How Much Does a Christening Cost?

Different religions have their own beliefs and practices. They value them as they are significant and carry serious spiritual meaning. Christening is one of the significant practices among the Christian religion in young children. It is a tradition done in most Catholic, Anglican, and Episcopal churches to newborns and babies. It done to signify rebirth and spiritual cleansing. Many people do relate it to baptism even though it has more components. The newborns are always baptized by sprinkling water on their heads, given a new Christian name, and holding prayers for the child. Parents will choose new names from a list of people known to have led a great life and had good virtues. This done for the children to try and emulate them as they can see them as role models.

A christening does not have a fixed cost or even a consistent range. Churches normally possess the resources to perform a christening, and they will do so for free. However, the associates of the baptized person will often spend money on the ceremony and gifts to accentuate the occasion.

An ordered ceremony is always carried out presided by a priest of the local congregation. The babies should have two to three godparents who will be helping them grow their Christian faith. The godparents must be people with good Christian values who can help your child answer some difficult life questions of faith and other Christian values. They should be people who can be available and committed to the task. They will be very vital in seeing the growth of your child and the building of their faith hence should be trustworthy individuals. Parents are also allowed to be godparents but they have to have another one to help them. They need to be baptized Christians with good values and reputable characters.

Christening is cherished by many believers as they can depict it from the bible. Many believe it a rite of passage in the spiritual life and hence a very important ceremony to the believers. Christening is an activity that will be conducted by your local priest. It only needs you to inform them of the date you intend to do the ceremony for them to prepare for it. There is never any cost that is charged by the church to perform the ceremony. There are, but, other costs that you might incur when doing the ceremony. We are going to look at some of the associate costs that one is likely to incur when carrying out this important ceremony. The cost associated with christening is on the things to be used and not on the process of doing the activity. Most churches do offer this for free but it also depends on the arrangement of the church. It is advisable to visit your local church and find out if they have any charges for the ceremony or not.

This piece is hence going to highlight some of the most common costs that you will like to incur for you to have a successful christening ceremony. Follow through to find the right insights that will help you do a better preparation in case you will be planning to do one. The points will make you know what to budget for when planning to do a christening ceremony for your newborn.

Purchase of a Traditional Christian Gown and Clothes For The Occasion

The christening ceremony is a special occasion that has a specific attire to be worn. It will have to cost you to get the traditional gown that your child will put on during the occasion. You will have to shop for the right color and design that you desire for your child. Being a very special occasion in the life of the kids, many people will want their children to have special and unique gowns. This will cost you money. You will be forced to budget for the traditional Christian gown and hence it will be one of the associated costs of christening a newborn.

But, for parents that have a similar ceremony before and bought a traditional Christian gown, they can use it on the other kids. It is not cast on a stone that the gown must be new as other family members have a special gown for the ceremony.  You can consider using one gown down the family line and that makes it special too. Christian gowns are also coming out of fashion. You will find few stores having them. It is, therefore, not casts on a stone that your child must wear a Christian gown.

Different churches have alternative ways to do child christening without wearing the traditional gowns. All in all, whatever your child will wear, you will have to dig deep in your pocket. Parents and relatives might also consider having a standard way of dressing on that day. This can also add to the cost associated with christening a newborn as they will have to do purchases.

Being a special occasion, parents might want to have specific regalia that will make them be uniformed. You might want to have the same color of clothes or even a similar style or design. If you had never bought any uniformed family attire and you must go shopping for it. This will add to the cost during the ceremony and it will force you to dig deep into your pockets. Clothing is, therefore, one of the things that will give you a budget when looking to do christening for your newborn.

Purchasing of Christening Gifts

Every big occasion is always accompanied by the giving of gifts. You will need to get a good gift for your child on their very important day. Friends and relatives too would need to gift the newborn with different gifts. You can get various gifts depending on your beliefs and values. There are different categories of gifts that you can get for your child. There are religious presents that are normally given during this occasion. The gifts can be the traditional Bible storybooks, Christian books that address values, prayer books, and even symbolic gifts that show Christian symbols or events. Faith gifts are good as your child can get to know the Christian stories that relate to them. These Bible storybooks can be a good avenue for the kids to develop great virtues and build their faith. Books of payers also help build the faith of the kids and would be good a good choice of a gift.

