3 Venues to Consider for Hosting an All Saints Day Party

For years now, our family has been enjoying All Saints Day parties with friends, but we have not always been able to do so at the same location. So, flexibility has been key!

We've been able to adapt our plans to three basic spaces:

1. Indoor areas, such as halls and gyms

2. Homes, such as when a friend graciously hosted a small All Saints Day party for several families who were sick on the day of our local homeschool group's party)

3. Parks, such as when we enjoyed a potluck pincic and play All Saints Day Party

Each of these spaces has its perks and drawbacks.

Of course, having your party at a hall or gym means you'll have plenty of space to set up games, food, prizes, and more. However, somtimes, there is a rental fee, and, always, there is more behind-the-scenes organization, set up, and clean up that needs to happen.

Hosting your party in a home can reduce the need for as much behind-the-scenes organzation and potential rental costs, but can also mean fewer people can partake in the fun and one family tyoically ends up bearing the burden of extra work. For, let's face it: even if others help with set up, facilitation, clean up, etc., those that live in the home always end up with extra pre- and post- party tasks.

Parks offer more show-and-go ease for hosting your All sints Day party, so long as you have dependable people to bring games, activites, food, etc.

Also, bear in mind that weather happens. So, set a rain/bad weather date.

Further, recognize that other park goers may wonder what you are doing or ask to join in. (Consider it an evangelization opportunity!)

I'd love to hear your favorite venues for hosting All Saints Day parties. Be sure to comment with your ideas and tips.

You might also want to click through to find ideas for costumes, eats, games, books, and more related to All Saints Day.

Saints in Heaven, pray for us.

4 Favorite Books to Help with Saint Pictionary at Your All Saints Day Party

All Saints Day is nearing, so I have been busy deciding what games, activities, and eats to revisit at our (almost) annual All Saints Day party.

This week, I've been thinking about how fun our 2019 group All Saints Pictionary game was for young and old alike. So, before I go dig through our saint books to find my favorite four to set aside for playing this game again this year, I thought I would share the titles with you.  That way, if you'd like to order or get ahold of them before your own All Saints Day party, you can.

{Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.}

1. For Female Saints

Girl Saints for Little Ones by Kimberly Fries has big, colorful images, large-font, and brief text. It also includes some ideas for symbols in it. Thus, it made a perfect book for opening to a random page to give Pictionary illustrators ideas for a aint if they could not come up with any themselves.

2. For Male Saints

Boy Saints for Little Ones by Kimberly Fries (which I have previously reviewed) is just as ideal for all the same reasons. Of course, as the title indicates, it has male saints in it.

3. For Quick Facts and Ideas

Encyclopedia of Peg Doll Saints by Maggie Jetty (which I have previously reviewed) lists ample random facts about saints on each page in call out boxes which makes gleaning ideas for quick sketching easy.

4. A Classic!

Picture Book of Saints by Lawrence G. Lvasik is a classic chidlren's saint book which has an imag,e short biogrpahy, and prayer per page. With m,any aints in it, this one was the book most of the older chidlren who played chose to use for their sketching inspiration.

How to Play

To play All Saints Pictionary, I called a group of chidolren and adults around a white baord easel with a stack of saint books next to it.

I asked one child to come up, open to random page of a picture book, then, using the image or ideas on the page- and, somtimes, an additional whispered idea from me - the child sketched the saint, symbols of the saint, stories about the saint, or what the saint was patron to get others to guess the saint.

Whoever guessed correctly, chose a prize and took the next turn.

More Ideas

If you'd likemore ideas for your All Saints Day party, click through to find prior posts on costumes, games, and eats, and enjoy archives of older All Saints Day posts, too!

Saints in Heaven, pray for us.

8 Easy Eats for Your All Saints Day Party

There are so many meals, snacks, and treats that can be made for All Saints Day.

In fact, if you want an idea, you could pick just about anything shared on Catholic Cuisine, peruse our past sharing of Simple Eats with the Saints, borrow an idea from Snacking with the Saints, or browse Pinterest.

You can also take a peak at these eight easy eats that have been served at All Saints Day parties we've attended through the years.

Mind you, our parties are often thrown togther fairly last-minute by busy moms who have too much going on, so you won't find picture-perfect set ups in the photos - just quick, easy ideas.

1. St. Thomas Fingers

Mini-franks were heated and put in a crock. Kids devoured them!

2. St. Bernadette's Sticks

We love bringing these, because they can be gluten-free and eveyrone likes them. 

Find a printable signfor this along with other snakcs here.

3. St. Maria's Stew

A crock of stew warms everyone up. Use your favorite recipe or the one here, and find a printable signfor this along with other snakcs here.

4. Blood of the Martyrs

Juice wigglers made like the orange juice ones described here, but with red 100% juice instead of orange juice, always go in a flash!

