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!

Snack with Saint Jerome

Years ago, my kiddoes came to know and love St. Jerome through a story and story basket. More recnetly, we've lived the litrugical year by doing picture studies and more related to St. Jerome.

Last year, we paused our day for a simple snack with the saints.

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I placed a green cloth on the table for Ordinary Time....

...and put together a lion face snack with food we had on hand (BFree gluten-free tortillas, Daiya cheddar style shreds, red bell pepper and garden snap peas and ground cherries.)

A candle and a couple books from our shelves finished the setting, and, then, the kiddoes came with smiles to snack, pray, and chat.

The kids recalled the longer tales of St. Jerome and the Lion that we have previously read when they looked at the much briefer version of this story in Amazing Saints &their Awesome Animals.

We also read from In His Likeness.

Our celebration was short, simple, and smile-inducing.

Remembering it now as I look forward to celerbating St. Jerome again next month, I am reminded that living the liturgical year need not be stressful. Snacking with the saints - a simple snack, a chat, a prayer, can bring blessings.

I pray that however you and yours choose to honor different saint days brings you blessings, too.

St. Jerome, pray for us.

St. Jerome Day Resource Round Up

St. Jerome in His Study by Jan van Eyck  from Wikimedia

Today is a day to celebrate here at our house.  Not only is it the eighth anniversary of our beach betrothal, but it is one of the kids favorite Saint Play Feast Days:  St. Jerome's Day.

So, we started our morning off with some readings about St. Jerome at breakfast...

 ... as well as some dramatic play about St. Jerome and his lion.

Then, it was off to celebrate Mass and, soon, will be headed out for a rainy day walk at the beach that Mike and I got betrothed at.

Eight Years Ago This Evening

Before we head out, though, I wanted to share a resource round up for anyone who wants to enjoy some last-minute exploration of St. Jerome with young children.

Celebrating St. Jerome

• Enjoy reading the picture book St. Jerome and the Lion, another book by the same title or the St. Jerome excerpt from the New Picture Book of Saints: Illustrated Lives of the Saints for Young and Old, Saint Joseph Edition.

• Gather up some figurines, stuffed toys or homemade paper dolls and make a Storybasket or dramatic play scene.

 

• Enjoy hands-on play, such as making playdough lion figurines as we did as part of our St. Jerome study a few years ago.

• Enjoy some St. Jerome coloring, such as from the St. Jerome coloring book (and its printable preview) from Nuemann Press, a print out of St. Jerome and Paula as found at Goldenwood Studio's site, a print out of Lucas Van Leyden, Engraving, St. Jerome, 1513 as found at Masterworks Fine Art's site or a download of St. Jerome by Pollard Willow or St. Jerome in His Study by Albrecht Durer from Aiwaz.net.

• Practice handwriting with St. Jerome Spiritual Copywork from That Resource Site.

• If you don;t have access to storybooks about St. Jerome, you might simply share the page on St. Jerome from Holy Spirit Interactive Kids.

Enjoy celebrating, and, if you have favorite St. Jerome resources, please share about them in a comment!

 

(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.)

 

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Story Baskets for Faith Formation: St. Jerome and the Lion

This Year's St. Jerome Basket

What is one way to engage young children in cooperative play, language development and use of social skills while encouraging their faith formation?

Story Baskets!

I love making these for my children.

Basically, I select a story and rummage through our store of materials to find props and figurines that might go along with it.  I pop all these into a basket.

Then, I read the story to my children and also sometimes retell if (or have them do so) using the props.

From there, creativity reigns.  I leave the story basket out and let the kids have at it.  As they do, I sit back and marvel at how they synthesize knowledge, express their creativity, work with one another and come to terms with faith understanding at their own pace.

So simple, yet so rich.

An Example:  A St. Jerome Feast Day Story Basket

Last Thursday, when I woke up with almost no voice due to a cold, I knew I needed something to keep my older children engaged while I conserved my voice to work in the evening.  Thus, I decided it was Story Basket time.

Playing with Last Year's Basket

Since we had been reading St. Jerome and the Lion throughout the week in preparation for St. Jerome’s Feast Day on the 30^th, and since my oldest had already mentioned a desire to revisit the Story Basket we did last year at this time, I decided it was  time to put together one for this year – one that was a little more advanced than last year’s.

So, I collected figurines to represent St. Jerome, monks, caravan men, a lion, a dog, a donkey and some camels and, then, added in a few Lincoln Log “sticks”, plus a pull cart.  I put all these in a basket along with a copy of St. Jerome and the Lion. Next to the basket, I put a bin of Lincoln Logs to be used to build the monks’ quarters.

With this as a catalyst, play began.

My children immersed themselves in acting out the story of St. Jerome and the Lion even without me re-reading it to them.  They also created their own tales, using props from the basket.  As they did, I thought about something:

In the St. Jerome storybook, it is mentioned how all the monks and each of the animals at the monastery had a job.  At the core, a young child’s job is to learn, explore and grow.  As a parent, one of my main duties is to facilitate and guide my children’s growth.  Story baskets are one very simple way to do this.

Three Ideas for Easy Faith-Based Story Baskets:

We enjoy many faith-based picture books in our home, but I know not everyone is familiar with these.  But, most homes have a Bible or children’s Bible on hand.  So, why not start there?

• The Nativity:  Raid a child-friendly Christmas Nativity set for pieces or use three dolls to represent Jesus, Mary and Joseph.  Use some stuffed toys or Little People for animals.

• The Good Shepherd:  If you don’t have plastic figurines, use a wooden spoon with some scrap fabric to make a simple shepherd figure and some cotton balls and pipe cleaners to make sheep.

• Jonah and the Whale:  A cereal box with a whale picture pasted to it and a small figurine for Jonah is all you need.

Last Year's St. Jerome Basket

Truly, story baskets need not be expensive or require much preparation.  A story, a little creativity on your part, a few props corralled from around the house, the natural imagination of your child and a portion of God’s good grace is all you need!

What simple ways do you use to provide hands-on ways for your children to explore faith stories?  Do you have a story in mind that you’d like prop ideas for?  How else are you helping to train happy hearts in your young children?

As always,please share your thoughts and questions in the comments and stop back next Sunday to join in on this ongoing discussion of how we might work together on Training Happy Hearts: A Call to Faith Formation for Young Children.  And, please, if you'd like to guest post one Sunday, just ask!

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