When our son was born, my partner and I had always intended to get him christened, not because we were regular church goers ourselves (we were not) or even that anyone in the family is, but most of us describe ourselves as some form of Christian and so it felt important to bring our son into that as well as what some people see a christening as these days; a good reason to get everyone together to meet the baby.
Honestly, little man's christening was the first time a few people had met him and that was a really lovely experience for him, for them, for us getting to introduce him, but because of the church we do now attend with him, it was also a really lovely event because the Reverend has kids herself and she knows how to not only allow kids to be kids in church, but how to include kids in a service so it's not just that they are tolerated, but that they are very much loved and welcomed in the service.
I remember when I was younger that church could often feel stuffy and long, and it was something where we sat through it and got on with it and were moaned at or stared at if we wriggled, giggled or were anything other than statues effectively. I think it's one of the reasons I enjoyed being part of the serving team in church, because it gave me something to do, and I'm better if I'm occupied. Whether it was carrying candles, ring bells, swinging an incense handbag (I know that's not what it's called, but it's what it looks like, so that's what we called it) having something I could do, and it being something I was SUPPOSED to do was really helpful, but obviously you can't do that with very small children, can you? Turns out, you can!
The Reverend had my four year old niece and my friend's six year old come up and help her prepare the baptism water by splashing in it as she was praying over it, partly to keep the sound of the water in everyone's minds, and then when we were praying at the end, she used bubbles to represent our prays, and told us to think of the pop of the bubble being that that prayer was heard by God... and so the girls were there to pop the bubbles, and it kept them engaged, it got them involved and it brought even more joy into a very special day.
You might be wondering then, why it was the christening that went wrong...
Well, as far as I have ever known, it's not the sort of thing you send out a formal invitation to, but one of the biggest problems from that is then there's no real RSVP tradition, so when a caterer or venue asks you for numbers, it's like trying to pick a lottery number. We didn't want there to be masses of food left over, but also didn't want to have invited people to come and celebrate with us and then the food be like, two quarter sandwiches and half a sausage roll each because we had massively under estimated. As it was, we guessed the numbers about right, except for that on the day quite a few people came down with sickness bugs, and it's not even like they were all people who would have given it to each other (in each family, yes, but each group doesn't know each other) and it's not like they're from the same area where it could be something in the air or something in the water...
What didn't help was a number of people in both of our families have hearing aids, and whether they weren't turned up, weren't turned on or the batteries were out, I don't know, but it meant that a lot of people were missing different announcements, whether it was that his Godmother was ill and couldn't be there (but the Reverend said it was fine and she was still his Godmother), where the toilets were (so someone was looking for the toilets in the toy corner) or a few other funny things which I'm not going to embarrass people with, it made it a bit of a comedy of errors at times.
I know some people might think it strange that we had our son christened before we get married, but it was something we wanted to get done (or maybe it was something I particularly wanted to get done and my future husband just went with, because he knew it would make me and members of both our families happy) and I figured I could use it as something of a dress rehearsal for myself and my son ahead of the wedding. As in, if I wear something white or cream or light in colour, is he going to puke on it or poop on it. I was organised, too, because I even had a spare dress in the car, and multiple outfit changes for baby (he had one outfit for the morning church service which was a Pooh outfit on purpose - if you know, you know, a cream baby grow for the Christening service which was what my brother wore for his - and I waited until the last minute to put him in it since the Pooh outfit didn't work - a baby grow that's designed to look like a baby suit for the party afterwards - God bless you Ted Baker, that thing is adorable! - and a spare for in case there were multiple accidents) and the only one that didn't get worn was baby's spare, because he was sick on my first dress, but I hadn't practised sitting in it either, and every time I sat down the neckline at the front rose and tried to throttle me. I tried remembering to move the back of it slightly as I sat down, but it was a bit on the short side, so there wasn't a lot of spare space to do that, so getting changed was also a comfort thing in the end...
One of the great things about having it as a trial run was being able to trial some of the sweet treats we want at the wedding - which was ace because they went well - including a version of one of the cakes, which went down a storm. I know as someone who bakes I should be more willing to spend the hundreds it costs to have a "proper" wedding cake, but my future husband doesn't much like cake, and I'm not much of an icing person. Also, I despise fruitcake. Even it touching another cake is enough to ruin the other cake for me, and traditionally the top tier of a wedding cake is fruit cake and it is saved for the Christening of the first child. Well, the christening already happened, and we did have a similar cake, so I guess we don't need a fruit cake!! (Yes, I did have a proper sh!t eating grin on when I decided that one... Some traditions in weddings are fine, but that particular one can suck it.)
It wasn't as though I was the only one that little man got with dribble or anything, because he caught his dad, too, and in the clean up left him looking like he'd missed when he went for a pee, but that taught us both something, I think. We need a cover or an apron of some description when holding the baby on the wedding day, there's no such thing as too many muslins (there is never such a thing) and the baby isn't going anywhere near my dress until we've had photos done.
As things go, it could have gone a lot, lot worse and it was a day of love and joy like it was supposed to be. Little guy slept through almost the whole thing, but that's what he does... football matches, rugby games and now his own Christening including when he was getting water poured on his head... and it was better than a screaming, crying, fussy baby. Everyone got to see him, see how much he's growing and smiling and laughing and learning, and he was fully and officially welcomed into his church family, including getting his first bible which has the cutest illustrations to help him follow along.
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