5. Saint Halo's

When you have Portuguese friends, their cookies become halos!

6. St. Francis' Friends



Who doens't like animal crackers? You can even find gluten-free ones.

7. St. Therese's "Carmel"ite Apples

Sure, they brown quickly if you don't shake them in lemon juice, ut sliced apples and caramel are always a hit!

8. St. Isidore's Bounty

It's alwasy good to have whole foods to balance the treats, so a tray of favorite produce is a must most years!

What are some of your favorite simple eats for All Saints Day parties? Do share them with us by posting them as comments or on our Facebook page. Thank you so much!

Saints in Heaven, pray for us.

5 Favorite All Saints Day Games

October is upon us, which means All Saints Day is just around the corner. 

As I look forward to this year's All Saints Day party, I asked my children what their favorite All Saints Day party game or activity was throughout the years and thought about what others ones I should bring back this year.

I share them here in case you, too, are looking forward to an All Saints Day party and want some ideas.

1. Throw Satan Out of Heaven

My youngest child said, "the one where we through things off a ladder". He means our St. Michael game, which happens to be one of the first saint games we ever made and one we have played many times throughout the years.

It's super simple to play: just cover a ladder or stepstool with a blueish cloth to be "heaven", then have kiss toss a snake (Satan) toy as far as they can into "brambles" below.

Everyone at our parties has always enjoyed this game! You can find a free pritnable for it here.

2. Balance St. Thomas Aquinas' Books

My daughter said "the one where we balance books", which has been a perennial favorite of many of our repeat party goers.

Basically, kids walk across a board or low balance beam with books on their heads.

A tip if you use this game - don't use treasured books, because the binding can break as they fall off chidlren's heads.

You can find a free printable for it here.

3. All Saints Day Treats in a Jar Guessing Game

My eldest son said, "the one where I won the coins!"

He meant the candy jar guessing activity that friends often prepare for our parties based on ideas from Catholic Inspired, Catholic Icing, and Shower of Roses - three fantastic Catholic blogs!

4.  St. Anthony Seek and Find

My favorite - just because it always engages younger and older children alike and has a sensory element to it, is St. Anthony's Seek and Find.

For it, I put various beans into a container and hide small objects, such as religious medals, in them. Kids try to find all the objects before resetting the game for the next players.

Kids have enjoyed this one for years!

5. Serve with the Inspiration of St. Kateri

Finally, several parents at a past party told me we need to make our Serve with the Inspiration of St. Kateri activity an annual one. 

Admittedly, not all the kids like this activity, but some do - and it gets things cleaned up.

Basically, it is a clean up scavenger hunt. You can find a free printable for it here.

More Ideas!

If you'd like ideas for other games, you can find tons of them in our All Saints Day archives. Also, please feel free to share your own - with links, photos, or whatever - in a comment here or on our Facebook page.

Saints in Heaven, pray for us.

Go with Ease for All Saints Day Costumes - Nearly a Decade of Simple Costumes Revisited

How is it nearly October? 

I have no idea, but I do know October is likely to fly as quickly as the past weeks and months have, so, today, I thought I would share some of our past All Saints Day costumes to get you and yours brainstorming about what your children might wear a month from now.

Mind you, we are not about picture-perfect costumes here. Rather, we go for no-sew, buy-as-little-as-possible, sometimes-last-minute, use-the-kids'-creative ideas costumes.

2011

Photos from our first All Saints Day parties have been (hopefully, temporarily) lost to hard drive failures on old computers. But, I do have a few snaps of our 2011 costumes.

My eldest child is the one in brown here. he wore Daddy's old military tee shirts with a rope around them as a brown monk costume to be St. Jerome.

My youbgest wore a lion costume - borrowed and tested at a family party - as his big brother "St. Jerome"'s lion.

Meanwhile, my daughter used doctor kit toys, a lab coat, and a baby doll to be St. Gianna.

2012

One day I pray I can recover our 2012 All Saints Day photos. When I do, I will try to remember to come back and update here. 

Until then, I do have this photo of my son with his homemade St. Michael costume on.

Plus, I can share that I think my daughter was St. Mary, using a cloak and tablecloths and carrying a baby doll and my youngest was symbolically (an oh so cute as!) St Luke with a hand-me-down horse costume fashioned into a winged ox one.

2013

We were sick for our local homeschool groups All Saints Day party, so we had a belated one with friends that year. 

"St. George" wore dollar store armor with taped on crosses and a red cloth cape.  He carried a weapon and even has a small dragon figurine (which cannot be seen in the picture) to represent the dragon legend says he slayed.

"St. Nina" wore the colors the saint is traditionally pictured in (a red dress, a blue tablecloth for a cape and a white lace tablecloth for a veil.)  She carried a "grapevine" cross and a scroll.

