Christening/Naming Day - Is it expected?

[Boomerwang]

I'm not religious, although I was christened as a baby as apparently it was the 'done thing' at the time.

I've read here about Naming Days which is clearly a non religious celebration of a baby's birth.

My question is that if we just ignore the whole thing, would that be unusual? I can't help thinking that a naming day is just an excuse for a bash (which isn't a bad thing).

I don't think it's unusual these days.

Wouldn't occur to me to have such a day, so not unusual for me

I haven't bothered yet, though will christen dc's at some point.

I was just wondering this, as DP and I aren't married and our two families haven't really met each other - mum and MIL met for the first time when I was in hospital having DD! That's really the only reason I would do it, DD won't know either way and I don't see the need.

Both myself and my DH were christened because it was the 'done thing', so we had a pang of guilt that we should do the 'right thing' by our parents and grandarents, we also felt we should in some way mark the occasion.

But as time went on it really didn't seem that important, it felt a bit poncey to be having a naming day and we definatley were not religious enough to have a christening.

I think ignoring the whole thing is a good idea if you feel ambivalent about it. I have been to 2 christenings and those were for my sister's children, but I would say on the whole about 90% of the people I know have not had any event for their baby.

We had a naming for DD which we did ourselves as we are both naming/handfasting celebrants anyway. It's a nice way to 'officially' welcome a baby to the world and family.

We didn't do christenings as I'm atheist and DH is lapsed Catholic. Didn't do a naming ceremonies either as we didn't seem to get round to it and neither of us felt that strongly about it.

In my family it is. We're all atheists so for my generation it'll be naming ceremony rather than Christening but my family would be horrified if I didn't throw a party. Ok maybe not horrified but they'd really appreciate it.

I'll invite friends but won't be bothered if they're not interested.

We had a big family do for both dds first birthdays instead. DH does go to church and take the children but he is the only one in the family on either side. So we decided to leave christening/baptism untill they could decided for themselves.

DH and I are not Christians so we did not have our children christened and it never occurred to us to have any sort of non-religious naming ceremony.

We didn't do either. No one's said anything. We're thinking of having a 1st birthday party instead.