Baptism gift for non-religious

[chloesilverado]

My friend’s daughter is getting baptized. My friend and her husband are not very religious so I’m not sure I’d want to give a Bible or something like that. Any ideas besides money?

[yaga]

... why are they baptizing their kid, then?

We give money, even for our nieces and nephews, because the religious gifts usually come from the godparents. That and I'm an atheist, so buying something associated with religion isn't really something I would do.

[blondemoment123]

A book?

[VillainV]

How old is the child? For babies I usually go for Noah’s Ark finger puppets (look on Amazon). For older kids, money.

[chloesilverado]

May 13, 2018 16:11:04 GMT -5 yaga said:

... why are they baptizing their kid, then?

We give money, even for our nieces and nephews, because the religious gifts usually come from the godparents. That and I'm an atheist, so buying something associated with religion isn't really something I would do.

I have no idea... Family pressure?

[chloesilverado]

May 13, 2018 16:17:14 GMT -5 VillainV said:

How old is the child? For babies I usually go for Noah’s Ark finger puppets (look on Amazon). For older kids, money.

She’s 6 months old.

[vikingfan4]

A praying stuffed animal. My daughter got a lamb, very cute, but not in-your-face religious.

[nicolewi]

Money is a common gift here and usually very welcome. But...otherwise, I think any other kind of nice baby gift is totally fine. A toy, a blanket, cute outfit, kid puzzles, favorite children's book, etc. It doesn't really have to be religious in nature.

[mbcdefg]

I’d just stick with money.

If you’re very, very close friends with them, then maybe a piece of jewelry.

[cabbagecabbage]

$50 in a card. I mean, I’m agnostic and I wouldn’t buy anyone a religious gift, even a subtle one.

[yourmother]

For my latest baptism I attended, I bought a blanket off of Amazon with the baby’s name embroidered on it.

[jorja]

This is weird. A baptism is inherently religious.

That being said, just give them money.

[Eagles]

Money in a card.

I know a lot of Catholics who baptize their kids but don't regularly attend church. It's more cultural/traditional than anything else.

[rosiebear]

Just because they’re “not very religious “ doesn’t mean they’re agnostic or atheist, ffs. Some of the responses here are weirdly hostile.

There are also cultural, social, and familial reasons for wanting that ceremony/celebration for your baby.

OP, I’d give cash or a generic baby gift.

[gibbinator]

My very religious friends bought each of my kids a large package of kit kats as a baptism gift  that was great. DH is scarcely religious and I'm atheist so the books his grandparents bought us haven't been very used.

ETA: I see the kid is 6 months old so maybe not candy. I forgot most kids are babies at these things, not 2 and 4 haha. But yeah, just go with anything obviously or cash. I like the idea of picking something with animals on it that can be dual kid & "noah's ark" themed. When I was pg with DS1 the same friends mentioned above bought us a noah's ark plush boat filled with stuffed animals, which made for a cool toy.

[laurack]

May 13, 2018 20:24:38 GMT -5 jorja said:

This is weird. A baptism is inherently religious.

That being said, just give them money.

it's not that weird. In Ireland where I am from, almost everyone baptizes whether they go to church or not. It's a cultural thing I suppose

we didn't baptize because we live here now, but we did get married in a church despite both being atheist. It was tradition based/to make my mom happy basically.

 

Regarding the gift, I'd probably give cash or maybe a generic baby type gift (like an outfit, or a toy) as if it were a "baby celebration". In my experience the godparents give a jewelry gift.

[calledout]

You can never go wrong with $50 in a card. Having said that, I think sentimental books, an embroidered blanket or picture frames are good ideas. For my son's baptism we received this and I thought it was adorable - www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-Wooden-Sorter-Educational/dp/B000NV7L4E.

[YahYahs]

May 13, 2018 20:24:38 GMT -5 jorja said:

This is weird. 

