You don't have to go too far back in time to discover that gender reveal parties haven't been with us long. That's not just in the UK, but globally.
Believe it or not, the first parties trace back to as recently as 2008.
A blogger in the USA, named Jenna Karvunidis, was the first to come to attention. She revealed the gender of her baby through a cake (the cake was filled with pink icing to reveal that she was expecting a baby girl). When she published what she'd done on her blog, the post went viral - and the Gender Reveal party had arrived!
Ironically, she regrets doing it. In 2019, Karvunidis said that she felt the parties had 'gotten out of hand' in recent years, questioning the amount spent on them by some parents-to-be and several parties that included questionable environmentally damaging elements.
How many parents have gender reveal parties in the UK?
The trend has grown reasonably quickly and their popularity in the UK began in 2009 (as with most things, it migrated very quickly from the USA to the UK!). There are even e-commerce websites dedicated to the sale of gender reveal party items.
There are now more gender reveal parties in the UK than baby shower parties.
A survey conducted in 2022 found that just under half the UK public (46.5%) think gender reveal parties are "silly". Others didn't necessarily consider them a silly idea, but the number of people that said they wouldn't hold one was still over 50%.
Do people prefer to find out a babies gender privately?
1 in 5 people said that they'd rather discover the news from the parents privately, instead of at an event with others.
Interestingly, females are more likely to find out the gender of the baby privately, and men were more likely to want to hold a gender reveal party. That surprised us and we're not sure why! Around 7.5% of men were in favour of them, compared to just 5.5% of women.
Are people opposed to gender reveal parties?
People aged 55+ are most likely to oppose a gender reveal party. Their dislike of them was resoundingly loud in the survey.
Which age group are gender reveal parties most popular with?
Millennials, the group that defines people born between 1981 to 1986, are most likely to want to have a gender reveal party.
However, Gen Z, the group that is people born between the late 1990's and the early 2010's, said they were more in favour of gender reveal parties for just family and close friends.
What percentage of UK parents have a gender reveal party?
Ultimately, only 15% of those surveyed said they'd hold a gender reveal party and this was the same figure from another survey conducted by a separate company a few years before.
Are gender reveal parties a dying trend?
There has been considerable conversation since the COVID pandemic that suggests the popularity of gender reveal parties may be in decline.
They are yet to get back to the level of popularity they were at pre-COVID, and there have been a couple of years of decline that some have linked to the cost of living crisis, but there is also a rise in the number of people wanting to announce the gender of their baby in a more private manner, or simply not tell anyone until the baby is born.
Did you or are you holding a gender reveal party?
We love to hear from people on our blogs, so let us know if you plan to hold a gender reveal party or, if your baby has been born, did you hold one and what did you do?
Finally, and we have to say it because it is so cool, our 360 photo booth uses a very special "Pixel LED Lighting" system that allows us to control every pixel (dot) of light in the 8 tubes in our 360 Orb Air video booth. That means we can set the lights to baby pink or baby blue! Check out the amazing features of the UK's only 360 Orb Air video booth by visiting our site homepage.