You can bring your baby shower out of the ordinary by giving your friends and the mommy-to-be, especially, silly or serious awards to enliven the atmosphere. This is a great way to show your appreciation and admiration without sounding sappy to everybody, too.
These prizes or awards can be part of the favors that you'll hand out to the guests at the end of the festivities, so think of how you can incorporate the color scheme and the theme of the baby shower to make them look complementary.
These fun gifts are actually a bit of memorabilia for the guests. Even if you think it's silly, don't be surprised to see one of them later on wearing the button that you gave stating “Mommy Most Likely to Sing Out Loud” or other such award category that you made up.
You could also give out a ribbon which has a tag attached with the category of the award on it. Fun, oversized badges would work as well. It would be great if you kept to the “red ribbon” and “blue ribbon” type of awards for this but it shouldn't stop you from choosing other types of colors as well.
Certificates can be printed out and then placed in simple frames when presented as awards. Or, you can bulk order trophies and have the categories engraved on the plates instead. You can find some silly ones on the internet made by joke companies who can do the engraving for you as well.
What should be given a lot of thought are the awards to be handed out. After all, how would you honestly tell a mom that she's doing a more than great job? Or how could you poke a bit of fun at your friend without getting her offended? The wording is the award in itself and must be properly done.
While “World's Best Mom” is nice, it's also quite common and may not be as specific as you'd like to be. Think of some specific categories which would be fun or sentimental, depending on the person who you’re awarding it to.
Some fun categories could be “The First to Get Gray Hair” for a mom who worries a lot or has kids who are lovable terrors or “Most Likely to Get Laryngitis” for the mom who loves to talk – or yell over the noise of the kids! “Most in Need of a Stiff Drink” would probably get a laugh as well.
“Best Listener in the World” is one for the mom always willing to lend an ear, or “Owner of Mom's Black Hole” for the mother who carries everything in her bag could be other choices as well. Think about how your friend mother her kids and make their best habits their category.
If you don't know some of the guests, be prepared with a few generic
categories and some extra blank certificates which you could just
fill up quickly. Ones like “World's Prettiest Mommy”
or “Fashionista Mama” would probably allow you to give
everyone a personal award.