Planning an Autumn Party for Your Little Pumpkin

Planning an Autumn Party for Your Little Pumpkin, Written By Heather Martin

If you’ve got a little one on the way, then baby shower party planning is also on the horizon. As leaves change colors and breezes turn brisk, why not theme your autumn party to complement the season? Replace bright floral invitations with invites featuring owls and ditch the strawberry lemonade for apple cider punch. Host an autumn-themed baby shower for that special little pumpkin and mom-to-be with the following ideas.

Pumpkin Contest

Since “your little pumpkin” is the theme of the baby shower, host a pumpkin carving and decorating contest. Fill a large wheelbarrow full of mini pumpkins for each guest. Provide each table with supplies, including newspapers and pumpkin carving knives, Sharpie markers, puffy paint, glitter and glue. Also provide baby materials, such as pacifiers, ribbon, diapers and bibs. Guests can either carve their pumpkins into shapes like baby feet and hands, decorate the gourd into a baby or decoratively write a warm message, such as “Congratulations on your little one!”

Image by Flickr user Brett L.

Fruit & Gourd Table Centerpieces

For your fall-themed baby shower decorations, adorn each table with a festive centerpiece. Fill large glass vases of various sizes with plastic pears, apples, pomegranates and oranges. Fill another group of glass vases with a variety of gourds. Accent the vases with fake (or real if you can) berries and foliage. Place the fruit centerpieces on a couple tables and the gourd centerpieces on other tables. For additional fall flair, disperse artificial colorful autumn leaves throughout the tables’ surfaces.

Image by David Boyle via Flickr

Autumn Sweets & Treats

Sweeten your party with homemade maple cupcakes and caramel apple bites. Friends’ and families’ mouths will water as they sink their teeth into Country Living’s maple cupcakes made with tasty ingredients such as ginger, brown sugar, walnuts (or pecans), and of course, maple syrup. Top cupcakes with homemade light and fluffy maple-butter frosting. As an extra touch, Country Living suggests creating a dimple in the center of each cupcake to fill with maple syrup.

Burwell General Store’s Amaretto-spiked caramel apple bites will also impress guests. An indulgent bite full of tangy sweetness, these caramel apple desserts are green apple squares deliciously topped with soft and buttery caramel and laced with a hint of Amaretto liqueur. Once you’ve made a pan of caramel in a thin layer, cut apples into cubes, top with a square of caramel and insert a toothpick. Display cupcakes and caramel apple bites on a three-tired cake plate and “sprinkle” candy corns throughout each tier as edible decor.

Image by Flickr user solyanka

Dessert Favors

As party favors, bag pumpkin Rice Krispies treats and frosted pumpkin sugar cookies. Tie each favor with fall-colored ribbon. You can place a favor in an every other-style pattern by each plate on tables or fill two baskets for each favor to set on a display table. To make the Rice Krispies treats, add red and yellow food coloring to give the melted marshmallow mixture its orange color, and then stir in Rice Krispies. Separate the mixture into small pieces, wrap with wax paper and shape into round balls. After they cool for 30 minutes, put in a tootsie roll to create a stem and insert a Popsicle stick. Draw a jack-o’-lantern face with black decorating gel, and use green decorating gel to create pumpkin foliage. Not only are these favors tasty treats for guests to enjoy at home, the favors are festive decorations for the baby shower as well.

Image by Veganbaking.net via Wikimedia Commons

About Heather Martin

Heather is a wife and mom from the South who just sent her oldest daughter off to college. She loves to blog about arts and crafts, DIY and green living.