Godbaby's christening gift

May 3, 2016 1:24 PM

What should we get our godbaby for his christening present?

We live in the UK and this will be a Catholic ceremony. The baby's mum is Catholic and his dad is atheist. There will be three godparents - me (agnostic, secular Jew), my husband (atheist), and a practicing Catholic relative of the mum. The mum is a big fan of Pope Francis.

I have got over lying in church about God and the devil, and have moved on to wanting to give a really nice gift to the little one, youngest of three.

What are your best suggestions?

posted by mgrrl to Religion & Philosophy (10 answers total)

I got a silver cup with my name engraved. I keep coins with my birth year in it.
posted by Ms Vegetable at 1:32 PM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

My husband and I are not religious and we have done copies of The Giving Tree or The Velveteen Rabbit, or have a tree planted in their name (don't know a UK recommendation for this). We've also done something from Heifer International (I think it was a dozen chicks for the family in need ) I think it's more meaningful than some corny religious iconography nursery room decoration the kid won't care about.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 1:37 PM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've given a nice frame with a picture of me and the child. You could have the picture taken at the baptism and pass it along later.
posted by Pearl928 at 1:53 PM on May 3, 2016

My goddaughter is Catholic, I am....lapsed. And broke. And the girl's parents (my cousin and her husband) are Catholic, but easy-going, liberal ones. As a gift, I got my Goddaughter a wee necklace that was a cross, with her birthstone in it, and a rattle that was shaped like a lamb (I figured it could either be interpreted as a riff on the whole "Lamb of God" thing, or it could be just taken as being "awww, lambs are cute"). One of the gabillion videos my cousin posted of my godddaughter in the following months showed that she was still playing with the lamb rattle, so I think that was a good move.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:55 PM on May 3, 2016

Silver mug and if you want to be really fancy, a bottle of wine that can be saved for the kid's 21st.
posted by Ideefixe at 2:12 PM on May 3, 2016

How about a children's set of cutlery? You can get them engraved with their name. Example 1, example 2, example 3, example 4. Useful and a keepsake. The parents of my godchildren liked my gift, and the children have been using them for years now!
posted by amf at 2:14 PM on May 3, 2016

Perhaps something they can use when they're older?

I'm getting my niece a necklace that says, 'She believed she could, so she did,' and writing a letter to go with. You could do something similar.
posted by Tamanna at 2:19 PM on May 3, 2016

Baptism (note that Catholics have Baptisms not christenings) gifts are traditionally long-term keepsake type things. As in either

A) things that the child will have for many many years and may become useful in adulthood (savings bonds, jewelry (charms will always fit)) or

B) things that are super nice baby things that will become heirlooms (jewelry (baby-sized earrings if her ears are pierced or bracelets), silver keepsakes (cups or little boxes for keeping baby teeth) . Here's the birth gift section at birks, for example.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 2:47 PM on May 3, 2016

Oh the savings bonds. My grandparents (also my godparents) agave me savings bonds for every Catholic event, and I didn't even know about them until this past year. I am 32.
posted by Ms Vegetable at 4:29 PM on May 3, 2016

Response by poster: Baptism is today! We asked the mum, she said 'a bib', so we got a super fancy bib! Also we will give the baby the silver baby spoon I got given as a baby, kind of like a family heirloom type thing.

Thanks for suggestions!
posted by mgrrl at 2:04 AM on May 21, 2016