The Best Ideas for Baby Showers: Your Guide

Eco Showers

"Green" showers are all the rage for moms-to-be who want to be good to Mother Earth. For invitations, use 100-percent recycled paper (or skip the paper and send evites!). Guests bring gifts made from organic fabrics, glass baby bottles, or wooden toys. Jennifer Porter, founder of Seattle-based Satsuma Designs, which makes organic baby products, says that guests can even forego wrapping paper and enclose gifts in baby blankets.

Serve fresh food from a local farmer's market, and instead of paper plates and napkins, use china and cloth napkins. (Need some? Find gently "recycled" supplies at yard sales, or on Freecycle (like it says, for free!), Craigslist, or your local online bulletin boards.)

Everything at your eco shower should be recyclable or reusable, even the decorations. Porter, who is expecting her second child, suggests hanging onesies from twine with wooden clothespins and making cloth diaper "bouquets." The mom-to-be can take home these earth-friendly goodies after the party is over.