Christening Gifts

In the Roman Catholic Church, most of those born into the faith are baptized as infants. The traditional clothing for a child being baptised into the Roman Catholic faith is a christening gown, a very long, white infants' garment now mythical especially for the ceremony of christening and occasionally only worn then. They are in experience the normal, or at least "best", outer clothing of Western babies until about the 19th century.

The moment of progression to shorter dresses (for both boys and girls) was familiar as "shortcoating", which Christening Gifts presumably coincided with the induction of walking, which was impossible in a enlarged robe. Christening gowns are mostly unreal of fine white place mat or cotton fabric, and may be trimmed with tucks, lace, whitework embroidery, and other handwork. Christening gowns often have matching bonnets, and may become family heirlooms, given to generation after generation.