Welcome back to the last in my series of gift guides designed to aid the ambitious in completing their holiday shopping before the new liturgical year kicks in this Sunday (a.k.a. Advent).
Below are seven items for all the godparents and children in your life. First and foremost, gifts are not a requirement of becoming a godparent. You don’t need to lavish your godchildren with presents; and parents, your children’s godparents don’t need extra trinkets either. The role of godparent is to help the child grow in their faith alongside the example of their parents. Love, prayers and personal attention are the most important contributions you can make, and they’re all free. You also shouldn’t need a new ceramic mug every year to remind you of this responsibility. If the extent of your relationship with your godchildren or parents is the exchanging of presents on Christmas, you’re missing the point.
However, I know gift giving is a love language, and many godparents and godchildren enjoy giving and receiving gifts. In searching for godparent/child gifts, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with the amount of items and underwhelmed with the selection. How many plaques, frames and mugs does one person need?
Below are seven items I can mostly vouch for; we’ve either given them to our godchidren or our kids’ godparents, or received them ourselves. I’ll note the exceptions.
1. Sacramental Certificates – I’ve bought the one pictured for at least two of my godchildren because I prefer the designs from Trademark Stationary. It’s hard to find other designs though you could probably get one specially designed if you were so inclined. On these certificates, parents can make note of all sacramental milestones. If your godchild is older, Trademark also makes certificates for single sacraments (Confirmation, Matrimony, Holy Orders).
2. Mass Cards, Perpetual Enrollment – My link will take to you Mass cards and Perpetual Enrollment offered by St. John Cantius in Chicago where we’ve purchased from in the past. A Google search will turn up other organizations offering the same. Don’t forget to check at your own parish. Have a Mass said for your godchild on their birthday or the anniversary of their baptism and send them a card to let them know. Send your godparents a Christmas Mass card to let them know they’ll be remembered at Mass throughout the Christmas season.
3. Books – I think books are the perfect gift for any occasion and recipient. As a godparents job is to help supplement the godchild’s religious upbringing, beautiful Catholic picture books are a wonderful addition to any library. As a child gets older saint books or teen catechisms would be the next step. Buying a book could become a tradition. A devotional guide or missal would be a great gift for a godparent. Below I’ve shared three books from Amy Welborn that we’ve given through the year. Amy has a great selection of books for all ages so be sure to check out her whole Amazon page OR order right from her and she’ll even sign it for you.
4. Godfather parody items – I have never given or received any of these items but I REALLY want to. I’m saddened I didn’t discover these items until I was researching for this post.
5. Christmas ornaments – Handmade, Hallmark, with a picture or without, Christmas ornaments are a nice keepsake item that don’t take up a ton of space or gather dust. Again, a yearly ornament would make a great tradition.
6. Gift Certificate – …with one caveat; it needs to be used by godparents and godchildren together. This is a great way for older godchild to keep a close relationship with their godparents. Buy a gift card to say, Barnes and Noble and spend a couple of hours sipping hot cocoa and reading books. Younger kids might enjoy a trip to Chuck E Cheese or an arcade. And who wouldn’t like a trip to the movies? Sometimes distance makes it’s hard, but when possible, let your godchild know you’re a dependable person in their life by spending quality one on one time with them.
7. Icons – This only works if the godchild/parents enjoy iconography (though this might be a way to educate them!) and certainly not something you can buy every year. My husband and I love icons and in a funny twist, wound up buying one for the godparents of our youngest, not knowing they had just purchased an icon for Teddy, from the same vendor. I think it’s helpful for children to have an image of their patron saint and icons do this in a wonderful way through their unique otherworldly design.
What would you add? Let me know in the comments then be sure to link up below! Remember to include a link back to this post so your readers can find the rest of the Quick Takes. I look forward to reading your posts!
I love these ideas! Number 1 is so lovely! Wow, that would be awesome thing to have hanging around the house for each member of the family.
Great ideas! Our youngest got the sacramental certificate for her baptism and it’s beautiful hanging in our home! I’m eyeing those Godfather/Godmother glasses for gifts!
My husband started this tradition with his Godchildren (some of whom are mine too and some of whom are not) and I think it’s just awesome: he gives them one figure from a Fontanini nativity set every year. I LOVE that when they are grown with their own families they’ll have a full nativity set to enjoy. And the kids all look forward to finding out which figure they’re getting each year!
Kelly, you have found some true gems here, I too wish I had found the Godson onesie many years earlier! (By the way I have to mention the elephant in the room – I loved the way you sneaked in there that Annabelle is hosting on the 11th without getting all fancy and using a different font or quotes. Your blog posts do indeed ‘keep it real’ and I love you all the more for it!)
Hi Kelly! Thank you for sharing. I was hoping you might be able to share a gift giving guide for Catholic significant others. I am having a hard time finding gifts for my fiance (he won’t tell me what he wants!). We usually get each other a bunch of little things, usually religious (he’s given me icons and Catholic jewelry before). I loved the calendar that you just recently shared, and I definitely plan on getting that for him. Thank you!