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!

Sensing the Saints from Divine Mercy Sunday through St. Catherine of Sienna's Feast Day

This week is chock full of fabulously famous feast days - as well as a few lesser known ones - which make it easy to weave plenty of sensory-smart faith experiences into life and learning.

Since learning about and celebrating the saints is an avocation of mine, I was excited to take time over the past few days to browse books and websites about saints whose feast days are this week and, then, to brainstorm ideas for sprinkling saint-connected activities into each and every upcoming day.  In case you like doing the same, I thought I'd share the fruits of my labor.  (Not that it was really labor to put these ideas together.  For me, it is fun, fun, fun to do!)

Divine Mercy(the Sunday after Easter) and St. George (4/23)

Without question, Divine Mercy Sunday is a day to spend some extra time before or after Mass chatting about Divine Mercy and, perhaps, praying the chaplet. 

In our family, it is also a time to get our taste buds in on the celebration.  This morning, my daughter helped us make a simple breakfast to remind us of the Divine Mercy image:  a heart-shaped piece of french toast with red and blue berries streaming from it.

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Over breakfast, we prayed and read "St. Mary Faustina Kowalska: A Hero Finds Hope in Mercy" in our Loyola Kids Book of Heroes. We also chatted a bit about the Divine Mercy image that St. Faustina saw and about the history of the original painted image.

Later, we followed up on our breakfast chat by letting the children choose between beginning to listen to The Necessity of Divine Mercy or 7 Secrets of Divine Mercy in our minivan while on the way to an event.  They chose the former, which will be our travel time listening for the early part of the week.

Then, this evening, viewed the trailer for The Original Image of Divine Mercy: A Documentary (and all want to see the whole thing!)

Before that, though, we took a side step into honoring today as the traditional day for celebrating St. George.

For dinner, my daughter helped me create a reprise of some of dishes we enjoyed last year with friends.

 

This year, our table looked like this:

After grace and reading "St. George" from the Picture Book of Saints, the children dug in with their sword picks.  Meanwhile, I continued reading "St George, Martyr" from In His Likeness and "Saint George" from Saints for Young People for Every Day of the Year - of which give more factual accounts of St. George than the typical St. George and the dragon legend.

I particularly liked how in Saints for Young People for Every Day of the Year, the dragon story was explained symbolically with the dragon standing for wickedness and the lady for holy truth.  There was also a reflection which stated:

We all have some "dragon" we have to conquer.  It might be pride or anger or laziness or greediness or something else.  Let us make sure we fight against these "dragons", with God's help.  Then we can call ourselves real soldiers for Christ.

Since my children were all busy stabbing our food dragon when I read this reflection, we gave it only cursory thought.  Later in the week, I think we may revisit the idea, then.

Speaking of revisiting, we will also likely revisit some other St. George readings we've enjoyed in past years as reading later in the week, since we opted to read some American history at bedtime.  So, ready in our book basket are:

• Saint George and the Dragon
• "St. George" from the Story Library of Saints (This book is out of print, but so worth picking up if you can find a copy.  Plus if you ever find a copy of Volume 3, let me know.  I am still searching for it!)
• "St. George" from our Loyola Kids Book of Saints

St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen (4/24)

St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen is a new-to-us saint, so we'll likelyread excerpts about him from In His Likeness and Saints for Young People for Every Day of the Year.  We may also listen to brief audio about him on the Franciscan Media website or view this short homily about him on YouTube:

 

Then, after reading about St. Fidelis in Saints for Young People for Every Day of the Year, we'll think about this idea, from page 182 of the book:

It is a great honor to be able to help others come back to Jesus, back to the Church.  Let us try, by prayer, good example and kind words, to be real apostles.

Most likely, we'll then pause to pray for the conversion and reversion of specific friends and family and will also chat about ways we might proclaim our faith without fear. 

