Our Services
Christensen-Van Houten Funeral Homes offers many different services. At our funeral homes, we explain the many different options in personalizing your service then allowing you to make your own decisions. Our training and experience have prepared us to guide you through a very difficult time. We are committed to providing meaningful ceremonies to help you honor and remember the one you have lost with a personalized service or for preplanning your own funeral.
The type of funeral you choose maybe determined by your religion and cultural traditions, cost and personal preferences. These factors help determine if the service is private or public, simple or elaborate, religious or secular, and where it will be held. It will also influence whether the body will be present at the funeral, if there will be a viewing or visitation, and if so, whether the casket will be open or closed, and whether the remains will be buried or cremated.
We offer a wide range of options to families who call upon us. From simple burial and cremation to full visitation, we can help you arrange services that are meaningful and affordable. Some of the services to choose from include:
- The Traditional Funeral Service generally includes calling hours or a private family visitation period, followed by a service in your church or in the funeral home, concluded by interment or cremation.
- A Graveside Service is generally a more simple service held at the gravesite of your cemetery with clergy, family, and friends present. Our staff will make all necessary arrangements with cemetery personnel, clergy, and florist on your behalf.
- Cremation has become an increasingly common option for families. We offer an array of affordable cremation services, including visitation and services prior to cremation, cremation followed by a memorial or graveside service, or the most basic service with no other memorialization.
Regardless of what service you or your family may select, our funeral directors and staff listen to your requests and fulfill them with utmost in care and dignity, with exceptional attention to detail.
You may have heard that choosing cremation means you cannot have a traditional funeral service, but that simply is not true. You still have the ability to add thoughtful, personal touches and memorial observances to honor and remember a loved one. For those preferring cremation, many options are available.
Among the decisions to consider if choosing cremation is, will there be a service for viewing before the cremation? A wake or visitation hours can be arranged just as they are for earth burial. Although a casket is not required for cremations, if a viewing is chosen before the cremation, a casket can be rented or one that is combustible can be purchased. Cremation can be considered as and end in itself, but most families feel the remains should have a final resting place that can be identified with names and dates. Many urns are available for permanent containment of the cremated remains.
No matter what the service type, it should reflect the person who has died. Photographs, special music, a favorite toy, article of clothing to a favorite baseball glove can be incorporated into the funeral service to make it more meaningful. Our funeral home offers:
- Color laser jet photo reproduction and design on service folders.
- Many different styles of casket inserts.
- Tribute Videos.
- Memorial Picture Boards.
- Customized Markers and Monuments.
These albums on DVD are a beautiful way to share the story of your loved one. Our specialty is transforming your precious and memorable photos into an emotional slideshow to be presented at the funeral home during visitation. A few photos and some simple instructions from you will give us a custom-made video to fit your loved ones personality and a way to pay great tribute to them.
Christensen-Van Houten Funeral Homes is pleased to offer a full array of markers and monuments to help you choose a fitting memorial for yourself or a loved one. Utilizing our years of experience in identifying quality and value, we have partnered with a highly respected granite supplier to offer a large selection of markers and monuments in many colors and designs.
We offer permanent memorials for all budgets and price ranges and also offer you the opportunity to view a computer-generated rendition of your marker or monument to ensure accuracy and allow you to see the design for your total satisfaction with every detail.
Choosing a memorial is a very personal decision. You should feel secure that your need for quality, variety, value, and price are fully addressed. Contact our monument specialist, Doug Van Houten, at 712-364-2727 for further information.
