Celebrating Saint Days

Do you celebrate your children's saint days? This is a great way to connect your kids to a Catholic role model, and to solidify their Catholic identity while creating fun, lasting memories.

In our house, we have a "special plate" that we use for special days--saint days, birthdays, and other big days throughout the year. Our plate actually reads" My Special Day", but you can accomplish the same thing by going to the thrift store or Goodwill and buying a pretty, antique china plate for $1 or less that you use only for your family's "special plate" days.

Click here to see a list of saints and their feast days arranged in alphabetical order. Search for your kids' names and mark the feast days on your calendar before you forget-- saint days are "extra" celebrations and we Mommies so often suffer from "Mommy Brain", so it is easy to forget to celebrate saint days unless you plan ahead.

OK--so what if your child isn't named after a saint? Well--they can use their middle name. If that also isn't a saint's name, you have two more options:

1. Research the roots of your kids' names--names are often derived from Greek or Latin names which may have corresponding saints. My name is Pamela but it derives from Helen, so she is my name saint.

--OR--

2. Choose your child's saint based on his her interests. If your child collects stamps, the patron saint is Gabriel the archangel. If music, St. Cecilia, etc. Click here for a list of patron saints.

Now that you have your kids' saint days on the calendar, here are some ideas to help celebrate when the day arrives:

• use the special plate
• let your child choose his/her favorite meal
• make a special dessert in honor of St._____
• print out saint coloring pages (I've found a bunch by doing a Google search)
• read the saint story aloud
• discuss ways your child is like (or could be like) their saint
• make up a prayer of intercession for that saint and illustrate it
• cook a meal from the saint's country of origin (St. Elizabeth of Hungary?--make an all Hungarian meal; St. Joan of Arc?--make an all French meal)

Celebrating saint days really is a fun way to promote our kids' Catholic identities, and it is never to late to start!