photos. The mom-to-be had to guess who the baby photo belonged to in order to open a gift. I started the game off with a baby photo of the mom-to-be herself. By doing this game, I tried to get everyone involved and to make it fun for the virtual guests as well.
The mom-to-be was very pleasantly surprised and very grateful. She had given up hope on being able to have a babyshower due to all the corona related restrictions. So this surprise was extra meaningful to her.
How do you feel about hosting a babyshower virtually? Let us know in the comments below!
