Please help answer this non-travel question
 

My sister is having the christening of her new baby in two weeks.

What does one give as a gift on such occasions? Any suggestions? I haven't a clue what to get.

By the way, just to keep this remotely travel related, I'll be going to Las Vegas in 3 weeks, staying at the Mirage.

Hi al,
I have always given a Savings Bond. Good Luck at the Mirage.
Laura

I also always give a savings bond and some useless luxury thing the child can have forever. It is usually a silver cup or frame from Tiffany.

Give something lasting, when I was the godmother for my niece, I gave her a Hummel along with some religious children's story books. The Hummel was a baby in a basket with a lamb next to the basket. I have also given a Christmas ornament for another child's christening.

cash or savings bond.
enjoy vegas.

Along with that Savings Bond, give a beautiful white candle with a cross on it to be burned at the altar during baptism and then saved to to burned at the altar during confirmation.

i meant to add usually that money will go into investment fund for baby's college fund..which is really nice.

A savings bond is always appropriate and welcome. You could tuck it into a copy of Dr. Suess's "Oh the Places You Will Go" or a copy of the book "On the Day You Were Born" by Debra Frasier, or a children's Bible.

By the way if this is a Catholic ceremony, a blessed candle is incorporated into the ritual and given to the parents. The candle suggestion is lovely but you might want to check with the parents to see if it is appropriate for their church.

Along with everything else buy the baby their own passport case! ;)

For my niece's baptism, we gave a white Bible with her name engraved on it and also a silver cross that had a young girl praying on it--a wall hanging type of cross. I thought it was appropriate b/c my husband and I are a different denomination from our niece and her parents (so I wasn't totally sure myself what an appropriate gift would be) and my sister-in-law collects crosses.

Unfortunately, my sister's-in-law response when she opened it was a quiet, little "thanks" with no enthusiasm whatsoever. However, she went crazy over the little shoes her best friend brought for the kid. As you can probably tell, this hurt my feelings b/c I put quite a bit of thought into my gift ahead of time. This was very similiar to how our baby gift was accepted a few months before (again, a nice gift with LOTS of thought put into it), so I guess I should have expected rude behavior. Still hurts...Never got thank-you notes for any of those gifts. Can you tell I'm bitter (ha!)?

Just out of curiousity, how do others handle rude behavior like this? Do you ignore it and hope behavior improves later, stop giving gifts, say something??

You ignore the behavior and keep buying gifts the way you always have bought them. It isn't juniors fault mom and dad are not good receivers.

Hi GoTravel--you are SO right! I love giving gifts to both of my nieces and I can't stop doing for them b/c of their parents. I just got upset when I recalled my stories and needed to vent. Thanks for letting me!

In my family (Chinese-American) a 24 carat charm engraved with some good luck characters or the baby's zodiac animal is considered an appropriate gift. If you live near a Chinese jewelry store, they'll have lots of these items.

I do savings bonds a lot.Also something engraved is always nice.
I also do a special music box each year for my God daughter.

Lee4:
I thought your gift was perfect as long as it was tasteful and classy in style vs. tacky/cheesy. It sounded very nice. Maybe the problem is more the receiver than the gift.

Lee4, it was a religious event so the sister-in-law should have expected the niece to get religious gifts. It was a Baptism, not the kid's first birthday or anything.

It was a nice gift on your part.

Lee4
Playing Dr Phil here. Maybe it has nothing to do with the gift but a relionship problem. Where's your brother in all this? Did he say Thank you? Can you talk with him?

Lee4, I would not stop giving gifts, but I wouldn't put so much thought into them, since apparently your SIL has very different taste (as well as manners) from you. Especially for a religious gift for someone who's not in your own church/denomination it's very easy to go astray - perhaps the wrong translation of the Bible, or she thought the praying child was inappropriate on a cross, who knows! (She still shouldn't have been rude about it.) Certainly, a Chinese zodiac symbol would not be considered an appropriate baptism gift by most non-Chinese, it's a very culture-specific choice.

The savings bond or check in a nice card is never inappropriate.

Thank you all for you ideas. I like Bennie's idea (a bond tucked in a book or children's Bible) will probably go in that direction.

Al - if you go with a book, its a nice touch to write something on the inside front cover that references the occassion. Ie "To Collin, with love from Uncle AL on your Christening day. May God bless you each day as He has today" or whatever you are comfortable with. Its just nice to have it documented in the book who it is from and for what occassion the gift was given. My kids have some very nice books that have been given to tham and regretfully I can't remember who gave them or when.