How to Create an Elephant-Themed Baby Shower

When it comes to baby shower themes, what’s cuter than a baby elephant? An elephant-themed baby shower works for either a baby girl or boy or for a gender-neutral shower. There are lots of fun and easy ways to bring the elephant theme to life, so read on for great ideas on elephant-themed baby shower invitations, decorations, food, games, and party favors.

Elephant-Themed Baby Shower Invitations

Beyond just providing your guests with the necessary information, invitations help establish the theme of the shower and are the first opportunity to really impress the mom-to-be’s friends and family. With an elephant-themed baby shower, you can create adorable invitations, such as a cutout of a mother elephant cradling her baby elephant with her trunk, or a cute graphic invitation featuring a cartoon baby elephant. Here are some ideas for elephant-themed baby shower invitations:

• For an easy elephant-themed invitation, find different downloadable options online that you can simply print and send, or that come delivered to your door. Then you can simply fill out the fields with the details of your shower and send them.

• Download stock images from the internet and design the invitations using a free photo or design program. If you need help with this, ask around as someone in the mom-to-be’s circle will be able to help!

• For something extra special, ask a talented friend to help draw or illustrate an invitation for you. If she can do this on the computer, this is a beautiful way to create unique baby shower invitations.

• Take inspiration from any elephant-themed children’s book and put your art skills to the test by coming up with a design yourself based on the book’s characters.

• For simple invitations that are also incredibly fun to receive, cut out elephant shapes from gray card stock (that you’ve already printed with the details of the event), and add confetti to the envelopes so there’s a little surprise inside when guests open them.

• To keep with the elephant theme, send the invitation in gray envelopes: After sealing each envelope, place an elephant sticker over the seal or use an elephant stamp to hint at what’s to come.

For more on information on what details to include on the invitation, read our article on baby shower invitation wording.

Decorations for an Elephant-Themed Baby Shower

Since the elephant baby shower theme is so popular, you may be in luck and find plenty of decorations at your local arts and crafts store, paper store, or party store. There are also decorations and even complete elephant baby shower kits you can order online that include things like plates, balloons, banners, signage, pom-poms, and all kinds of items that can help decorate an elephant-themed shower. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in a store or online, or if you simply want to do it yourself to make the shower even more your own, here are some ideas to get you started:

• Choose gray as your base color and pick a contrasting color for accents like white, silver, yellow, blue, or pink (keep in mind, blue or pink is often used to hint at the gender of the baby so double check that the mom-to-be is comfortable with revealing the gender if you go with one of these colors)

• Use gray and white colors for your tablecloths, and add pops of your chosen accent color in decorations like crepe paper streamers, pom-poms, balloons, napkins, and drinking straws

• Decorate the baby shower venue with elephant-themed decorations, such as shiny, foil balloons shaped like an elephant, pennants, and signs

• Dress the dessert or buffet table with a gray tulle skirt

• Use gray chevron, polka dot, or striped fabric to decorate tables

• For table centerpieces, add a plush elephant to each table with a balloon tied to its trunk

• Create a large diaper cake in the shape of an elephant

• Alternatively, create a large, three-tiered diaper cake and top it with an elephant toy

• Print a large elephant poster or an elephant cutout and have guests sign the poster with messages and best wishes as they arrive—this could eventually become wall art in the baby’s nursery

• Ask guests to bring elephant-themed baby books, or ones with elephants in the pages, and display them at the event—they can be given to the mom-to-be afterward

• Decorate the event space with elephant-themed baby supplies, like teething rings, pacifiers, burp cloths, etc., and give them to the mom-to-be afterward

• Post a sign on the food and drinks table that reads “Watering Hole”

• If you’re leaning toward a circus elephant theme, hang a banner that says “Little Peanut Coming Soon”

• Alternatively, post a banner that reads “Sound the Trumpets, a Baby Is on the Way.”

