Cheap and easy to make baptismal gift ideas? (for laps catholics)

[crossfaith]

Im in a group called the Legion of Mary at my church and in our junior group we are going to start making baptismal gifts for the people who get their children baptized at our church.

Our church often has strangers come and get their children baptized at our church - mostly i suppose because of its Gothic Revival design. The thing is alot of these people are laps-Catholics, just carrying on the tradition of baptism. Its just a ceremony to them, that’s all. We often never see them at mass again (though we had never seen them before either). Whenever i grab a chance to talk to the relatives of the ones getting baptized, often they say they are not church goers.

So what we are going to do it create little baptismal favors - things the parents can keep for their children and hopefully look at (and potentially use one day!), that will help them grow in their faith.

So the idea is to have a small pocket sized silk pouch (we can make these easy), and put baptismal gifts in it. But we really need more ideas! So far what ive come up with is this:

~Rosary - either ten beaded one or a ring rosary or a complete rosary (we can make these)
~miraculous medal (or any kind of medal, hopefully we can find one that says “im catholic, in case of emergencies call a priest”)
~holy card - with a prayer on it or a picture of baby being baptized or a guardian angel
~little plastic bottle with holy water in it
~crucifix - for around neck or on the wall
~small book on saints or something
~small book on basic catholic prayers
~embroidered scapular (we can make these)
~sacred heart detente ~ (we can make these) (with various medals and a crucifix + prayer inside)
~or seeds to a flower of some kind (because the seeds of the Holy Spirit have been sewn but they need to be nurtured in the ways of the faith in order to grow) with like a card explaining and the prayer “Come Holy Spirit”

Obviously though we would love to have all these things in them at once we cant afford it. So the bags would only have two or three things in them at a time.

But would any one have more ideas of what to put in them? The things we get need to be either very cheap or something we can make since we have only a very small budget. We might also make these for the kids who get their first Holy Communion, Reconciliation and Confirmation too, but we’re just concentrating on one thing at a time atm!

Thanks you guys Any advice on how we can make these better would be much appreciated!

 

[SuzanneD]

Don’t have any ideas to add, but what a nice ministry.

 

[pianistclare]

What a beautiful thing to offer!

My thoughts:
Make a rosary for each.
Provide a blessed Miraculous Medal
Stitch a small sampler that says " I AM A BELOVED CHILD OF GOD maybe with a Dove for the infants
For the First Communicants it can say I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE and wheat & grapes

I feel it’s important to give something that can be displayed in the child’s bedroom. (constant reminder).
The small pouch will likely be stuck in a drawer.
The other two items are basic. If one is more costly than another, a small crucifix is good too.

The packaging can be a simple gift bag. you can get them cheaply in bulk online or perhaps donated by your women’s group. Often, when people know you are doing something for children the donations POUR in. Let it be known that your group is doing the work, and ASK for donations in the parish bulletin. The Knights of Columbus in our area donate those finger rosaries to our Religious Ed program all the time.
Check out your constituents! LOL
Best of luck!!!

 

[PaulfromIowa]

This is very sad that parents baptize their children but do not attend Church. What you should do is maintain a snail mail and email address list for these parents and stay in touch with them. Invite them to events at Church. Let them know that you are praying for them and their children.

I personally doubt that a gift of a sacramental like a rosary or medal is going to convert a lapsed Catholic. It would probably just go into a drawer. Perhaps offer a wall crucifix, but only if you can go to the home to hang it.

 

[crossfaith]

Thank you for the replies! You guys are probably right and the pouches would probably be put in the drawer I just cant think of any cheap ideas of what they could put in babys room after baptism … maybe a picture of jesus or mary in a frame? A statue would be better but those are expensive ><
Also, we wanted to put in the bags with the rosaries - a leaflet wich has instructions on what the rosary is and how to say it - otherwise they wouldnt know how to use it

With the kids who are getting their confirmation and first Holy Communion we have less of a worry about the gifts not being used since all the kids are usually from practicing families. So we could probably include the angelus prayer, divine mercy etc. into it.

But PaulfromIowa, that was such a good idea about keeping a mail address list with the parents!! Ill bring it up at the meeting and hopefully it will be alright with Father~ but im sure it should be! I never thought of that so thank you! That will be helpful in helping encouraging the parents to return.

 

[VivienneJ]

Thank you for the replies! You guys are probably right and the pouches would probably be put in the drawer I just cant think of any cheap ideas of what they could put in babys room after baptism … maybe a picture of jesus or mary in a frame? A statue would be better but those are expensive ><
Also, we wanted to put in the bags with the rosaries - a leaflet wich has instructions on what the rosary is and how to say it - otherwise they wouldnt know how to use it

With the kids who are getting their confirmation and first Holy Communion we have less of a worry about the gifts not being used since all the kids are usually from practicing families. So we could probably include the angelus prayer, divine mercy etc. into it.

But PaulfromIowa, that was such a good idea about keeping a mail address list with the parents!! Ill bring it up at the meeting and hopefully it will be alright with Father~ but im sure it should be! I never thought of that so thank you! That will be helpful in helping encouraging the parents to return.

I like the idea of a picture and a rosary with instructions.

As far as keeping in touch with the parents and inviting them to events, also send a card for the child’s birthday and for the baptism day - a way of reminding them that the baptism day is every bit as important as the birth day.