3 Christening Party Ideas That Will Make the Celebration Unforgettable!

Whether you’re religious, spiritual, humanistic or just super creative, christening is an important ritual for many people to welcome their child into their lives. Make the day special and memorable with these christening party ideas!

• You are one of those people who want to help organise a baptism celebration, in church or outside?
• You want to spice up the celebration with visual impressions?
• You want even the smallest of your guests not to be bored and to participate with their eyes and ears?
• Your concern: a sensational sensory experience for young and old?
• Then you’ve come to the right place!

Are you humanistic, spiritual, religious or just super creative?

Then make a baptism or naming ceremony an unforgettable experience with inspiring thoughts for the guests!

Christening Party Ideas for Whom?

For all proud friends, parents, godparents and co-creators of this special celebration.

What Is It About?

To make the ceremony a special experience, you should pick up the guests with their senses. This means that you need stimuli for their eyes and ears that are meaningful and modern and can delight the participants of the baptism celebration.

Caution: If children are participating, you need at least one movement element that allows them to use their hands and feet!

If you are a friend or sponsor, contact the parents first and clarify whether your participation is desired. Experience has shown that there is great interest on the part of the church in participating in the service. A church baptism service lasts about 30-45 minutes. So: set accents according to the motto less is more! 😉

Christening Party Ideas That You Can Use to Help Shape a Baptismal Service

1. With a Song

One of my favourite Christening party ideas, is to visually represent the content of a song!

Examples of songs:

• “Laudato Si” with stanzas 1 (sun, moon and stars), 4 (mountains and trees) and 5 (birds and animals): You can make the contents out of clay paper or cut them out of cardboard and paint them yourself. Make two bird masks and one whale or elephant mask.

Whoever plays a bird takes a coloured cloth in each hand and flies with it. (Evangelical hymnal no. 515 or here)

• “A Handful of Earth” with all three verses: You can order individual plastic muffin baking moulds, e.g. in the shape of a heart, cheaply on the internet, fill them each with 1 cm of soil and then sow cress seeds on them. It would be nice if they blossomed until the christening!

During the song or afterwards, have the heart shapes distributed to the guests. Hand out lunch bags for safe transport home. (Jöcker, Detlev: 40 schönste Kinderlieder, Menschenkinderverlag, Münster, 1st edition 2012, pp. 45-46 or here)

• “You are always there“: A movement song for adults and children who can point upwards to the sky, downwards to the earth and to the left and right with their arms and hands during the chorus. (Jöcker, Detlev: 40 schönste Kinderlieder, Menschenkinderverlag, Münster, 1st edition 2012, p. 28 or here)

2. With a Reading for the Person Being Baptised

You can recite a text for the person being baptised in about 5 minutes.

• “Jona and the whale” by M. Hahn: Take a ship, an inflatable swimming whale and a Playmobil figure and act out the story while telling it. Jonah is first on the ship, then he falls into the water, i.e. off the ship, then the whale comes and swallows Jonah.

The Playmobil figure remains hidden inside the hand until the whale spits it out again. Order cheap swimming whales on the internet and distribute them as decoration in the church. At the end of the story, each child gets to pick up a whale and take it home. The whales can be bought cheaply on the internet.

• “Of the Children” from The Prophet by Khalil Gibran: A wonderfully moving tribute to children. You happen to be in a shooting club or know someone who knows how to use a bow and arrow? No? Alternatively, how about a bow and arrow from the toy department to depict the last three sentences?

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself.
They come through you, but not from you,
And though they are with you, they are not yours.
You may give them your love, but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may give their bodies a house, but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but do not try to make them like you.
For life does not run backwards, nor does it dwell in yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children are sent forth as living arrows.
The archer sees the target on the path of infinity,
and He stretches you with His might that His arrows may fly fast and far.
Let your bow be aimed at joy by the hand of the archer;
For as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves the bow that is steady.

Khalil Gibran, Arab poet, 1883-1931

3. With Intercessions

You choose interesting sayings for the person to be baptised, which are proverbs or words of wisdom.

• “I wish you the serenity to accept the things you cannot change, the courage to change the things you can, and the wisdom to discern one from the other.”
• “I wish for you that one day you yourself will become the change you want to see in the world.”
• “I wish for you that your soul may always walk.”

You can add to or subtract from the programme as you like. When reciting, pay attention to facial expressions and lively language so that the children follow with all their might!

You can find more Christening party ideas here, e.g. how to create a whale-themed baptism and the most beautiful baptism sayings. Our website also has tips for family celebrations and lovely activities with children all year round.

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