Treasure Hunt – Baby Shower

I can’t think of a more joyous time for a couple than when they are expecting a baby. From the moment they first get that positive test, they begin their ride on the emotional rollercoaster of pregnancy that lasts until they bring their new baby home. There’s excitement, curiosity, happiness, and anxiety. If it’s their first baby, they want to learn everything they can about the nine month journey they have just begun. So many questions cross their minds daily. They wonder if they will be good parents, if the baby will be a boy or a girl, and most importantly if their baby will be happy and healthy. There are so many things to think about during that time, that they sometimes might feel a little overwhelmed.

Later in the pregnancy, there is one area of concern that family and friends are able to step in and help out with. A new baby needs a lot of attention and love, but they also need a lot of stuff. They need cribs and playpens, toys and bottles, clothes and diapers, the list goes on an on. Therein lies the beauty of the baby shower.

A baby shower is undeniably one of the most helpful things that family and friends can do for the new parents to be. Most new parents receive many of the things they will need for that special day when they bring their baby home.

This article is for those of you that are planning a baby shower. Why not make it a Treasure Hunt? Why just sit the new mom and/or dad down and hand them gifts, when you could have so much more fun making them find them with clues? There are a lot of great baby shower games, but the grand finale would be the treasure hunt. It offers an opportunity for guest participation that isn’t available at your standard gift giving party, and provides an ice breaking effect because the action involved helps alleviate any possible discomfort of having a lot of people come together in a situation where they might not know each other well enough for conversation alone to carry the day.

You may have considered the idea of a treasure hunt in the past, but thought it would be too difficult to set up. It’s a lot of work writing clues, hiding gifts, and coming up with a plan that takes you from beginning to end smoothly. I can tell you from experience, that it’s worth the time you spend to make your special event memorable.

Typically with a treasure hunt, you hide all the gifts together and have the person receiving them go from clue to clue until all the gifts are found. Because babies need so many little things as well as the big things, it offers an opportunity for some variation in how you plan your treasure hunt. You could hide numerous small things such as pacifiers, rattles, thermometers, bottles, little combs and brushes, nail clippers, etc. with the clues so that the new parents find something every time they find a clue. If both parents are attending, you could also alternate the clues from mom to dad by writing on the outside of the clue: This clue is for Mom, or this clue is for Dad. The bigger gifts would be hidden together to be opened at the end. There is a lot of room for you as the host, to use your own imagination and talents to modify the clues to fit the new mom or dad to be.

A Treasure Hunt can be used for any occasion, or no occasion at all. Birthdays, Wedding Showers, Anniversaries, or Christmas parties all offer an opportunity for a unique experience in gift giving. You may even have a teenager, spouse, or co-worker who is always leaving things where they don’t belong. You can make a point by making them find their things with clues.

I hope you consider a Treasure Hunt for your next special occasion. This is what memories are made of, and your friends and family will be talking about your party for years to come. Make sure to videotape it. You won’t regret it!

(Originally published at GoArticles and reprinted with permission from the author, Nancy Kruse).