Christening Help

[Chocolate Lips]

I dont know how exactly you can help me, but I need to get it all out of my head as me and OH are going to make decisions tonight! So bear with me.

Some of you may remember I was disappointed because it appeared that a RC christening was not going to happen because we are not married, and also we have to have RC godparents which rules out tons of people and everyone on OHs side. So I am coming round to a CofE christening.

First question is, do you have to use your local church, or could I have her christened elsewhere?

Second question is what kind of 'do' do you have afterwards? I have been to a few that have had big sit down meals and I definately dont want to go down that route so I was thinking more of a buffet - is it better to do this at home or hire somewhere? If we do it at home we would seriously have to limit numbers but if we hired somewhere then we could have all our friends and family.

Thirdly, how on earth do you pick godparents? I know OH would like his sister, but I figured sisters etc already have a role in the childs life, and therefore why do they need to be a godparent too?

Eek someone help me!

[dora the ex...]

First question is, do you have to use your local church, or could I have her christened elsewhere?

you have to be part of the parish of the church so it has to be within your area where you live..


Second question is what kind of 'do' do you have afterwards?

we went to a club/pub and they put a buffet on for us sandwiches and stuff ...with all the children it wasnt practical going for a meal...they wouldnt sit there...


Thirdly, how on earth do you pick godparents? I know OH would like his sister, but I figured sisters etc already have a role in the childs life, and therefore why do they need to be a godparent too?


god parents you use who you feel is right for you both we used family too aswell as friends cause it seemed right for us..
hope this helps you...probably wont.. :laff:

[noo noo]

I can only really answer the 2nd and 3rd questions...

Both times we had a doo in a hotel afterwards. We had drinks on arrival, buffet, tea & coffee and christening cake.

Godparents - I didn't want to pick people wo were already "real Aunties" so that ruled out my Sister and DH's Sister (we don't have godfathers) I chose two of my best friends who do also have religious beliefs/

[Adelelee]

First question is, do you have to use your local church, or could I have her christened elsewhere?

You dont always have to use your local church, though 90% of the time you do, but it does depend on the vicar at the church you want to use, but then you need to get permission of your own vicar.

Second question is what kind of 'do' do you have afterwards?

We had Elizas in a local hall, only because there were so many people, think it was about 90/100, and we had a buffett and also a childrens entertainer as we had about 20 kids there

Thirdly, how on earth do you pick godparents? We chose people who meant the most to us, I picked two and dh picked two. I chose my best friend Debra, and Ian, who I have known since I was 19. DH chose his sister and his uncle who is very close to as DHs dad died when he was two so for a long time, until MIL remarried, his uncle was like a dad to him.

Hope that helps!!

Adele
xx

[Pikeypants]

We had Jen Christened in the church that we got married in. It is not our local parish church & the vicar was happy to do it.

Our "do" was a BBQ in my Mum's garden.We had about 50 people there & it was a gloriously sunny day. Lord knows what we would have done if it was raining though!

Like you, we avoided siblings for Godparents as they are already Aunts & uncles. We chose our best friends to honour them, because we think very highly of them, want them to always be involved in her life.

[Annie Goolahey]

I fully intend to fib next time and pretend the Godparents are RC, because the people I really want to be there for my child aren't.

I'm sooooo going to hell!

[Damsella]

We are anti-religious so we'll probably have a naming ceremony for DD, complete with 'odd' parents :laff:

[dora the ex...]

We are anti-religious so we'll probably have a naming ceremony for DD, complete with 'odd' parents :laff:

:laff: :laff: what you like :laff:

[Lois Lane]

Joanna - we didn't have P christened in a local church, or one even in the same county!!! Our local Canon was a sanctimonious @rse who believes that you cannot be a Christian if you do not go to church - I had the audacity to disagree with him and he also snorted at me in disgust when I said I wanted a personal ceremony for P because she'd had a bad start in life because of my PND. :-(

SO I contacted my old school church and spoke to them there and they were lovely. They said I had to get permission from our Canon, but after he didn't return my phone calls or acknowledge a letter I wrote him, then they agreed to do the service which was so nice. We went to the private room of a local hotel afterwards for a buffet and drinks. Nothing fancy.

[Chocolate Lips]

Just bumping up as I have another question,

For those who hired somewhere and had a buffet, did you have music etc I am just worried about it being dead quiet and boring

[noo noo]

We never had music - we did bring along a big box of toys and puzzles to keep the kids organised and that was a hit.

[Chocolate Lips]

We never had music - we did bring along a big box of toys and puzzles to keep the kids organised and that was a hit.

There wont really be any kids there so we dont have to worry about that!

[Bubble]

For Sam's christening, we had the do afterwards in the function room of a local golf club. Chloe's is going to be in the function room of a hotel. At Sam's, we had about 70 people and expect the same for Chloe so we needed a big venue. Plus, I didn't want to have to worry about getting a buffet ready/drinks in etc on the day.

We didn't have any background music with Sam's and won't with Chloe's, there were enough people there who were chatting which meant it was pretty noisy.

[Dollydealer]

Just adding my two-pennorth, hope you don't mind! :oops:

For my friend's little one's christening, they had it in their local church as part of the main ceremony of the day. There were about 4 or 5 other little ones who were also being christened at the same time.

Afterwards, we just went back to my friend's house and she had put on a bit of a spread - it was Summer so her DH was on bbq duty as well as usual buffet stuff too.

I suppose it helped that they have a large garden which accommodated everyone too!

[spritzer]

I'm CofE and I am godmother to a RC boy so it is absolutely fine not to have RC godparents. We aren't married but our very high church (virtually RC) village church had no problem with us not being married as it is about welcoming the child into god's family and the community, not about the life choices of the parents so it is worth asking first.

I was adamant about no family being godparents as I never felt it was fair that my aunt was also my brother's godparent so we chose close friends. We chose people that we knew we would know forever and would always be part of our lives and that we felt had similar values to ours and that would pay an active role in our child's life - all this was very important to me.

We had a buffet in the garden (I did all the catering) on a beautiful hot day in May, we had a bouncy castle - not just for kids :oops: and a ball pit and it was one of the best days of my life :)

Hope this helps, happy to give more details if needed.

[Micah]

No you don't have to have the ceremony in your local church... I had C's over 250 miles away (RC) I did go see my local priest but he was only bothered if the parish she was to be christened in was bothered (they weren't, in fact I got the impression that they really didn't care who what why married muslim hindu or what else, they were getting a little one to baptise catholic from a believing background at that was good enough....)

I could have had anyone as godparent, their attitude was the more GP the more support. They didn't really worry over denomination either, as long as the GP had "a faith" I believe were the terms. In the end I had my sister and my cousin (one RC one C of E).

I chose not to have friends as sadly I know several children whose parents have divorced, the "couples" friends have been lost in the mess and the children no longer have contact with their Godparents. I figured family would always have contact through one side or other (DH's sister declined).

As for after I just had a buffet in the garden. Nice day and everyone sat aout drinking and eating :D