Christening party favors are the small keepsakes a family gives to guests after a baptism, and the first thing to settle is vocabulary. Christening and baptism name the same Catholic sacrament. British and Irish families usually say christening and spell the gifts favours. American families usually say baptism and spell them favors. The keepsakes themselves are nearly identical. Plan about one favor for every adult guest at the reception, add a small cushion, and pick something a guest will actually keep.
What are christening party favors
A christening party favor is a token handed to each guest at the meal that follows the church service. It is a thank you and a reminder of the day. It travels home in a pocket or a handbag, and it usually carries something of the sacrament: water, light, the cross, a guardian angel.
Two habits get confused. Christening gifts for guests move outward, from the family to the people who came. Gifts to the child move inward, from godparents and grandparents toward the newly baptized. A silver medal from a godmother is not a favor. A bag of sugared almonds at each place setting is.
The favor is a custom, not a requirement of the rite. Nothing in the liturgy asks a family to hand out anything. Families do it because a christening gathers relatives who rarely meet, and a small token gives the day a physical memory. Skip them and the sacrament is still complete.
Christening favours or christening favors, which spelling to use
The letter u is the whole difference. Favours is the British and Irish spelling, also standard in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and most of Canada. Favors is the American spelling. The object is identical.
Search behavior follows the spelling. A family in Cork types christening favours for guests. A family in Houston types christening party favors, or baptism favors. If a shop seems to stock nothing, try the other spelling before you give up.
The split runs deeper than the u. In Britain and Ireland, christening is the everyday word, used comfortably by Catholics and by Anglicans, and many people there find the phrase baptism party oddly clinical. In the United States, baptism is the ordinary word inside Catholic parishes, while christening survives mostly among older speakers and families with British, Irish or Episcopal roots. If your guest list mixes both, use the word the grandparents use.
What British and Irish families expect from christening favours for guests
The British christening has a shape of its own. The service is often a Sunday morning, sometimes inside Mass and sometimes as a separate rite. What follows is usually a christening tea or a lunch, at home, in a village hall, or in a function room above a pub. It runs smaller and more domestic than a typical American reception, and the favours match that scale.
Sugared almonds carry the tradition. Five almonds in a twist of tulle or an organza bag, tied with white, blue or pink ribbon, is the default British christening favour, borrowed from the Italian confetti custom that also runs through British weddings. The custom explains the five as wishes for the child: health, wealth, happiness, fertility and long life. That is folklore, not doctrine.
A few other British and Irish habits are worth knowing before you order:
- The cake. Some families keep the top tier of the parents' wedding cake for the christening. A charming custom and nothing more.
- Silver goes to the child. Spoons, bracelets, mugs and keepsake boxes are gifts for the baby, never favours for the table.
- Place settings, not a pile. Favours are laid at each seat rather than heaped on a side table. Guests take what is in front of them and walk past what is not.
- Sponsors and godparents. Parish paperwork often says sponsor while everyone in the room says godparent. Same people, same role.
What American families expect from baptism favors
In an American Catholic parish, the word printed in the bulletin is baptism. The sacrament usually happens after a Sunday Mass, or at a scheduled afternoon rite with several families at once, and the party that follows tends to run larger and later than a British christening tea. Backyards, parish halls and restaurant back rooms carry most of them.
The favors lean religious. Mini rosaries, holy cards, small candles, guardian angel keepsakes and medals do most of the work, usually in an organza bag. Where a British table gets almonds, an American table gets a rosary.
Spanish speaking families in the United States bring a third vocabulary to the same day. They say bautizo, the godparents are padrinos, and the favors are recuerdos, which literally means memories. Recuerdos run more elaborate than British or American favors, and they very often include a candle, because the baptismal candle sits at the center of the rite.
If your instinct is the American vocabulary, our companion guide to baptism favor ideas and how many to order covers the same day in the words most United States parishes use.
Traditional christening favor ideas for guests
Almost every traditional favor does one of three jobs. It feeds the guest, it prays with the guest, or it sits on a shelf and reminds the guest. The strongest ones do two.
- Sugared almonds. Five in tulle or an organza bag. The British and Italian default. Edible, simple to assemble at home, and hard to get wrong.
- Mini rosaries. The American Catholic default. A guest who prays will use it, and a guest who does not will still keep it. Very few people throw a rosary away.
- Holy cards. Flat, light and easy to post to relatives who could not travel. They slide into a wallet and stay there for years.