Food

It’s so fun to get creative with food, and the elephant theme is the perfect jumping off point for coming up with a slew of savory and sweet ideas that will impress guests and the mom-to-be:

• Bake shortbread or sugar cookies using an elephant-shaped cookie cutter and ice them with gray icing

• Decorate cupcakes with gray frosting and top each with an elephant shape cut out from gray fondant

• Assemble cupcakes on a tray in the shape of an elephant body or head

• Add gray frosting to cake pops and sprinkle them with silver edible glitter

• Purchase plastic elephant toys or marzipan elephants from a baking store and use them to decorate a cake, or order an elephant-themed baby shower cake from your local bakery

• For a simple cake topper, print out a large illustration or photo of an elephant onto card stock and glue it to a skewer, which can be stuck on the top of the cake

• Create a signature punch or mocktail, perhaps made with coconut water, a tropical juice like mango, soda water, and a squeeze of lime, and call it “Trunk Punch”

• Create an elephant-shaped cheese ball made with cream cheese and your favorite grated cheese, plus herbs and spices like parsley and paprika, and cover the entire elephant with poppy seeds to represent its gray color; then surround it with cut-up veggies and crackers

• Buy or bake puff pastry palmiers (aka elephant ears), in either sweet or savory versions or both

• If you’re leaning toward a circus elephant theme, you could also incorporate peanuts into your food options, such as a menu of chicken satay, peanut stew, and peanut cookies, as well as bowls of peanuts for guests to snack on. Just make sure to check if anyone has a peanut allergy in advance!

Games

You can have guests play any kind of game at the baby shower—it doesn’t have to be specifically an elephant theme. However, if you have your heart set on tying the game into the theme, here are a couple of ideas:

• They say that an elephant never forgets. Well, this time, test the baby shower guests’ memories. After the mom-to-be has finished opening all the gifts, announce to the guests that they have to write down from memory all the gifts the expectant mother received. The guest with the most correct answers wins a prize.

• Play elephant trivia and give a prize to the guest who knows the most about elephants. You can ask things like: How are the ears of an Asian elephant and an African elephant different? True or false: Elephants can shell a peanut with their trunks? Instead of hugging, what do elephants do with their trunks to show affection? How many months is an elephant pregnancy?

• This game idea works well for the circus elephant theme: Fill a large glass jar with peanuts with their shells on and ask guest to guess how many peanuts are in the jar. The guest who guesses closest to what’s correct wins a prize—or the jar of peanuts!

Party Favors

Now here’s where you can be really crafty. Look around online for inspiration, and look at what’s available at your local party store. You may be able to find elephant-themed gift bags, candles, candies, etc. In case you’re having trouble finding elephant-themed gifts to give as party favors, or you want to make something by hand, here are some ideas:

• Download this template for creating your own elephant-shaped gift box, print it out onto gray or white cardstock, cut it out, fold along the dotted lines, glue the shaded areas to form the box, and finally attach the ears and arms onto the body of the elephant where it’s marked by a shaded line. You now have an elephant-themed party favor box that can be filled with candies or sweets for each of your guests.

• Buy gray gift bags and an elephant stamp—all you have to do is stamp each bag

• Decorate the gift bags with elephant stickers

• Print out copies of a favorite illustration or picture of an elephant, cut them out, and adhere them to gift bags using a glue stick

• Fill gift bags with elephant-themed party favors such as elephant candles, elephant-shaped cookies in little cellophane bags tied with string, or mini elephant plush toys

• Instead of party favors, you might like to donate to an elephant conservation charity on behalf of each guest.

More Handy Baby Shower Tips

• Need help with organizing the baby shower? It will be easier with our baby shower checklist.

• If the mom-to-be doesn’t have a gift registry, your guests may start asking you for tips on what to buy. You might want to share this list of baby shower gift ideas. It includes ideas for some DIY gifts, unique presents, and nursery must-haves that new parents will really appreciate.

• If you’re still undecided as to which theme the mom-to-be would love, you can’t go wrong with a gender-neutral party focused on a baby essential, like a stroller-themed baby shower.

• If you’re still not 100 percent set on an elephant-themed baby shower, take our "Perfect Baby Shower Theme?" quiz.

The Bottom Line

Without a doubt, the trendy elephant-themed baby shower is adorable. It’s great for a mom-to-be expecting a boy or a girl—or even for a gender neutral baby shower if the parents don’t want to reveal their little one’s gender just yet. You can have lots of fun organizing an elephant baby shower, and your guests—and especially the guest of honor—will really appreciate all that you’ve done. For even more theme ideas, check out these baby shower theme ideas for boys and baby shower theme ideas for girls. For more advice on how to host the perfect baby shower, head over to our baby shower page for everything you need to know to host a great shower.