When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we were a few weeks away from having my younger sister’s baby shower. Baby showers are honestly a godsend. They allow us to get help with the essentials (and not so essentials) for bringing a new life into the world. Because let’s face it, babies can be expensive!
We ended up having to cancel my sister’s baby shower. Our original plan was to reschedule it for later in the summer, but with no end in sight for this pandemic, our plans had to change. However, the venue would not schedule for a later date.
So we had no choice but to adjust due to our new normal, and the drive-through baby shower was created.
I wish I could take all of the credit for this, but I can’t. We massively searched ideas for social distancing showers and thankfully other people had already shared their creativeness! Honestly, I think the drive-through baby shower is brilliant.
Sure, we miss our people. We love celebrating together. We love baby shower games and eating yummy food. But, this took so much pressure off planning and making sure everyone was safe. After all, we don’t know when it will be safe to gather in large groups.
Times have certainly changed.
How Did We Do It?
We created a new online invitation and let everyone know they were not to get out of their cars for the drive-through baby shower (this was hard).
We set a table in front of our mother’s house, placed a tablecloth on the table, and made sure the guest of honor had a comfortable seat.
The only decorations we used were balloons (we managed to only lose a couple to the wind).
We wore masks and sanitized our hands often.
We invited loved ones to drive through and drop off gifts and give well wishes. My mom’s house is in a cul de sac, so it was the perfect location. As guests drove up, the aunties took the gifts and gave out little bags of candy and a thank you note.
The shower lasted for a total of about two hours.
Inside, we prepared some of my sister’s favorite foods (which would have been at the original shower), in a much smaller quantity. Her choices were buffalo chicken wraps, meatballs, pasta salad, chopped barbecue, and red velvet cupcakes.
My sister was really sad initially at canceling her shower, but this way she was still able to celebrate and see loved ones – even if from a distance. It also was great because she received a lot of things that she needed for the baby…who made his appearance two days later!
This pandemic has forced us all to learn to live and operate in ways that are not natural for us.
I hope you are finding creative ways to celebrate the memorable moments in your lives that have been affected by this pandemic. Maybe you can even give the drive-through baby shower a try. It was a huge success for us!
