I had mine at a restaurant that had a lovely patio (ambiance) on a Sunday (when it's slow). I worked out a special menu for my guests and everyone had a great time. I paid just under $700 for 26 people (not including alcohol, which was no host.)

At baptism brunch parties, I've seen cross shaped cookies, a cross shaped wreath/flower arrangement. Would be a good opportunity to have guests write blessings in a book of some sort. Pictures with baby in his/her Sunday best with guests of honor... Just a few thoughts for you :)

We also took everyone out to lunch afterwards at a nice restaurant that had a lot of natural light and sort of upscale rustic (think farmhouse) furniture/decor, but it was family only + the priest (a total of 12 people). It made it really easy. For May, I might do a spring theme if you don't want to go with the traditional white. If you wanted to do favors, you could do packets of seeds or small plants, do flowering plants as the centerpieces, etc. I like the idea of a blessing book for the baby.

I always find the greatest stuff at hostessblog.com

I agree with doing the party at a restaurant. You'll be too busy with the baby and visiting with relatives to want to do anything too complicated. We reserved a big table at our favorite restaurant, and paid the bill for all our guests (about 20 people total, all close friends and family). It was easy, fun and stress-free!

We actually had our celebration the night before. This allowed for us to celebrate into the evening, have family and friends come and go, and let everyone visit with baby O without her feeling overwhelmed right after church.

Because of this, we had a lot more time to prepare and chose to do our traditional scandinavian smorgie. It was great, and allowed for munchies all evening. We then took a cake to church for coffee hour after service.

We have had our baptism parties either at home or in our church's parish hall. In either case, the key word is catered. Last year, for my daughter's baptism party/anniversary of my son's baptism, we hired a juggler because my older child loves juggling. For the first couple of years, though, we focused on the season and nearest feast day themes. May is a great season for flowers, and if your child is going to be baptized on a Feast day, you can theme the party around the saints/church season nearest. For instance, my children were baptized on or near the feast of St. Michael and All Angels, so we had an angel costume party one year, with small icons of angels as prizes. I agree with the cross shaped or decorated cake/cookies.

Baptisms are really special one time events, so catering is my best advice. You want to be able to spend your time going over the top on one special part of the celebration, not worrying about dishing out food for the extra church folk who you may want to invite last minute. (We over ordered for our buffet so we could be spontaneously hospitable, since hospitality is a Christian virtue we want to teach our children.)

Whatever you do will be fine, though. (Whispered: Babies don't remember their first parties.)

A friend of mine just had a 'high tea' party for her son's Christening. Some caterers specialise in high tea parties. In addition to making the lovely food they also provide and setup decorations and tableware. Check out the following link for inspiration. http://antiquitea.com.au/

We kept ours really simple--although we had a lot of guests, we served mainly brunch-y things in the church hall. I made a few simple egg bakes that could be served at room temperature, a fruit salad and then went out and bought bagels, coffee and cake. Everyone had a great time and we were able to do it low cost and low key.

We hired a caterer for our son's baptism, too, and she brought everything to our house while we were at church. We kept it simple with salads and sandwiches since it was in July in Texas. I decorated a bit with pictures of our son throughout his short life (he was 7 months at the time). I say just keep it simple and elegant.

I had a great & simple baptism brunch Mexican-style where everyone in the close family had offered to bring something. We had coffee, pan dulce, a fruit platter, and a bagel buffet with different types of cream cheese and smoked salmon among other toppings. This photography blog includes a short description of a fun tradition where the godparents throw "bolo" money to the kids at the party. http://homepage.mac.com/iiphoto/iblog/C1227350951/E20060515161549/index.html

I'm Greek so baptisms are big. My daughter's baptism had 70 pple at a restaurant with dinner and dancing and an open bar. We did pink and green as a theme and used big glass vases on the table filled with limes. we had pink boubanieries that were shaped like a rose at each table setting. my son's baptism is coming up on may 21 and again 100 people. we are doing a spring-y theme and will be using a natural burlap colored table clothes and blocks of wheatgrass as centerpieces. We are getting that catered at a local ballet studio in a beautiful old building... Did I mention that we are Greek and this isn't considered overboard.