Baptism gifts for godparents and money for church

[ChunkyNicksChunkyMom]

Nick and Kate are finally being baptised on the 19th, better late than never. It took me a long time to find the right church and attend long enough to feel good about doing this there. Do you have any idea how much
money is appropriate to donate to the church? Also any idea on gifts for the godparents ( people do give them something?). TIA!
Susan

#1 Nick 11-18-04
#2 Kate 04-26-06

[Bean606]

I am Roman Catholic, and my son was baptized in August. I was advised that something between $50 and $100, depending on your means, was plenty. As for godparent gifts, OOPS! I didn't do that. Now I feel guilty.

[buddyleebaby]

My Church has a standard donation of 50 dollars. We also give the Priest a stipend (not sure if that is the right word here) of 200.
My father is an Episcopal Priest ( I am Roman Catholic) and he told me that Priests generally rely on these "stipends" heavily to supplement their income.
We don't give gifts to the Godparents. We just take everyone out to eat afterwards.

Evelyn is being baptized on Tuesday. I'm so excited...

etc typos

[jayali]

Susan,

We are Roman Catholic and live in NJ. We had a private baptism at DH old parish, where just by coincidence a priest from my college is now pastor. We gave a pretty big donation (way more then we should have) because we don't attend that parish and DH felt that we should. I think that the usual amount is about $100. We also gave the priest, a very close friend of the family, $200. DHs uncle was a priest and whenever he did something like weddings or baptisms I think he got between $100 and $200.

We did give godparent gifts also. When DS was born I gave his godmother a charm bracelet, so on his baptism I bought her another charm. We bought his godfather a watch with the date engraved on the back. I also bought DH cufflinks (teddy bears) for that day. It was such a special day for us I really felt like celebrating. We didn't do a babyshower so this was the first real celebration for Matthew with family and friends and we just wanted to do it up. I hear that gift for godparents is usually not customary.

Enjoy your day!!

[Moneypenny]

Susan,
DH is Lutheran and I am Methodist (although we are both non-practicing). In both those churches, $50 is the norm for someone who attends regularly.

Susan
mama to my cutie pie, Avery
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[almostamom]

Roman Catholic here as well. We gave a $150 donation to the church. We did not give godparents gifts. I have three godchildren and was never given a gift as the godmother. I was given a corsage at one of the baptisms.

HTH,
Linda

[kimbe]

Our church did not charge a fee and we did not give a donation to the church. We felt that our weekly donation and our personal involvement in parish activities was quite enough.

However, we did give a gift to the priest that did her baptism. We gave him $75 and I baked a pan of his favorite cookies.

Oh, and we didn't go anything for godparents.

[Alice523]

We had to give our church $50 or $100. I can't remember which, but it was a standard amount that was explained when we signed up. We didn't give an extra amount to the priest and it didn't occur to me because there were several other baptisms included in our ceremony. We didn't give the godparents gifts. I had never heard of it and my very large Catholic family has never done it. Congratulations! DS's baptism day was very special to us.

[KBecks]

We didn't give anything to the godparents, but I keep them updated with current photos of the kids. And we had nice parties with good food :)

I like to donate $100 for special occassions at the church. I'd love to do more, because we love our parish so much. Maybe a guideline would be to match what you normally would give for a month, and just give an extra "month" to commemorate the event?

But, no donation is required. Having them baptized together sounds like a lot of fun!

ETA: Pick a number that makes you feel good, because that's what matters -- giving is supposed to be joyful and so a number that makes you happy will be the perfect amount.

[mamicka]

We didn't donate anything in addition to our regular tithe & no gift for our pastor, either. I've never heard of paying either for the baptism.

We also don't do Godparents, but I think that a little something would be nice, but not necessary.

[ribbit1019]

Hey that is the same day that Jarred is being baptized! We gifted Maddy's godparents a nice framed 8X10 print of her in her gown, I plan on doing the same for Jarred's godparents (cheaper this time since they are married, lol).

ETA: We didn't give anything to the church or Priest, yet another thing my DH probably neglected to mention to me. I'm not Catholic and had a mess to deal with at the end of my wedding because of his selective memory. :) You think being an alter boy himself for many years that he would have told me that you usually tip the alter boys and priest etc, nope.


Christy
Wife to Richard
My Waterbabies
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[ChunkyNicksChunkyMom]

Christy I hope your day is special!
Susan

#1 Nick 11-18-04
#2 Kate 04-26-06

[StantonHyde]

We had our children baptized (separately) in the closest Episcopal church where I figured we would one day attend. We gave $300-500 for each child because we don't attend regularly and we figured that was a year's worth of donations! I gave an 8x10 of each child in their christening gown to the grandparents (we picked one couple per child). It is totally worth it to get professional pix done of the kids in christening "garb". They are so precious.

When I was getting DS's pix done (he was 13 mos when he was baptized), the photographer just gushed about how sweet he was and how she should pay me to take pix of my child. And then I took him back in the dressing room to change him out of his clothes.....when I came out she said, "Now I understand why you wanted to do a separate session from the family Christmas photo" :-)