LilMiss has decided she wants to be baptised.
Talked with the pastor, the walls of the church did not collapse when her dad and I entered into his office, and all is well.
My question, silly as it may be, is: Should she wear the typical froufrou white baptismal type dress, or, as she will turn 11 years old that same day, can she wear a “normal” non-white formal dress? Does it have to be a formal dress at all?
Pastor says she can wear jeans if she wants to, he doesn’t care. My mom, OTOH, feels LilMiss should wear a white (even ecru or ivory is pushing it) gown. LilMiss just wants a new dress, preferrably in black from Hot Topic. :rolleyes:
Former Lutheran Sunday School teacher and mom of two teen girls here!
No goth Hot Topic. The silly white froufrou stuff is right out, too. Jeans are pushing the limits of good taste for the occasion.
Think along the lines of an Easter outfit but in fabric and color suitable to the season. We often find stuff at Guess, although not styled quite the way their ads do it.
My younger sister was a little younger than 11 when she was baptised, and she walked up to the front of the church with my parents. (Sis was born when we were living in another city, and since we knew we’d be moving again after some years to Mom’s home town, Mom thought it would be nice to wait and have Sis baptised in the same church as she was.)
Anyway, as I recall things, Sis just wore what she would normally wear to Sunday school–in other words, a nice dress and proper shoes, such as she might also have worn for Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma’s. (I think it may have been brown or burgundy; something like that.) Too dressy for school, but not anything special or frou-frou.
I have no idea about the shops mentioned, but I agree that black Goth and frilly frou-frou are both out.
Not Hot Topic, Not Black.
Also, there’s no need for a gown or formalwear. Just a “nice” outfit. Think picture day clothes, if you got to pick the clothes rather than letting her pick her own, or business casual type clothing (if they made business casual for 11-year-olds) would be fine.
Both of my kids were baptised and confirmed Lutheran. Doe was wearing a diaper when she was baptised (she was still in her incubator!) and Nick wore a frilly white dress (he was 5 months old).
Although I’m an atheist myself, I’ve occasionally gone to church with my family and have seen one non-infant person baptised in the Lutheran church. She just wore ordinary church clothes – dressy slacks or a skirt, I don’t remember which. I wouldn’t recommend black (which is inappropriately funereal, I think, for what is supposed to be a joyful occasion) – but I think a ‘churchy’ (read: fairly modest)dress in pretty much any other shade would be perfect.
My girls were 2 and 4 when we finally got the baptised. Both wore pretty age appropriate dresses. In the case of the 2 year old it was what she calls a “Princerella” dress. Yes they were adorable.
Well, I’m a Baptist, so I was baptized (this past April; I was 17) in a white robe with my bathing suit on under it. I have no idea what the dress guidelines are for not-immersion baptism.
I am assuming this baptism is by pouring, the SOP in pretty much all liturgical churches. So I say, church clothes, whatever that may mean for that church. It’s the Sacrament of Baptism not the clothes that counts after all.