How Long Should a Baby Shower Last?

If you are the hostess of the upcoming baby shower, perhaps you are wondering how long the baby shower should last. After all, you don't want people to get tired at the shower. You should be ending the party about half an hour before people get tired so they don't feel like it could have gone on forever. Also, the mom-to-be probably needs to rest and have some quiet time too.

When you are doing the baby shower planning, timing things is one of the most important parts. You should have a timetable set up so you will know exactly how long you will be spending at doing certain things and you'll have activities going along at a good clip.

Normally, a baby shower will last around two to three hours but that will depend on how many guests you have, how many games are played, and if you will open your gifts in front of everybody.

A typical timetable for a two-hour baby shower will look like this:

As the hostess, make sure you have everything ready to go about thirty minutes before the party is supposed to start. Let's take the start at three o'clock in the afternoon.

3:00 – The guests start to arrive and are greeted by the hostess. After parking their gifts at the gift table, the guests are given a game to play until everyone arrives. You can provide them with sheets of baby crosswords, for example.

3:15 – When everyone arrives, have an icebreaker game to get everyone more comfortable with each other. A group game based on a treasure hunt in your bag will ensure that everyone gets to work together.

3:40 – After the game and group awarding, everyone can start having some food and drinks.

4:10 – Time to open presents! This can go a bit faster if the guests are doing something at the same time the mommy-to-be is opening her gifts. For example, each guest can hand the mommy-to-be their gift and while she's opening it, tell the guests a funny or memorable story about the two of them. Have someone else listing who gave what and another helper either putting the gifts on display or packing them away.

4:45 – It's cake time! Have dessert after the gift opening and wind down with chit-chat between friends. If you're giving speeches, now is the time to do so. By the time five o'clock rolls around, everyone will be rested and ready to get home. Remember to hand out your baby shower favors as each guest says her good-byes.

That wasn't too long or too difficult to do. You don't need to have more than three games, if you have any at all, and you can also choose to have the guests bring the presents unwrapped so they are all on display already. This will cut down on the time spent on those activities so you can do something else like decorating baby t-shirts and onesies or burp cloths. You can hand everyone an agenda or schedule so they know what to expect and when it is all over, you can make an announcement thanking everyone for coming.

What happens during your baby shower is up to you. Just keep time under control and you'll be surprised how easy it all really is.