We may also consider what Pope Benedict XIV said at St. Fidelis' canonization about how he:

"...practiced the fullness of charity in bringing consolation and relief to his neighbors as well as strangers... comforted widows and orphans... was always helping prisoners...showed constant zeal in visiting and comforting the sick..." and tirelessly preached the Catholic faith.

Undoubtedly, this will inspire proprioception and vestibular input as we move about the house gathering things for the needy or take a walk to go visit and help some neighbors.

We may also do some copywork using quotes from St. Fidelis:

It is because of faith that we exchange the present for the future.

Woe to me if I should prove myself but a halfhearted soldier in the service of my thorn-crowned Captain.

St. Mark (4/25)

St. Mark's feast day will bring more prayer, reading, learning, picture study, and reflection to our home, as well as gustatory delight!  Much like last year, we'll likely enjoy eating a vegetable dip winged lion.

We may even share a luncheon with friends, to include a "quill" penne and "martyr red" tomato dish inspired by one described at Catholic Cuisine and a gluten-free recipe at Vega-licious.

Among our readings may be:

• a page about St Mark in Prayers to My Favorite Saints, Part 2 (which will encourage us to revisit yesterday's reflection about spreading the Good News of Jesus through words and actions)
• a short biography and prayer about St. Mark the Evangelist in the Picture Book of Saint
• the St. Mark, Evangelist pages in In His Likeness
• St. Mark the Evangelist from Saints for Young People for Every Day of the Year

Our Lady of Good Counsel and Venerable Nano Nagle (4/26)

We received a cute little Our Lady of Good Counsel peg doll in a Marian Peg Doll Swap I participated in, so she will grace our table from the earliest hours of the feast day of Our Lady of Good Counsel along with an Our Lady of Good Counsel prayer card. 

Then, in the evening, we'll add some blue and white candles and a blue and white breakfast-for-dinner meal to the table (in honor of Our Lady), which we will enjoy as I read about Our Lady of Good Counsel in Saints for Young People for Every Day of the Year and, perhaps, online at  Augustinian Friends and Tradition in Action.  A picture study or art creation may be in order, too, depending on how exhausted we are from a busy day we already have scheduled.

If we do happen to have energy, we may also focus on another new-to-me Venerable Nano Nagle, who you can hear about here if she is new to you, too:

If that happens, for fun, after reading about Nano as a child, we might just go outside for some great "heavy work" climbing trees and take some late lessons outside, too, as inspired by hearing about hedge schools.

We also might pray a prayer I found in a pdf at Presentation Primary Listowl's site and chat about the idea that "the pattern of (Nano's) life was the movement from action or service to contemplation and back again to action or service" as described at the Nano Nagle website.

St. Zita and St. Peter Canisius (4/27)

Thursday is previously scheduled to be a busy day here, too. However, it won't be too busy to do some housework cheerfully and prayerfully, to set aside alms for the poor, and to have some bread (and maybe even make some ) in honor of St. Zita, who we will read about in More Once Upon a Time Saints and, also, perhaps in the story The Saint-Maid of Lucca at the Baldwin Project and the pdf at The Real Presence.

We might also read about St. Peter Canisius in Saints for Young People for Every Day of the Year and at Aquinas and More, along with seeing if the children can figure out which line from the Hail Mary is not from the Bible, but is attributed to St. Peter Canisius and also, perhaps, reviewing some extra catechism together in honor of the saint.

St. Peter Chanel and St, Louis de Montfort (4/28)

On Friday, the kids have their final parkour class for this school year, where they will be facing literal challenges to hurdle over. After that, we will read about St. Peter Chanel in Saints for Young People for Every Day of the Year and/or watch a clip about him on Catholic Online.  Then, we'll chat about how seeming failures, hurdles, and challenges can turn out to be huge successes with God's good graces.

