A plethora of Halloween invitations are available so it won't be too hard to find something suitable. There are a lot of cute ones, like those sold by Mary Engelbreit that would be great for a baby shower. If you decide to use a widely available pumpkin invitation, you can personalize it a little by adding a white paper diaper with a safety pin, or by adding a scrapbook accent like a pacifier sticker to the card. Costumes are mandatory, of course, and you can stage a fashion show for the scariest, cutest, or most original Halloween costume with prizes, of course.
The traditional color scheme for Halloween is of course black and orange, but you can soften it a little for a Halloween baby shower by using purple and orange with touches of acid green instead. There are many paper goods available that you can use or personalize as you like with stickers. To make food service easier, bundle up the utensils in an orange cloth or paper napkin and tie it with a black or purple ribbon.
Green or purple tinted lights (just change your light bulbs) add a creepy ambiance to the room, as does Halloween music. Old fashioned organ music – just like what Lurch in the Addams family plays – would be just perfect.
Baby pumpkins make an adorable accent for the tables and all over the room. If you can find different sized pumpkins, group them in “families” and dress the baby pumpkin in a tiny diaper. They also can be used on the center of the table, hollowed out and filled with flowers or tea lights, as a simple centerpiece. Tie all the decorations on the table together with a cloth or paper runner in one or more of the colors. Pumpkin colored flowers such as mums or gerberas can be used in the centerpieces, accented with bare branches for that haunted forest feel.
There are two ways you can go with the food. You can play with the food to make it look scary (ghost cookies, mummy cupcakes, snake sandwiches, green punch with red “eyeballs” (maraschino cherries stuffed with baby marshmallows) or bone sandwiches. Or you can match the food to the color scheme and serve pumpkin soup, a hearty stew in a pumpkin shell, caramel popcorn, and candy apples. Pumpkin cake goes with everything.
Bobbing for apples is a fun and traditional game for the Halloween baby shower. A nice twist is pumpkin bowling, using baby pumpkins for bowling balls and baby bottles for pins. You can fill up the bottles with orange and purple or black jelly beans to make the game harder. A creepy treasure hunt is easy: have small prizes buried in narrow-necked solid containers filled with creepy feeling things like peeled grapes for eyeballs, wet spaghetti noodles for innards, and whole pickles for fingers. A delicious game is had by stringing up donuts and eating them without using hands!
Favors and prizes can be any Halloween paraphernalia, old-fashioned popcorn balls, candied apples, bags of Halloween candies, or bags of plastic insects.
Have a boo-tiful Halloween baby shower party!