As part of my gathering series, where I am trying to throw more intentional gatherings, of course I must highlight the book themed baby shower I hosted last year. Themed baby showers are so much fun, and a book theme was perfect for my incredible author friend, Kendra to celebrate her “Next Chapter” of being a parent.
Obviously I love throwing a party, and what is better than hosting a party in honor of someone you love? Nothing, honestly. Kendra is an author, and one of her friends thought of the idea for a “Next Chapter” book themed baby shower to honor her love for writing. Of course, my love for a good theme took over, and I took to the Internet to find the cutest ways to integrate the book theme into the shower.
I chose only the best decorations and activities for Kendra’s shower, so I’m going to share the different ways I integrated the “Next Chapter” baby shower theme into an intentional, and fun, baby shower.
Invitations for a Next Chapter Baby Shower
The invitation is the first way your soon-to-be guests will get a glimpse of the kind of party you’re hosting. So for this book themed baby shower, we needed a book invitation!
I love buying invitations from Etsy, because there are so many great options for nearly any theme you can think of. Plus, supporting small businesses and artists is the best.
This is the invitation we went with. Kendra knew she was having a boy, but she didn’t want to go the traditional baby blue vibe. She is creative and artsy, so when I found this invite option I knew she’d love it. In addition to the invitation, we included inserts for a diaper raffle and baby book card request.
In case you’re not familiar with a diaper raffle, you can encourage guests to bring a pack of diapers in exchange for a raffle ticket for a chance to win a price. It’s a great way to get the parents started with some diapers since they’re going to need a ton!
The baby book card request is an adorable way to replace the traditional throw away cards, with a keepsake item for the baby. This request matched the theme perfectly, and people loved picking out their favorite children’s books to give to baby boy. Here’s what we wrote on the baby book card insert with the invitation:
Decorations for a Book Themed Baby Shower
Baby showers are cute. Books are cute. Books + baby shower = cute ass party. The decorations for this next chapter baby shower were honestly my favorite part. Because Kendra preferred a less traditional, blue with balloons and bears baby shower, I wanted to make sure that the decorations were more natural.
I started thrifting old books a few weeks before the baby shower. Something about ripping pages out of new books feels sacrilegious, and expensive. But the thrift store had a ton of well-loved books, that made me feel better about ripping pages out to use for decorations.
For book themed decorations I focused on:
A book page covered photo backdrop: I have an arch wall, and covered it in book pages from different books. This could easily be done on a wall, I literally just taped book pages down! Nothing fancy or difficult.
Book welcome sign: I made a welcome sign to match the invitation I linked through Etsy above. I got it printed with Staples, and put it on an Easel. It was a great photo op, and helped guests know where to go when they got there.
Book page confetti: I got this heart stamp, and used it to cut out different sized book page hearts. I sprinkled them around on different tables. So cute and such an easy add to the decorations. Adding them to all of your tables helps make them look cohesive.
Hard cover books for centerpieces: I used my own books for this one. I was able to remove the sleeves from my hard cover books which leaves the neutral colored fabric that makes for perfect stacked centerpieces. I layered them with baby photos of the mom and dad to be!
Flowers: Flowers are such a great way to elevate a baby shower. Flowers versus balloons is an easy decision in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, balloons have their time and place, and I have used them before. But for this dreamy book themed shower, flowers were the move. If you don’t already know, Trader Joes has the best and most affordable flowers that make it so easy to make your own bouquets.
Activities for a Book Themed Baby Shower
Baby’s first alphabet book: This one is a no brainer for the next chapter themed shower, although it would go well with just about any theme. For this activity, guests color in an alphabet letter and get to write a note to baby. I had it as a station that guests could come and go from, so if they wanted a break from socializing, they could go color a page. I ordered this one from Etsy, and it was perfect.
Baby book emoji game: Another great Etsy purchase! This game was organized with everyone starting at the same time, and the first to finish won a prize. Guests had to guess which traditional baby book the emojis were depicting. It was loud, fun, and got everyone involved.
Build a baby: This one isn’t book themed but was so much fun. The build a baby station had different colored Play-Doh, and challenged guests to mold their own baby. Some of the older folks got really into this. My dad literally spent two hours perfecting his baby. So this is a great one if you have some less social guests, and helps them still feel involved.
I got this Play-Doh pack from Amazon!
Build your own bouquet bar: Party favors are growing controversial, because who wants a throw away item that they’ll never use? We opted to combine an activity with the party favors. Guests built their own bouquets and then got to take them home. The customized sticker on the front really tied it all together! I talk more about how to do a bouquet bar in my Galentine’s Ideas post.
I used these Kraft paper bouquet holders, and added my own custom printed stickers on the front.
Guess how many Book Worms: This is a fun take on the traditional guessing game. Upon arrival guests guessed how many gummy worms were in the jar. The winner got to take them home!
Food for a Book Themed Baby Shower
I am a self-proclaimed foodie. So food at an event is usually very important to me. Instead of just buying a bunch of typical finger foods, I wanted to integrate what Kendra and her husband Edgar had been eating during the pregnancy. In the weeks leading up to the pregnancy, I’d pay attention to what Kendra said she had been craving, and made sure to include something like that in the baby shower menu. For her, it was mango with Takis and deviled eggs! For Edgar, it was caprese salad, and chicken poppy seed salad (he’s healthy, we know!!)
The rest was filled in with typical crowd pleasers like sandwiches, pasta salad, and barbecue meatballs.
A fun way to integrate books with your food for a book themed baby shower, would be to serve foods that are related to a children’s book in some way. I did it below with If you Give a Mouse a Cookie, but there are so many more like Sunny with a Chance of Meatballs.
Where I dropped the ball on food, is not remembering that pregnant people can’t eat everything! So the deli meat sandwiches, and salami filled pasta salad were no-goes for Kendra. Make sure you’re serving food the mom can eat, because it is about her after all!
Other Things to remember for a baby shower
Welcome table: The welcome table is such an important part of any party, because it sets the tone for what your guests can expect. At our welcome table, we had the Guess how many Book Worms game and the diaper raffle drop off. And cute decorations of course!
Gift Zone: This one is easily forgotten, and gifts often get shoved under or on top of random tables. By having a designated gift zone, you’re actually created a natural decoration. Gifts are usually wrapped super cute, so why not put them on display? We stationed the gift zone in my vintage trunk.
Throwing this baby shower for Kendra was truly so much fun! I loved bringing together the Next Chapter book theme, and making sure her friends and family had enough activities and things to enjoy. Celebrating anyone’s next chapter of being parents should be this intentional and fun!
Party on!
March 30, 2025 @ 11:01 pm
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