Every baby shower hostess wants to send her guests away with a happy memory and a small token of appreciation. Party favors usually accomplish both goals. However, many favors become either trash or one more useless knick-knack. That does not have to be the case. Many party favors exist which will both show appreciation and be useful, without breaking the hostess' bank.
Useful baby shower favors can be categorized into three departments: short term, intermediate, and long term, and can be tailored to fit any theme.
Short Term: These baby shower favors usually consist of food, such as iced cookies, bags of candy, and other snack items. The hostess can make these favors herself with a little time and patience. Wrap the food in plastic wrap or little baggies, tie with a ribbon, and attach a tag thanking the guest or listing the baby's name.
For the hostess who cannot spend a weekend baking, edible party favors can be purchased at bakeries or ordered online. This includes clever items such as personalized fortune cookies, or candies made with the baby's name printed on the candy itself. A healthier option is tea or drink mix goody bags. The tea bags or cocoa mixes can be ordered preprinted and wrapped, and will delight guests with less of a sweet tooth.
Intermediate: These baby shower favors last a little longer than food, but are still meant to be used. For the do-it-herself hostess, this category includes small candles wrapped with a ribbon and tag, or possibly little handmade soaps.
Prepackaged favors include personalized travel-size hand sanitizer, lotion, or lip balm. Basically, almost anything can be found on the Internet and personalized. For a higher price, boutique bath and body stores can create original scents and mixes of bath salts and oils for your event.
Long Term: Useful long term baby shower favors are meant to survive more than a few days, and yet do more than simply clutter the guest's home. A trip to the craft store will yield endless, fairly easy possibilities. Find cookie cutters in cute baby shapes and attach a ribbon and gift tag. Small, scented cachets can be made with little cloth bags and some purchased potpourri. Also, a hostess can easily fill little glass jars with potpourri and seal with a piece of material tied off with ribbon or string. Cut strips of felt five inches long by one-inch wide, use a cloth pen to write the baby's name, and you have created bookmarks for your guests!
The hostess can also purchase long term baby shower favors. Seed cards are a great idea. The seed cards resemble regular cards, but when the guests plant the cards, flowers grow. Another option is small plants such as cacti. The plants are already potted and growing. The hostess only needs to attach a ribbon and the guest will have a lovely reminder of the baby shower growing in her house!
With a little creativity and forethought, a baby shower hostess can show her appreciation to her guests with lovely, useful tokens!