I may also have the children color an image of St. Louis de Montfort as we talk about  Marian Consecration and begin reading St.Louis de Montfort: The Story of Our Lady's Slave

St. Catherine of Sienna (4/29)

Finally, the week will close with learning about St. Catherine of Siena.  

I may ask my oldest to follow St. Catherine's example by writing to political leaders, as inspired by Church Pop.  Likewise, I may have the children color an image from Catholic Playground while we listen to any one of the following readings in whole or in part:

• Saint Catherine of Siena in Saints for Young People for Every Day of the Year
• Saint Catherine of Siena, Patroness of Nurses in Prayers to My Favorite Saints, Part 2 
• St. Catherine of Siena in the Picture Book of Saints
• St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin, Doctor in In His Likeness 
• St. Catherine of Siena in the Story Library of Saints
• St. Catherine of Siena in Loyola Kids Book of Saints
• St. Catherine of Siena in Around the Year Once Upon a Time Saints
• St. Catherine of Siena in Dragon Slayers

We might also go through items to find some more to donate as St. Catherine was known for giving things away to the needy.

Most certainly, as our week unfolds further, my children and I won't get to every idea I have listed here and may also end up hopping down different saint-inspired bunny trails.  However, I am certain that we'll enjoy sensing the saints in one way or another every day.

I pray you have a richly blessed week and can enjoy some of these ideas, too!  I'd also be grateful if you'd share favorite resources, recipes, and readings related to any of this week's saints or any upcoming ones.  Thank you and God bless!

Highlighting Virtues with A St. George Resource Round Up (Or What Mama Has the Kids Do When She Is Sick)

Luke's St. George and the Dragon Scene

On Friday, I woke to find my voice gone, my eyes burning, my head aching and my mind realizing that I needed a different plan for the morning than I had gone to bed thinking about. Read-togethers and Endangered Species Fair preparation just would work considering my laryngitis and lousy head cold.  I needed another set of morning activities to engage the kids.

With praise be to our Lord for generous folks on the Internet, I put together a new plan rather quickly: a mini-book on the virtues of St. George.

The inside of Jack's finished mini-book.

 

The flap of Jack's mini-book before he opens it to the inside.

Inside Nina's mini-book with a happy, grateful, loving princess and St. George leading a dragon away with a rope.

Why Saint George when we are nowhere near his feast day?

Well, because, Jack and his big siblings are enamored with knights and castles right now and youtube has an Adventures from the Book of Virtues video with the story of St. George and the Dragon in it.



So, while I did breakfast dishes and some laundry, the children watched that.

Then, I squeaked, "What virtues did St. George show?"

Once the children had shared their ideas, I  gave each child a blank tri-fold mini-book, set out pencils and googled for knight how-to-draws.  The children and I decided that we'd try this one:

Nina's in-progress drawing of St. George.

Once we completed our "St. George"s, Luke asked me to find a dragon how-to-draw.  He chose one here for him and I to do, while Nina chose a sleeping one:



Then, the children asked for a princess how-to-draw.  We chose this one.

Drawings done, each child did basic copy work to write, St. George showed bravery, kindness and faith.

Luke chose to embellish his lettering with dragon-fire and swords.

Nina showed persistence each time she wrote words on Friday.

Then, the children proceeded to add color to their mini-books before setting up for and creating their own St. George and the Dragon drama improv in the hallway.

Jack coloring what he'd asked me to draw for him.

What a blessing it was to have them all so engaged in learning about saints and virtues, while reinforcing writing, drama and creative skills without me having to use my almost-gone voice!

Better still was that, as the day unfolded, each child demonstrated personal virtues of kindness, faith and more, and they also decided to begin their own medieval lapbooks using other how-to-draws that they found online.

What are your go-to resources for teaching about St. George?  Virtues?  And how to you keep your children engaged, learning, practicing skills and enjoying when you're feeling poorly?

 

(If you receive this post via email and cannot see the linky, be sure to actually click over to the blog to read browse the rich catalog of ideas there.)