Christening your children.

[cupcakekate]

Just wondering how many of you have had your children christened? Or are planning to?

I am desperate to get my LO christened, i'm not particularly religious, but i feel it is the right thing to do- i want to celebrate her being here and i want her to have "godparents", we haven't got round to it yet as we've had a busy year buying our house and planning our wedding but it'll definately be something i sort next year! My OH isn't that bothered and i think if it was up to him we wouldn't do it!

 

[twinkle1975]

Have you thought about having a naming ceremony rather than a Christening if you're not particularly religious?
You can still have 'special people' like Godparents but without going through a ceremony to make your child a part of a religion that you don't really believe in??

Edit - sorry that sounds really judgemental I didn't mean it to - just wondered if you'd thought of other options

 

[Baby France]

Mine aren't but its definately something we're in the middle of discussing!

 

[sabby52]

Both my boys have been christened, but we are Catholics and we get our children christened so they can become part of Gods family, so it was even discussed we knew it was happening, Dan was christened when he was 8 weeks old and Dec was christened when he was 17 weeks

 

[cherryglitter]

nope, as i'm not religious and neither is OH.
we were looking into a naming ceremony though but i think we will have both babies done at the same time now.

 

[mum22ttc#3]

We have had DD1 christened but at the moment I am in 2 minds on whether to get DD2 and 3 christened. We are not particularly religious even though I am Christian and was christened as a baby, I just don't follow iykwim?

I would like to get them christened for the godparents aspect and also as DD1 is, but I kinda feel a bit hypocritical now if I was to do it. I don't know really cos I do believe just don't follow i.e go to Church or even read the bible, DD1 also believes and has read the kids version of the bible but thats it TBH.

 

[tina_h75]

I am not religious so we had a naming ceremony instead as I wanted a special day for them but without the religion.

 

[Vesta]

I won't be getting my baby christened as I'm an atheist. But if he decided he wanted to be baptised once he was old enough to decide for himself, I'd support him.

 

[MissRhead]

my son is christened. I am christian, FOB is not christned he was brought up a jehovah but doesnt follow it now. We didnt really do it to celebrate him being here as we only invited close family and god parents. I got abit of stick for doing it as i dont attend church regularly but he still has a choice when hes old enough, if he doesnt want to be christian he doesnt have to. It was 100% the right choice for us.

 

[EstelSeren]

I'm not Christian and my husband is agnostic so our children won't be christened. We are, however, planning on having a naming ceremony with aspects based around Norse traditions as I'm Norse pagan. For example, baby will be given a Mjollnir (Thor's Hammer) pendant for protection, there will be a part of the ceremony where baby will be sprinkled with water (though this doesn't signify purification as in a christening) and there will be a drinking horn passed around (a common aspect in all Viking get-togethers that I see as a symbol of kinship). There will also be named guide parents, though the nature of the ceremony means that everybody there really has an important role in the child's life as it's all about kinship.

Beca :wave:

 

[Blah11]

Im not religious so no, my babies wont be christened. I think it would be very hypocritical and in bad taste to christen them just because I want to when I don't believe in the church :\

 

[sarah0108]

No, and i won't get them christened either

My family aren't religious and neither am i so i don't see the point in christening my kids just 'because'

 

[hawalkden]

I'm planning to have Isaac Christened. Probably June/July. OH isn't bothered at all and it totally atheist and doesn't want to get involved in any of it planning wise. So when we finally have a little money it all and we need to go back to church before he's Christened thats going to be fun!

OH says if I choose to have him Christened he wouldn't stop me but needs a lot of encouragement about it all at the moment!

 

[Twister]

We won't be getting our future kids christened. We're not religious so don't see the point personally, I have no problem with people choosing to get their children christened who aren't religious but I can't help but wonder why sometimes, each to their own I guess. We may look to having a naming ceremony or something, we'll see.

 

[Lauren25]

We were planning on getting LO christened when he was born, both of us are catholics and so are all our families. We dont personally go to church but i believe theres a God and i want LO to be brought up a catholic like we were!!

As we had a bit of a bad year, my Nan passed away in the summer, then another family passed away a month ago and ive been really ill and just had an op we decided to wait til next year!!!

 

[Hunbun]

I'm not religious and I wasn't christened, DH was christened but does not really practice religion. We had several conversations about should we, shouldn't we. In the end we both believed it would be hypocritical to go ahead if we did not plan to practice religion in LO's life.

We might consider a naming ceremony when LO is a little older, but DH thinks it will be too expensive. (cheap skate!)

 

[saitiffeh]

I'm not Christian and my husband is agnostic so our children won't be christened. We are, however, planning on having a naming ceremony with aspects based around Norse traditions as I'm Norse pagan. For example, baby will be given a Mjollnir (Thor's Hammer) pendant for protection, there will be a part of the ceremony where baby will be sprinkled with water (though this doesn't signify purification as in a christening) and there will be a drinking horn passed around (a common aspect in all Viking get-togethers that I see as a symbol of kinship). There will also be named guide parents, though the nature of the ceremony means that everybody there really has an important role in the child's life as it's all about kinship.

Beca :wave:

I absolutely LOVE this and I hope that in the future when I do get pregnant and have another child, that you wouldn't mind me using some of these ideas. Definitely blends right into me and OH's beliefs. I'll be researching some of this a little.

 

[EstelSeren]

I'm not Christian and my husband is agnostic so our children won't be christened. We are, however, planning on having a naming ceremony with aspects based around Norse traditions as I'm Norse pagan. For example, baby will be given a Mjollnir (Thor's Hammer) pendant for protection, there will be a part of the ceremony where baby will be sprinkled with water (though this doesn't signify purification as in a christening) and there will be a drinking horn passed around (a common aspect in all Viking get-togethers that I see as a symbol of kinship). There will also be named guide parents, though the nature of the ceremony means that everybody there really has an important role in the child's life as it's all about kinship.

Beca :wave:

I absolutely LOVE this and I hope that in the future when I do get pregnant and have another child, that you wouldn't mind me using some of these ideas. Definitely blends right into me and OH's beliefs. I'll be researching some of this a little.

I got a lot of the information from this website: https://www.vikinganswerlady.com/ONNames.shtml (It's all right down the bottom!)! I'm still learning myself about it all really as I only made the decision as to what I actually believe in February! In fact it was after that point and when I started using runic symbols that I fell pregnant so it's really worked out for me!

Beca :wave:

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

Nope, it means nothing to me as I do not believe in God so personally dont know why people stand in a church if they are not religious or understanding what they are saying. We can all promise to good by our children and bring them up knowing morals with or without a christening. IMO.

 

[Kiddo]

Both my boys were baptised by the time they were 3 months old. OH was never Christened and I'm Catholic. While it was important to me that they were baptised, OH wasn't bothered either way but he was happy for Harvey and Vincent to be welcomed into the Catholic church. It was something we'd discussed before we were even pregnant.