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!

Walking Down Memory Lane with St. Nina, "Mother of Georgia"

Tonight, I've been taking a walk down memory lane, looking back at how we've observed St. Nina's feast day since our family re-committed to celebrating each of our Name Days and enjoyed our first St. Nina family feast in 2013. 

That year, our annual celebrations kicked off in a rather smoky kitchen, because, sometimes, new recipes don't cook up quite the way you expect them to do so.

Still, we enjoyed learning more about St. Nina and tasting dishes inspired by the cuisine of the Republic of Georgia.

Since, then, we've continued to mark St. Nina's feast day with prayers, food, and celebration each year.

In 2014, we did so as a family.

First, though, the children practiced practical life skills, climbing up to the kitchen sink...

...to work as a team, freeing delicious pomegranate seeds.

One also concentrated on slicing cucumbers...

.... to make a traditional Georgian salad,

... while another sliced and dicde mushrooms...

.... for a Georgian-inspired dish.

Still, a third happily chopped walnuts...

...to candy and enjoy.

Then, they all helped prepare traditional corn bread...

...bean dishes, and more,

which all resulted in a full spread Georgian-inspired dishes to enjoy together...

...after prayer, finding where St. Nina may have been born and where she traveled to...

... and giving our own Nina her very own homemade "book" about St. Nina, because she had been asking why we don't have any books about her name saint. 

{Disclosure: Some of the links that follow are affiliate ones.  Should you click through them and make any purchase, we may receive compensation at no extra cost to you.}

We have since found two published children's books for our girl:

Saints Lives and Illuminations contains a St. Nina page...

...and The Life of Saint Nina is an entire rhyming children's book about her!

In 2015, we had a lot going on right before St. Nina's feast day and could not do much preparation, but that did not keep us from celebrating our girl's beloved name saint.

We just had to get a little creative about food choices, which resulted in us making a makeshift "St. Nina Cross" our of gluten-free toast...

... to eat with preserves (popular in Georgia) and sides of grapes (because St. Nina had a grapevine cross) and salad with walnuts and pomegranates (because both of these are common in Georgian cuisine).

A simple meal served on special dishes made everyone happy!

In 2016, we again found ourselves scrambling, trying to fit a feast day celebration in between pre-scheduled commitments, so we went even simpler - and delectably sweet!

You can never go wrong with sundaes made with blue and red berries (since St. Nina is often depicted in these colors) and walnuts (since St. Nina is considered the "mother of Georgia", having converted many there to Christianity, and walnuts are popular in Georgian cuisine.)

Yes, our sundaes were a hit!

Then, last year, in 2017, we had to go even simpler for St Nina's Day.

Nana was quite ill, so we traveled to see her one last time, and, thus, our typically festive St. Nina Day observances were put on hold.  Basically, we recalled the day, with a simple, "It's your Name Day," and prayer with our girl and allowed her to indulge in a rare treat of potato chips (because salty fried potatoes are common in the Republic of Georgia) as a happy "high" on an otherwise mostly low day when we were making prayerful and emotional goodbyes to our Nana.  

Nana passed but a week later  -  God rest her soul - and we would appreciate continued prayers as the first anniversary of her passing nears.  Thank you.

We also invite you to join us in praying for the intercession of St. Nina:

St. Nina, like you, 

may we endure hardships with faith, 

be a healing balm to others, spiritually and physically,

and glorify God in all we do and say,

growing in holiness.

Also like you, may we have a transforming effect on others through our witness. 
St. Nina, please intercede for us 

that God may save our souls.

If you would like to know more about St. Nina, visit our St. Nina Name Day post from 2013, where you'll find more information and links and, also, view this brief video, which offers a summary of St. Nina's life:

We'd love to hear your favorite prayers, resources, recipes, and traditions related to St. Nina and wish you a blessed ad beautiful St. Nina feast day.

St. Nina, pray for us.