won't be christening our baby /naming day

[LylaLils]

Not sure if I'm posting in the right place. I come from a catholic background but am agnostic leaning towards atheism. No way I want to christen my child.

This will prob cause friction in the family. Has anyone had any similar experiences?

Similarly, has anyone held a naming day for LO, what did you do to celebrate? Was thinking nothing formal, just a party to celebrate this new life.

None of us were baptised. The religiously observant half of the family was a bit miffed, but it caused no lasting repercussions. My grandmother marked our namings in her own (very sweet) way, and that was that.

I think a naming ceremony is a lovely idea. You can just do the bit that comes after a christening, so you'll have your memories; and the traditionalists will have a whinge to each other, then pose for photos and get over it!

We're both atheists from religious families. With absolutely no judgement implied of others who do this, we found the idea of a naming ceremony a bit.... earnest.... but still wanted to have a little gathering / party.

We called it a "welcome to the world" party. We held it one Sunday in August. Invited people to meet us in the local park, strung some trees with bunting and balloons, laid on some sandwiches and cheap fizz and asked everyone to bring and share picnic food. The only ceremonial thing we did was cut a cake. It was one of my favourite days ever and lots of people said how much they enjoyed it too.

Thanks for replies. Party in the park sounds perfect. We defo don't want anything ceremonial, no speeches, no elected "godparent" equivalent (the arguments this would've caused, thank goodness I don't have to chose) ... Just an excuse for a party and get together really. And the religious folk will just have to grin and bear it. And slag us off ha ha we're going to Hell etc

Hi Lyla - I'm a naming celebrant. The advice I would give is to keep any formal bits short. If you don't want to do anything formal then perhaps just organising a toast to the new life so that it isn't just a party but has the naming as a definite theme?