A Meaningful Baptism Gift Idea

It’s so hard to find just the right present for a Baptism. Something that will be meaningful (especially if you are the Godparent) but nothing too “trinkety” that doesn’t have a place in a house. If you’re looking for a special gift for your Godchild, I think you’ll like this idea.

I had seen people bringing their own shells for baptisms (rather than using the one at the church), but I couldn’t help but think “why would I want another ‘thing’ sitting around my house?” That’s when I came up with this idea. Basically, you turn the shell used at your child’s Baptism into a Christmas ornament. That ‘s way, it’s not just something that is ‘sitting around’, because it is packed up with the rest of the Christmas ornaments. It becomes somewhat of a “Baby’s First Christmas” ornament.

Here’s how you pull this off. Either purchase one of those expensive Baptism shells from online somewhere, or go to your local craft shop, buy a big shell, and spray paint it gold. (That’s what we did). Bring it to the Baptism, and give it to the priest ahead of time. He will be pleasantly surprised that you care so much about your child’s Baptism! 😉 (When Anabelle was Baptized, we showed up with our own white stole, golden shell, and Baptism candle, all of which are usually provided by the church. Our priest was like, “Why did I even get anything out?”. lol!)

For some reason, shells spray paint beautifully! Here is Anabelle being Baptized with the shell.

Here’s how I turned ours into a Christmas ornament. First, I hunted down some beads at Wal-Mart that I thought looked like water drops. I strung them through some clear string, and hot glued them to the back of the shell. (You could totally skip the beads if you wanted to.)

Glue a loop of string at the top (so the ornament can hang) and add a bow to the front of the shell. Voila, you could totally be done right here! … Or….

However, I absolutely adore sparkly Christmas ornament (because of how the lights on the tree bounce off the glitter) so I painted the front of the shell with some watered down glue and covered it in glitter.

Knock the extra glitter off and wait for it to dry. Again, you can be done at this step. …Or…. 😉

You can print a picture of the baby on the day of their Baptism, along with the date, and glue it on the inside of the shell. In order to get mine to lay right, I first hot glued in a wad of tissue, then I glued the picture on top. I printed mine on card stock. I suppose if you really wanted it to hold up, you could laminate it before you glue it on, but I didn’t bother.

Now, you really really could be finished…. OR…. 😉

You could turn the front of the shell into an angel. Try googling “Angel Shell” and looking at the images- you’ll find plenty of inspiration! I made the angel’s wings by taking some white, wired ribbon, looping into one circle, and twisting in the middle. You can hot glue them behind the shell. The head is one of those big marble-thingies that’s flat on one side. Again- hot glue is your friend.

Now, you could stop here, … OR….

Only kidding. It’s really time to stop now. 😉

I opted not to do the angel thing, so here’s our completed Baptism Christmas ornament hanging on the tree.

See how sparkly it is on the tree? I just love it! I’m very excited for Anabelle to have this keepsake. I think this is a great way to always keep this special memento around without it becoming a bother to keep up with, and it’s so special to see it once a year at Christmas time. 🙂

Related Posts:

• Make a Holy Water bottle to collect some holy water from your baby’s Baptism
• Round-up of Baptism Links and Ideas