The Christening
The Christening, if you are Roman Catholic like I am, is a big occasion in your baby’s life and yours along with your family.
It is you introducing your baby to God but also a traditionally big celebration with family and friends afterwards. My granny is very religious and a big presence in our local church and her faith and wisdom is a big influence on me so it was important for me to christen the children here.
The first time around with Matthew’s Christening, I was so organised! I sent out the christening invitations with our newborn gift thank you cards when he was about 3 months old….how I had the time and energy for this I do not know! Even the thought of it now makes me tired.
But that is how I did it, I wanted a big gathering of family and friends for the christening and my husband appeased me, being the saint that he is…although, in fairness, he is also partial to a good family and friend gathering!
So the date was set for early April and we had 50-70 people coming, so we decided to book a function room in the local pub. I ordered a cake and coordinated the godparents, organised the outfits for Matthew and myself, my husband wore his wedding suit…it fit him perfectly and he looked great … if a little tired and disheveled! We had a super day and it was such a nice occasion for everyone to mingle and meet and Matthew was passed around like a parcel in a giant game of pass the parcel to all the friends and family who wanted and got a cuddle or two.
The second time around wasn’t such a straight forward affair.
As I mentioned previously, Eleanor was born in Oct 2020 on the cusp of the second Covid-related lockdown. I had hoped to have her christened at around the 4 month mark, similar to Matthew, which would have been in February. We had this gorgeous family christening gown which was almost 100 years old and had been originally worn by my husband’s grandfather when he was christened, it was so special and I was hoping Eleanor would wear this as Matthew had.
So, I contacted the parish and penciled in the first available date in February provisionally, with the understanding that it would have to be revisited in January to confirm. January came and the lockdown was extended, so we pushed the date out until April, the next provisional date the church had which would be post-lockdown … hopefully.
April came and the lockdown was extended further so we got the next available date at the end of May. Ahead of each date I had bought Eleanor a little christening gown and each time it was postponed I had found myself in Dundrum Shopping Centre, changing it for a bigger size.
With the May date I was more hopeful, society was starting to open up slowly but surely, you could meet another household outdoors so we thought it would be nice to hold the christening in our back garden. We were planning for the bare minimum in terms of numbers, 10 people overall; 2 parents, 2 godparents, 4 grandparents, great granny and my brother’s girlfriend.
The week of the christening, I had the catering booked to arrive on the Saturday ahead of the big day on Sunday and I had the kids outfits arranged, all set! My mum was getting the christening shawl we had for Matthew updated with new stitching on it for Eleanor and I remember her texting me on the Monday of that week to ask was I sure of the date and name to be stitched on, I said yes … she texted back later to say that the place was closed and she would have to go back tomorrow. It must have been a sign, later that day we got a knock on the door, it was the local parish priest asking if we were planning to have a party in our garden after the christening, we said we were planning to have some family over but that we were staggering the visits to stay within the guidelines.
Then there was the call to say it was to be cancelled! The HSE had outlined that christenings could not go ahead until the next phase of restrictions came into effect in July!
So, I asked for the next available date from the church, which was to be the first weekend in July. I had to cancel the catering and text all of the family to inform them it was postponed again, I think everyone was fed up with it at this stage … I know I sure was.
The weekend in July was now our 4th provisional date for the christening, my mum offered to host everyone in her house after the christening as 1) her garden is bigger so it would be better for social distancing and 2) I think she could see how bewildered I was by the whole situation at this point.
In the end we had a lovely day on that first weekend in July, we had originally thought it was to be a private ceremony but with the postponement of dates, there was a backlog of christening requests to the church, so there were 2 other families and us on the day. The 10 of us celebrated in the garden in my mum’s afterwards, at that stage 3 were fully vaccinated, 4 half vaccinated and 3 with no vaccine so we staggered the times and all sat in the garden, socially distancing as planned.
I have to say, the benefits of not having the christening in our house were amazing, just having to get the kids and myself ready that morning and then just show up at my mums was perfect. My husband had dropped the catering to my mum’s the day before, which meant my mum, the amazing hostess that she is, had it all set up and the spread laid on when we arrived.
Not having so many people there, I think, also made the day more special for everyone. We could all chat and catch-up properly, which was particularly great as everyone had been hibernating for so long over the winter months and under the shadow of the lockdowns.
If I was having a christening again, I would keep it to a small number with less fuss, the large gathering, as nice as it was the first time around, did add a lot of additional stress that isn’t necessarily needed and I think there is a more intimate quality to an event with less people, but maybe that’s just me!
