Besides birthdays and wedding anniversaries, I enjoy celebrating the baptism anniversary (or, the baptism birthday) of each of our kids, my husband and myself. I write these dates on the calendar each year so we can keep track of them. Just as we celebrate the day of our birth into the world on our birthdays, it is nice to celebrate the day we became a member of the family of God through our baptism.
Ways to celebrate baptism anniversaries
Celebrating the anniversary of our baptism reminds us again how blessed we are. We are now part of the body of Christ and a member of His Church. We have received graces from God to help us to live our lives well and faithfully. This is a great gift that we have from God and it is good to think of this on the anniversary of our baptism.
Recognize that today is the baptism anniversary.
Tell your child or spouse, “happy baptism birthday.” Make sure they know you remembered, that you know that today is the anniversary of a special day in his or her life.
I always enjoy the smile I receive from our kids when I tell them “happy baptism birthday.” Sometimes I see their eyes roll, too, but they are happy to be acknowledged. This shows them that I am paying attention and that they are special and important to me.
Talk about the day of baptism and things that happened.
There is often a memorable moment (or two) that occurs on the day of a baptism, whether it is a special moment, a serious moment, or a funny one.
Two such moments occurred on the day of our youngest son’s baptism. One special moment was when our son’s Godmother and my Mom dressed him in our family baptismal gown. Another moment from the day is what I call the I-can’t-believe-this-happened moment: I fell over in an outdoor lawn chair (thankfully in a long skirt) while holding our son. We were both uninjured, but it was a nervewracking and memorable moment for sure!
It is fun to reminisce about the day of each of our children’s baptism. It keeps the memories alive and lets our children know how important the day was, not only in their own lives but in the life of our family as well.
Look at photographs and cards from that day.
My youngest brother offered to take pictures during our middle son’s baptism. It was so nice of him to offer. It was great to have a designated photographer! He took a lot of great photographs and they bring us joy every time we look at them.
Each of our children has photographs from their baptism in a photo album, so they are easy to get to when we want to look at them.
We have a gift bag for each of our children with gifts and cards from their baptism. Periodically, we will pull them out and look through them. It is nice to reminisce and reread the notes, blessings, and prayers from our friends and family.
Make a dessert or have a favorite food.
This is always a favorite thing to do! Who doesn’t like a favorite dinner or dessert?
We enjoy doing this for our birthdays, and our baptism anniversary celebrates our birthday in the Church, so why not do this for our baptism birthday? It is another way to make the day special and show it’s significance.
When we take celebrating our baptism birthday this seriously, it helps our kids to understand the significance of the day of their baptism.
Say thank you to God for the gift of our Baptism.
“How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good He has done for me?” (Psalm 116:12) Indeed. We can begin by saying, “Thank you” to God.
We can say a prayer of thanksgiving, spend some more time with God in prayer, read the Bible, go to Mass, or do an act of service for someone.
The ways in which we can say thank you to God are endless. Think of something that will be meaningful to you and that will be a good way to show your gratitude to God for the blessing of your baptism.
Make a plan.
If you don’t already celebrate them, how will you plan to celebrate baptism anniversaries in your family? Make a plan, then put that plan into action.
Summary
- Recognize that today is the anniversary of your family member’s baptism.
- Talk about the day of the baptism and things that happened.
- Look at photographs and cards from that day.
- Make a dessert or have a favorite food.
- Say thank you to God for the gift of our Baptism.
Great tips for Grandparents too!
Sharing our memories with our grandchildren, helps us influence the importance of our Catholic faith. Another special day we love them and guide them to Christ.
Yes! That is so important. Thank you for sharing it. Grandparents have a huge influence on their grandkids.
How awesome that you do this. I have no idea of the dates, unless I would look them up. Actually a more important day than our birth. Kudos to you!!!! Jan
I am glad you like the idea. You can look up your baptismal dates. My husband and I did that. We had the baptismal dates for our kids on our calendar for years before we added our own!