The Ultimate Checklist for a Gender Reveal Party

When you say you’re expecting, the first thing everybody wants to know is your baby’s gender. Since it’s the ultimate family cliffhanger, why not have fun tantalizing your guests at your gender reveal party? Here are some must-haves to make your celebration an event to remember.

Keep them guessing

A creative decorating theme can keep the suspense high until you’re ready to reveal your baby’s gender. While you can use both traditional colors of pink and blue together, you can also opt for more gender-neutral colors like purple, green, or yellow.

Give your guests fun ways to guess at your baby’s gender by offering them a choice of party favors when they arrive, and don’t be afraid to be quirky — let your personality shine through. Here are just a few themes:

• Fake mustaches or bright lipstick
• Pink or blue party hats
• Aladdin or Ariel tent-cards or stickers
• Spice Girls or Backstreet Boy sashes
• Hair bows or bowties

Another clever way to keep your guests guessing about the gender of your child is to have an ice cream parlor-themed party. You could source pink and blue shades of ice cream from a boutique microcreamery. You could even provide pink and blue toppings for the ice cream to keep your guests on their toes about the big reveal.

If you don’t have any confidence in your poker face, or if you don’t want to learn your baby’s gender until the same time as your guests, you can coordinate with your ultrasound provider by asking them to write the results and place them in a sealed envelope.

If you’re the type of person who sneaks a peak at Christmas gifts hidden in the closet, you may want to hand over the envelope to someone with more willpower to make the arrangements for your gender reveal party. Whatever you do, resolve to be stony-faced in response to the battery of direct questions, trick questions, and sneaky ways your guests may try to get you to slip up and spill the beans ahead of time.

Keep them engaged

One popular way to engage your guests is to have them pick a baby name based on their best guess of your baby’s gender. Although you can certainly save this game for after the reveal to keep the fun going.

You can also hold contests so that the winner can lead the gender reveal when the time comes. A lively game of “Who Am I” showcasing famous babies through history is one way to get even the quietest of your friends and family shouting in excitement.

Baby-themed Pictionary can also be a creative way to get a few laughs; how else could you get your guests to draw a breast pump or pickles & ice cream, anyway? There are a host of free, printable guessing games including the list of old wives’ tales, song lyrics for artist or song names with the word “pink” or “blue” in them, or great movies containing babies.

In addition to the prize of leading the gender reveal, you can also provide door prizes for your top three winners, or even hand out gag “prizes” that will help you out down the road, such as a certificate for one free diaper change.

Make your reveal a big deal

While there are many types of reveals that involve each guest discovering the gender on their own, by biting into a cupcake or with a scratch-off card, the best way is with an event that brings the entire party together. After all, you don’t want anyone choking on a cupcake just so they can be the first to scream, “It’s a…!”

While some parents opt for the tried and true balloon-popping method, using confetti cannons for gender reveal parties can provide for an even more dramatic reveal. Whatever option you choose, make sure to designate someone to take pictures throughout the event to preserve the “evidence” that a fun time was had by all.