Baby Shower Speeches

Successful Baby Showers

Successful baby showers typically rely on good planning. Whether you are the host or the shower honoree, the choices you make can determine how successful the shower will be. Baby showers typically include games, refreshments, gifts, decorations, invitations, and miscellaneous items, such as dishes, napkins, centerpieces, etc.

While not every baby shower incorporates speeches into the schedule, many hostesses enjoy giving speeches and inviting guests to speak about this joyous occasion. Before you plan on giving a speech or speeches at the next shower you host, however, be sure and talk to your honoree. Some people feel very uncomfortable as the focus of a speech. The point of a baby shower is to celebrate. If your guest-of-honor is uncomfortable, it will be difficult to host an enjoyable shower!

Preparing Baby Shower Speeches

If you do plan to include baby shower speeches in your next baby shower, how should you handle this? There are several methods you can choose, such as the following:

• In some cases, only one speech is given to start off the shower. This speech may be given by one of the hostesses, grandmother-to-be, or some other relative or friend.
• Each hostess may be asked to give a small speech about the honoree. While you certainly don't want to put many stipulations on each person's speech, you should give speakers a time limit, so that you have plenty of time for all of the other activities during the allotted time for the shower.
• Another popular activity that can take the place of a baby shower game is to invite each guest to relate one favorite memory that she has of the guest-of-honor.
• If guests might be uncomfortable speaking before everyone else, ask each guest to write down a favorite memory of the honoree. You can include this request in the shower invitations.
• A great idea is to compile these memories in advance of the shower. If you plan on doing this, include a self-addressed, stamped envelope in each invitation with instructions for returning the written memory by a particular date. Once you've received all the correspondence, you can compile all of these memories to read aloud as part of a shower speech. Another idea is to make small booklets of these memories by taking them to a printer or generating them yourself using a word processing program on a computer.

Speech Content

What should you include in baby shower speeches? While there isn't one exact answer, there are several options you could consider. Before the day of the shower, let a couple of other people read over your speech, looking for pronunciation errors and any other problems that might occur. Next, practice giving your speech in front of some of your family members and even in front of a mirror! No matter how comfortable you are speaking in front of others, it always helps to at least run through the speech a couple of times before the actual day of the event.

The following content might be included in your speech:

• Briefly address why everyone has gathered together for that day.
• Thank the hostesses for helping with the shower, specifically thanking the hostess whose home you are using for the shower if applicable.
• Read a baby shower poem.
• Talk about the baby, including his or her name and gender if known.
• Include a cute or funny story about the parents, siblings (if any), friends, and/or relatives, etc.
• Talk about hopes for the future regarding mother, father, and child.
• Conclude with again thanking everyone for coming, and inviting all of the guests to the refreshment table.

For more help, check out the following websites:

• Poems to Go
• Speech Writers
• Party Pop