going $ rate for baptism gift?

vsalt31

Going tomorrow AM to the baptism for a good friend's son.  There is a lunch after the mass.  How much should I write the check for?  And, do I make the check out to the parents? 

kkfeb04

Make the check out to the child, we get a bunch for the kids. It is for them. Give what you can afford. We received some $100 from DS's godparents. DS's godfather's daughter was baptized and DH wanted to give the same amount, we settled for $75 since we are not godparents. If you can't afford that give what you can. We never expect gifts.

LolaBelle515

I think it probably varies--we didn't get anything from friends who attended; it never occurred to me. I personally would have been really surprised and probably said, "thank you, but you didn't need to do that!" to a financial gift from a friend. 

Our family was very generous with gifts for his baptism, but your presence would be a gift in itself to me.  Our friends who are his Godparents did buy him sentimental gifts, but no checks from friends. 

 If you have interest in giving a gift rather than a check, when my godchild is baptized later this year, I am going to give him a personalized board book (https://www.pintsizeproductions.com/pintsize_personalized_boardbooks.html) with the story of his baptism with pictures from that. I only mention that because you'd still have a chance to take those pics:) 

As a minister, I am at a whole lot of baptisms...but I don't know what others give as a gift and haven't asked, so maybe I'm in the minority here!  

TrudyCampbell

I don't think there is a going rate. I'd just give whatever you feel comfortable with. For ours we had a really small celebration with just close friends and family so we got higher gift amounts because everyone was so close to us. 

TrudyCampbell

Also people made the check out to us. 

sometimesalwayschaotic

When we got our LOs baptized we got sentimental gifts.  We got a blanket with the baby's name and baptism date from pottery barn.  We received no checks and the gifts were not super expensive.  I would have been shocked to receive checks from people.  I was just worried about having them in attendance.

marriedsisterofbride

Do not write the check out to the child unless you know for sure that child has an account already. My bank knows us very well, it is a small credit union, so if there was a check given to us in her name it could have easilly been cashed or deposited into our account but some banks are stricter then others. We recieved checks for $25-$100.00 for Willows Christening. It was very nice and unexpected of them.

kkfeb04

We have a big national bank and have never in the past 2.5 years had an issue cashing a check to either kid. We currently have their money in cds in our names until we decide what type of account to get. DH does all the banking and I don't know what he has to do. I do know that the ladies know him, we have a safety deposit box. The one beauty of living in a tiny town, even though our bank is in the next town over.

Ruby412

I'm not sure about a going rate, but we received several checks made out to Violet. We just had to write "Minor: Violet So-And-So" on the back and they let us deposit them in our account.