"St. Michael" wore an oversized tee shirt as a tunic, dollar store armor and homemade wings. He carried a dollar store weapon.

For the angel wings, we took a pair of broken Dollar Tree fairy wings and upcycled them.  First, we taped on a white cardstock cut out of an angel wing shape to the elastic arm bands.  Then, using "fancy" scissors, we cut out a bunch of feather shapes, which we glued on in layers.

2014

We enjoyed All Saints Day in a Catholic school gym.

A lab coat, babydoll, and toy stethoscope made me St. Gianna.

My eldest chose to use a tee shirt, the skirt of a dress, red cloth, Dollar Tree armor and a broomstick with homemade symbol attached to become St. Michael.

My daughter sported a hand-me-down velvet dress and cape with a little veil she put together, plus homemade fake flowers in a basket to be St. Elizabeth of Hungary.

My youngest wore an old white tee shirt made tunic over sweat pants and a sweat shirt, taped up dollar store armor, and a red cloth as a cape, plus used a dollar store sword to become St. George.

2015

This was the year that one of my children wore my favorite All Saints Day costume to date.

An old bridesmaid dress and fur stole easily helped me be St. Elizabeth of Hungary.

An oversized tee shirt tunic, belt, red cloth cape, and homemade duct tape battle weapons, helmet, and armor transformed my proud son into St. Mercurius. (He was determined to find a new saint that used a sword and was delighted to find one who used two!)

My favorite to date: St. Elizabeth (with St. John the Baptist, too)! My daughter wore a hand me down dress with an faux belly (laughably repurposed from a huge stuffed bra that my sister made one year when being Dolly Parton for Halloween), plus cloths and table cloths for cloak and veil.

And with no year here seemingly complete without St. George or St. Michael, my youngest used an oversized tees shirt tunic, rope belt, cloth cape, dollar tree armor with duct tape crosses, and duct tape battle weapon to be St. George.

2016

We enjoyed good weather at a local parish hall with just the eating inside.

I wore an old bridesmaid dress, a fur shawl and another shawl atop that, plus carried a basket with flowers and bread to be St. Elizabeth of Hungary.

My eldest wore a blue ao dai from my VietNam travel days with part of a silk outfit from my other Aisa travel days atop it, then used a feather and book as props to become St. Luke.

My daughter chose to layer tablecloths and other cloth over a dress and to carry a handmade "grapevine cross' and scroll to be St. Nina (also known as St. Nino)

My youngest went with St. George again using homemade armor over a hand-me-down armor costume tunic with a red cloth cape and homemade duct tape battle weapon sword as a prop

 

2017

We have lost our photos from 2017, but a friend gave me some, and, in them, you can see me with my ususal St. Gianna costume on.

My eldest child can be seen passing by in the background with an old angel costume gown and various cloths layered as a St. Peter costume to which he tied large cardboard keys he had painted. 

My daughter (in the red and white) went easy with a dress and stole as St. Elizabeth. 

My youngest reprised his St. Luke symbolic costume, cracking us upas the winged ox made from a horse costume.

2018

We were blessed to be able to celebrate both inside and out at a church hall with a Marian garden nearby.

I could not find a picture with me in it, but, for the record, I went with my standby St Gianna costume again.

My eldest son wore fake chainmail he had purchased for other purposes with a belt and  red cloth cape, held his two duct tape battle weapon swords, and happily became St. Mercurius again for the day.

My daughter chose to wear the flower girl dress that her cousin had worn at my wedding and to put together a basket of flowers and bread to be St. Elizabeth of Hungary again.

My youngest layered some dollar store armor over a hand-me-down medieval tuniccostume, then ticked in a red cloth cape and grabbed his trusty duct tape battle weapons sword to be St. George again.

2019

Since we got on finding a host location too late and could not find an inside venue, we had a potluck All Saints Day Picnic and Party, so opted to create costumes that were easy to move and play outside in and also could be layered pending the day's weather.

St. George, of course made a comeback for my Middle Ages loving eldest son who had bought faux chainmail and a mock sword earlier in the year.

I went with my long-time standby, St. Gianna, again.

My daughter tossed together a St. Zita, patron saint of domestic servants and homemakers costume using a simple skirt, apron, cloak, and broom.

My youngest son decided to be St. Jose Sanchez del Rio, modeling his clothing and a homemade prop off of typical saint card photos of the saint.

And, my husband, who is not the costume type, went with nknown Saints in Heaven by sporting a duct tape question mark on the front and back of his shirt.

2020

Sadly, 2020's party - which was scheduled to be outdoors at a friend's farm due to the pandemic - got canceled due to weather.

I'd also LOVE to see pictures of you past costumes. Do share them with us by posting them as comments or on our Facebook page. Thank you so much!

For more All Saints Day inspiration and ideas, enjoy clicking through to scroll our All Saints Day archives.

Saints in heaven, pray for us!