There’s little more special than the arrival of a baby, and as that special day approaches, it has become a custom to hold a baby shower where friends and family come together with the expectant mother and present her with gifts for the new baby. It is a custom that isthat’s now taken as read, but the history of how it all began is somewhat misty. It’s well known that many traditional cultures like the Egyptians and Romans gave inexpensive gifts to the baby, but not until after she or he was born.

The baby shower, as it exists now, became commonplace after WW2 when there had been a major baby boom. Although it’s still unclear how it started, the feeling is that money was very tight and with a new baby being a heavy fiscal burden, communities selected to help each other with the expenses. It could also simply be that with so many lives lost during the war, the life of a new child was something to be celebrated.

The gifts presented at a shower are normally must haves like nappies, bottles and blankets, but it’s it is also not that unusual for family members to provide larger gifts like cribs and changing tables. That wasn’twas not always true though, and the gifts were usually always modest tokens, a custom that goes back to those early cultures.

The modern baby shower is mostly held at the home of a mate of the mother, with the idea being that many cultures find it unseemly that a relation should host as it would seem the family is begging for assistance on behalf of the mom to be. The one exception is when the get together is hosted at the home of the grandmother, a relation who seems to have a special place in most international cultures. The grandmother custom is one that has endured through the years and across different nations, and oftentimes she will be expected to make a blanket and present a silver token, customarily a spoon, to the baby. It is assumed the silver was meant to represent an investment for the baby, and as such was held by the parents until the baby reached adult age.

The baby shower has changed considerably over the years, and while the basic idea is the same, the entire process has become much more excessive with themed showers, baby shower party favors, and full meals now being an element of the deal. It is also not entirely unusual for an expectant mom to receive more than one shower, with a new one sometimes being held at her place of work. Whatever the reality, baby showers are here to stay, and there truly is no better way to commemorate the impending arrival of a newborn.

The writer is the owner of a New York gift store full of baby shower favor ideas and and baby shower gift ideas.