There are some symbolic gifts too that make people profess their faith.  It will be a very important thing to purchase a necklace, a cross bracelet, or any other Christian symbol for your child. All these will add to the costs that will be associated with christening a newborn that you will need to have on your mind. The gifts can take a substantive budget and hence you should have a clear plan before embarking on the exercise. You can look these gifts out from the organizations that partner with the churches to help people out. Look these gifts out from the Christian websites, publishers, and bookshops that will have the right information for your kids.

It is good to note that gifting could have also changed over the years. In the past silver, gifts were strictly adhered to. People tend to find alternative ways that they can be giving their gifts. Some consider giving gifts that will be of benefit to the child in the future. Some consider planting trees and other gift things like wine that the child can only take after attaining the right age. It is nowadays upon people to decide on what they want to gift.

After Party Celebration

Being an important occasion, you may want to invite family and friends for a celebration. This will require you to have a budget for the same. You will need to hire avenue, get food and refreshments and even get a band. This will be depending on the number of people that will be invited to the ceremony. You should know the budget that you can afford and invite the right number of people. You might decide to hire avenue or rather hold the event in your compound if there is ample space. All these will depend on the budget that you are ready to use during this occasion. You need to have a good plan for you to get a memorable after-party celebration that your guests will enjoy.

The after-party celebration can be the biggest item where you might spend a lot of money doing the christening ceremony of your newborn. You will want the event to be colorful and satisfy your guests. The event venue will need to be decorated to the highest standard and this will add to the cost of christening your newborn. You will need to spend on their feeding and drinking and this can cost you a lot of money. You must be ready to dig deep into your pocket if you want to do a serious celebration.

You can also get a venue that can work with the budget that you have. You might want them to do a customization of the event to the amount you can afford. You might want to forgo food and just take refreshments. You can also decide to have a simple party with a limited number of guests to help you cut on cost.

Facilitation Cost

Other costs that you might incur will include facilitation costs. Facilitation costs will majorly be spent on transport and communication during this exercise. You will need to hire a car if you don’t have one or rather fuel your car during the planning and on a material day. You will want to talk to your church leader, guests, and event planners hence a good bunch of money must be set aside for communication. You will be holding meetings with your church leaders and can be surprised by the amount you will spend on fuel. Forgetting these aspects in your budget might get you disappointed as you will have to eat on other items budget. They might seem simple but they could cost you a lot of funds. It is, therefore, very important that you put them in your budget for you to avoid disappointments.

Photography Services

Every important occasion will need to be captured on camera for future references. Many people will want their children to have a feel of how the event was. It will be good for them to know you cared for them and offered them a color event. Photography will hence be needed and it will come at a cost. You might want to get a friend or a family member to take pictures for free either with your camera or phone but most of the time they miss out on the important activities as they could be carried away. Friends and family will want to be part of the occasion hence you might miss out on the most important part of the ceremony. You hence need a professional photographer who can capture all the actions from the start to the need. The professional photographers will guaranty you quality photos and you will not miss out on any part. You hence need to have a discussion with a professional photographer and agree on the amounts you will be able to afford. You might also want to capture the video of the whole event and that will come at an additional cost.

You, therefore, need to go through your budget and determine if you will be going for the photography or if you can afford a video as well. Have an agreement with the photographer on the amounts you can comfortably afford and sign a contractual agreement if possible. This can help help you avoid arguments on costs after the service. Avoid paying in full just as a precautionary measure to get your job done with the right quality as agreed.

Agree that you will be able to fulfill and if your budget is low you can agree on a workable formula even if it means taking few photos. Have a workable budget that will not make you break your bank.

Conclusion

In conclusion, you might have known that you will not need to spend any amount while christening your child but you now have the right information. You can see that the budget for christening your child can be way higher than you thought. This just because of the costs that are associated with christening a newborn. You, therefore, have the right information and you can draw your budget easily when you want to christen your child. I hope this will be of help to you for you not to be caught flat-footed while you want to take your newborn to the christening ceremony.

A newborn christening is a very special occasion and it is not the time to be faced with abrupt disappointment. Knowing the cost that will be associated with the event will be a big deal in making you get the preparation you deserve. I believe this piece will be very essential in helping you give your child the best christening ceremony that they deserve.

Gene Botkin

Gene is the director of the Theosis Christian Project. He studied physics and military science before founding the Project. Gene is currently pursuing his doctorate in systems engineering at an engineering college in the Ozarks. The Theosis Christian Project is his attempt to expand Holy Orthodoxy in America.

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