- Small candles. The closest favor to the rite itself, since every baptism lights a candle from the paschal flame. Our guide to what the baptismal candle means explains the symbolism, and the devotional candles collection covers the sizes that suit a table.
- Guardian angel keepsakes. Pins, small figures and medals. They read as gentle rather than devotional, which suits a mixed guest list.
- Seed packets, soaps and small treats. The secular option when half the room is not Catholic.
The child's own items belong to a different list. The gown, the white garment and the baptismal candle are for the newly baptized, not the guests, and our baptism kit collection gathers that side of the day.
How many christening favors are needed
Count the reception, not the church. Plenty of people come to the service and go home afterward, especially at a parish that baptizes several children at once, and favors laid out for guests who never arrive are money left on a table.
- Start with adults on the reception list. One favor per adult is the standard assumption in both countries.
- Decide about children before you order. Some families give a favor to every child, some give none, some give one per household. All three are normal. Rosaries, medals and small figures are not suitable for very young children, so choose something without small parts.
- Add the people who are not on the list. The priest or deacon, the sacristan, a musician, whoever took the photographs. Four or five extras covers most of them.
- Add a cushion of about 10 percent. Somebody always brings a partner nobody counted, and a few favors get crushed or dropped.
- Round up to the packaging unit. Favors are usually sold in bags of 12, 24 or 50, so the real question is which box size lands just above your number.
For a christening with 40 adults at the meal: 40, plus 5 extras, plus a cushion of 4, so 49, which means a box of 50. Larger celebrations and shops assembling favors for other families tend to buy at wholesale quantities instead.
How to choose souvenirs for christening tables
Three questions settle most of the decision.
Does it survive the journey home? A favor lives in a coat pocket or a car door for hours. Glass, wax in a hot car and fragile clasps do not all make it back.
Does it suit the room? A mixed congregation is normal at a christening. Grandparents who go to Mass weekly sit beside cousins who have not been in a church since the last baptism. Candles, almonds and angels travel across that room easily. Rosaries and medals suit a devout family and can feel like homework to everybody else.
Does it match the rite rather than the party? Baptism has a small and specific set of images: water, light, the white garment, oil, the cross. A favor drawn from that set still looks right in a photograph 20 years from now. A favor drawn from this year's party theme will not.
Christening party favors questions and answers
Is a christening the same as a baptism?
Yes. In the Catholic Church, christening and baptism refer to the same sacrament, celebrated with the same rite and equally valid whichever word the family uses. The difference is vocabulary and custom, not theology or validity. The Church has never used only one name for it either: the Catechism explains that the sacrament goes by several names, including Baptism, from the Greek word meaning to plunge or immerse, the washing of regeneration, and enlightenment. Christening is simply the everyday English word that took hold in Britain and Ireland, and it names what the parish register calls a baptism.
What are traditional christening party favors?
By long custom: sugared almonds in tulle, mini rosaries, holy cards, small candles, guardian angel keepsakes, and small crosses or medals. British tables lean toward the almonds, American tables toward the rosaries, and Spanish speaking families toward recuerdos built around a candle. Every one is a custom that grew up around the sacrament rather than a part of it. The rite asks nothing of guests, so a family that skips favors has skipped nothing that matters.
What is the difference between christening favours and favors in spelling and audience?
Favours with a u is the British, Irish, Australian, New Zealand, South African and Canadian spelling. Favors without it is American. The item is the same, so the practical difference is who is searching and what they expect. British and Irish searchers who type christening favours for guests usually have a smaller afternoon gathering in mind and expect almonds. American searchers who type christening party favors, or baptism favors, usually have a bigger party in mind and expect a religious keepsake. Use the spelling your family says.
How many christening favors are needed?
Plan one favor for each adult on the reception list rather than the church list, add roughly 5 extras for clergy, musicians, the photographer and helpers, add a cushion of about 10 percent for unannounced guests and breakages, then round up to the box size you are buying. A christening with 40 adults at the meal lands near 49, which in practice means ordering 50. Decide separately whether children get one, and if they do, avoid anything with small parts.
What do godparents traditionally give at a christening?
Custom points toward a lasting gift for the child rather than anything for the guests: a rosary, a Bible or a children's missal, a medal or small cross, a piece of silver, or the baptismal candle and gown. Those are traditions that vary by family and region. What the Church actually asks of godparents is not a gift at all. The Catechism says that godparents must be firm believers, able and ready to help the newly baptized along the road of Christian life, and calls that role a genuinely ecclesial function shared with the whole community. The rosary is the custom. The company on the road is the job.