Funeral Info
Choosing a Casket
Don't limit yourselves to a funeral home's casket display room. Thousands of casket choices are available on the World Wide Web.
Most caskets can be shipped to any U.S. location in a day or two. Really, you don't have to purchase a casket from a funeral home. The law requires funeral homes to receive, store (for a reasonable time), and use the casket you've purchased online.
Traditional Caskets are usually made of metal or wood and are lined with fabric.
Green Caskets are designed to biodegrade quickly and naturally when buried. Usually made from plain wood, cardboard or papier mache.
Cremation Caskets are designed as a simple container for the body before the cremation process. These caskets are usually made of plain wood or cardboard.
Themed Caskets are designed and decorated to reflect loved activities or interests like baseball, Star Trek, or a branch of the military.
Oversized Caskets are designed for people who require more room. Most companies have caskets in a variety of sizes.
Child and Infant Caskets are something we hate to think about, but these are a real need for some families. Most caskets come in a variety of sizes for young people. Some companies specialize in small caskets. Several companies in England have designed child and infant caskets decorated with bright images of butterflies or rainbows.
Plain Wood Caskets exist for a simple ending, a green burial or a Jewish burial. Many people find meaning in purchasing a plain wood casket and decorating it themselves or with a group of friends or family.
Build-it-yourself Casket Kits provide instructions and materials for building your own wood casket.
Burial Shrouds are an alternative to caskets. They are perfect for a green burial.
A word about Burial Vaults or Grave Liners
A burial vault is essentially a large box made of concrete. Originally developed to deter grave robbers in the late 18th century, vaults are sold today as necessary to keep the ground from sinking and markers from moving. For many years, this kind of settling was dealt with by mounding extra dirt atop a grave and renovating the soil. No state or federal laws require the use of a vault, though a cemetery can insist that one be used. Americans annually bury 1.6 million tons of reinforced concrete in the form of vaults.