If you are close to a cake decorating shop you could get the stuff there. I used palm trees on a couple of my cakes. 1 that comes to mind was for our Secret Pals at church, I made a "Precious Jewels" cake & we decorated with fake pearls & colored strands (necklaces) on the cake I had a treasure box overflowing with jewels & gold chains & coins, along with sea shells & palm tree or 2. Ladies loved it. You could get some of those "drink umbrellas" & have babies under them & under palm trees & with miniature pails or balls, (glass or plastic beads would work for balls) Very cute idea!! Could glue on a scrap of colored paper or cloth on few for "swimsuit' Jan

I am having a hard time finding palm trees or even silk/plastic flowers that look somewhat like a palm Nothing at JoAnnes, ACMoore or Michaels. As a matter of fact no one has hardly anything for a baby shower. I was very disappointed. Will have to get most online. Sunnyca, thanks for your ideas.

Here's a couple ideas for you...

The link I'm sending you has your palm trees of many styles for centerpieces. You will love this website-it's full of ideas, etc. On the home page, click on 'theme decor'on the sidebar-when that comes up-click on Tropical/Luau.

Don't know how many tables you have to decorate-but you know the bamboo roller blinds? You could get them in narrower sizes & cut them to fit as table runners-probably would get 2 per shade.

Another centerpiece idea might be to get the sheets of green styrofoam & cut into 12' squares-1 per table..as the base. Then cut 1/8 or 1/4' wooden dowels as the 'posts' for a tiki hut that would secure into the 4 corners of the styrofoam.
You could cover the foam w/silk palm leaves (as flooring) and then use more of the bamboo shade cut & glued on the top of the dowels as the roof of the tiki hut. Then place your sand/shells on the leaves & maybe 1 larger baby. I would surround the styrofoam's edges (either by poking them in or hot glue)..with tiny orchids.

Here is a link that might be useful: STUMPS

A party shop might have palm trees, WalMart in the toy dept might have those "hang" packages of trees (like the cheap toy soldiers or farm animals) where they have that type of toy I'm thinking they might have a beach day. What about by Barbie stuff, may have beach stuff there(probably pricey) I would think same place you get the babies would have the rest & out in L.A. that would be a party shop. Jan

When I saw this thread, I had visions of teeny tiny little flip flops... Hope you find everything...