Having a baby is certainly one of the most exciting times in anyone’s life. It really doesn’t matter if it’s your first or fourth child، you’ll still feel that nervous anticipation as you await the arrival of your smallest family member. For me one of the most rewarding experiences about having children has been having them baptized.
It’s really a matter of personal choice whether or not to have your child christened or baptized. Much of it comes from your religious beliefs or those of your co-parent. If you do want to have your child baptized there are a few things you need to do in terms of planning before you begin sending out the baptism invitations.
The first، and what I consider to be the most important step، is planning on who you want to attend. The baptism typically is a small and elegant affair. When you are sending out baptism invitations you’ll want to include family members who you are close to. The future god parents of your child will obviously need to receive baptism invitations as well.
If you are already a member of a church، it stands to reason that you’ll be having the service there. Not everyone who is invited will be familiar with the location so you might want to include a small map with the baptism invitations. Also a good idea is to ask that your guests RSVP to the baptism invitations as this will help you determine how many refreshments and baptism favors you’ll need to supply.
A nice idea is to hold a reception following the actual service. Many people look forward to this informal gathering as a chance to hold the baby and to get caught up with the parents. What I did for my children’s baptism was to invite the guests to a local restaurant. I noted this on the baptism invitations so they’d know that they should save some room for a late brunch.
I wanted to ensure that the people attending would have something special to remember the day by. I did some research trying to find a creative idea for baptism favors and finally decided on small plaques. The plaques consisted of copies of the baptism invitations along with an image of the baby. I printed them off on the computer on a very thick paper so they would be suitable for framing. They turned out great and all of the guests commented on how wonderful it was to have something unique to remember the baby’s baptism with.