No it isn't. DH and I are not religious (I'm agnostic and he's atheist but we both grew up Catholic). Our families are both pretty religious. We baptized our children for the tradition of it and to make the families happy, because why not? (We also got married in a cathedral and attended precana even though it wasn't really our cup of tea). It was a nice day for everyone.
If our kids want to pursue religion as they get older (now 5 and 7), they'll definitely have our support in it, and having their baptisms on record will be helpful for them if they do. If they don't choose to be religious, then we still have memories and photos from a beautiful ceremony with family.

I'd give cash. 

[icedcoffee]

Cash. Even most religious people aren't going to need another bible or another cross. Cash is king.

With that said, if you really don't want to do cash, I have always thought that this Little People Noah's Ark was kind of cute:

[icedcoffee]

They also have a  Little People Nativity that I think is kind of fun too (if you're against doing cash).  We baptized DS but aren't very religious and I would have appreciated either of these toys as a good way to teach him as he grows:

[katiescarlett]

We always do either cash or a nice personalized photo frame or something like that.

[circa1978]

May 14, 2018 8:10:30 GMT -5 @slk4117 said:

May 13, 2018 20:24:38 GMT -5 jorja said:

This is weird. A baptism is inherently religious.

That being said, just give them money.

I see you don't understand the crushing guilt that comes with being a lapsed Catholic. 

LOL, right? We're atheists but baptized DS for a number of reasons (I'm a cultural Catholic/we bowed to extreme pressure from parents/plus we wanted to open up school options for DS - preference is given at an excellent Jesuit high school here for baptized Catholics.)

I really like the idea of the FP Noah's Ark or Nativity - we had the latter and DS loved it.  

[Aloe Vera]

Money or a generic baby toy will be more than enough.

[aprilsails]

My go-to recently has been a gift card or cash for a canvas print or enlargements with framing since a lot of family friends have gotten newborn photos or family photo shoots done. It’s been generally appreciated.

Cash works too though. We would have put any we received from a baptism (which we didn’t wind up doing) into my daughters education savings plan.

[melsbels]

My boys received small pewter piggy banks from my non religious aunt and uncle, and a very nice nativity set from my sister. So something like that would be fine. Also, cash.

[bex1973]

We got a pretty pretty silver picture frame that we then put a picture from that day. Maybe that? You could get it engraved w/ kid name if want to go a step further.

[cabbagecabbage]

May 14, 2018 7:28:05 GMT -5 rosiebear said:

Just because they’re “not very religious “ doesn’t mean they’re agnostic or atheist, ffs. Some of the responses here are weirdly hostile.

There are also cultural, social, and familial reasons for wanting that ceremony/celebration for your baby.

OP, I’d give cash or a generic baby gift.

Correct. I answered for myself, an agnostic. I wouldn't buy a religious gift because I’m not religious and that seems fake and creepy to give something I don’t believe in. I would give a gift that says “Congratulations on this event that is important to you.”

[BaliHai]

May 14, 2018 7:28:05 GMT -5 rosiebear said:

Just because they’re “not very religious “ doesn’t mean they’re agnostic or atheist, ffs. Some of the responses here are weirdly hostile.

There are also cultural, social, and familial reasons for wanting that ceremony/celebration for your baby.

Seriously. I am so freaking tired of people when it comes to this subject.

OP, I agree with cash. For my nephew, we got him a silver piggy bank engraved with his name and DOB - it was Noah's Ark, but they had a ton of other options.

[halfpint]

If you don't want to do cash, I'd consider a sort of heirloom quality baby toy, like a nice wooden toy, special stuffed doll or animal, or maybe a personalized book - I always thought these looked kind of cute www.wonderbly.com/personalized-products/lost-my-name-book

I kind of think if your baptism gifts aren't religious, they should be a little sentimental

[nicolewi]

Playmobil 123 also makes a Noah's Ark that's really cute.

We have and totally love the Little People Nativity. It's a riot to see what Baby Jesus is doing each year when the set comes out. He plays with dinosaurs, superheroes, Barbies, etc.