The Fabulous History Of The Baby Shower

There’s little more special than the birth of a baby, and as that special day approaches, it has become a custom to hold a baby shower where friends and family members celebrate with the expectant mother and present her with gifts for the new baby. It is a custom that isthat is now taken lightly, but the history of how it all began is somewhat hazy. It’s widely known that many ancient cultures as in the Egyptians and Romans gave modest gifts to the child, but not until after she or he was born.

The baby shower, that we know today, became customary after WW2 when there was a major baby boom. Though it’s still unclear how it started, the belief is that cash was very tight and with a new child being a somewhat heavy financial burden, communities selected to help one another with the outlay. It could also simply be that with so many lives lost during the war, the life of a new baby was an event to be celebrated.

The gifts presented at a shower are generally essentials of diapers, bottles and blankets, but it is it’s also not that unusual for family members to provide bigger gifts such as cribs and changing tables. That wasn’twas not always so though, and the gifts were generally always small tokens, a custom that dates back to those early cultures.

The modern baby shower is usually held at the home of a friend of the expectant mother, with the justification being that many cultures find it unseemly that a member of the family should host as it would appear like the family is begging for gifts on behalf of the mother. The one exception is when the get together is hosted at the home of the grandmother, a family member who appears to have a special place in most international cultures. The grandmother custom is one that has persisted over the years and across different countries, and mostly she will be expected to make a blanket and present a silver token, typically a spoon, to the baby. It is believed that this silver was intended to represent a birthright for the baby, and as such was held by the parents up until the infant reached adult age.

The baby shower has changed considerably over the years, and while the basic premise stays the same, the whole process has become much more excessive with themed showers, baby shower party favors, and full meals now being one aspect of the deal. It is also not wholly unusual for an expectant mom to get more than one shower, with another one often being held at her office. Whatever the situation, baby showers are here to stay, and there truly is no better way to celebrate the upcoming arrival of a new child.

The writer is the owner of a New York gift store full of baby shower favor ideas and and baby shower gift ideas.