Gender Reveal Ideas: Baby Boy

It's difficult not to tell everyone your baby's gender once you know. If they know that you know, you most likely have heard every question in the book to get you to spill the beans.

If you've decided to include your family and friends in your baby's gender reveal celebration, here are eight creative ways to spill the beans.

Rousing Revelations

For expectant parents who are throwing a gender reveal party, share the following ideas with the person announcing the most secretive (and important) element of your party: your baby's gender!

• Have the host present each guest with a small box of either pink or blue toys wrapped in a neutral-coloured wrapping paper. With cameras ready and video rolling, instruct all your guests to open their boxes at the same time. By letting your guests do the reveal for you, all eyes will be on you and your partner's reactions, which will surely be priceless.

• With a sealed envelope revealing baby's gender in hand, order a cake and instruct the baker to open the sealed envelope revealing baby's gender upon your exit. Tell the baker to colour the spongy cake layer to correspond with baby's gender – blue for boy, pink for girl – and cover it with icing in a non-corresponding colour. Cut the cake in front of your family and friends, but only after shouting out your predictions for the last time.

• Ask the party host to purchase a dozen appropriately coloured balloons and stuff them into a large cardboard box. Place the box outside your home and open it with your partner, with all your guests watching. It will make for a memorable photo!

• Upon entering the party, tell each guest to cast his or her vote on a decorative chalkboard by marking an 'X' in the girl or boy column (your host will keep a list of who voted for each gender). When the time comes, open the sealed envelope with your partner and shout out your baby's gender. Any guests who selected the correct gender will win a parting gift.

Signed, Sealed and Delivered

If you live far from your loved ones or simply prefer not to have a gender reveal party, here's how you can document the announcement and share it via snail mail, email or on your favourite social media website.

• All boys love to play in the mud and get dirty, so there's no better way to announce the gender of your bundle than by writing 'BOY' in the mud using a stick. Take a picture of the word, making sure to also capture your belly and the stick in your opposite hand and post it to your social media page.

• Alter your ultrasound image by adding a blue tie graphic around your son's neck. Attach the image in an e-mail, along with a beautiful note and virtually deliver it to all recipients on your 'must call after birth' list.

• Set up your camera timer to take a series of images and sit down next to your partner with a balloon in hand: his blue, yours pink. Both of you should put the balloon in your mouth and pretend to blow. However, only your husband should continue to blow up his blue balloon, while your pink balloon stays deflated. Order a photo strip showcasing the three images balloons in mouth, both pretending to blow up your balloons and the blue balloon fully inflated. Throw the strips into the post and wait for the congratulations to pour in from loved ones.

There's no right or wrong way to reveal your baby's gender if you choose to find out, so why not have a little fun with the whole process?