Equipping Catholic Families for December Feasts and Saints Days!

Equipping Catholic Families for December Saints!

Both the month of December and the season of Advent begin this weekend!
Here is our monthly summary of crafts and family traditions related to the Monthly Devotion, Key Feast Days and the appropriate Season of the Liturgical Calendar.

Key Feast Days in December:

St Francis Xavier (December 3)
St John Damascene (December 4)
St Nicholas (December 6)
St Ambrose (December 7)
Immaculate Conception (December 8)
St Juan Diego (December 9)
Our Lady of Loretto (December 10)
Our Lady, Queen of Angels (December 11)
St Damasus I (December 11)
Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12)
St Lucy (December 13)
St John of the Cross (December 14)
O Antiphons (December 17-23)
Bambinelli Sunday (December 16)
Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Dec 18)
St Abraham, St Isaac, St Jacob (December 20)
St Thomas, St Peter Canisius (December 21)
St John of Kanty (December 23)
The Birth of Jesus (December 25)
St Stephen (December 26)
St John Apostle (December 27)
Holy Innocents (December 28)
St Thomas Becket (December 29)
Feast of the Holy Family (December 30)

Bambinelli Sunday

Check out the St Nick Bundle at the Arma Dei Shoppe for great stocking stuffers! on sale until December 13/2018!

Season of the Liturgical Calendar: Advent!

Anticipating Advent: Prep for Advent: Summary of Crafts and Activities
Keep Christ in Christmas: read Him, look for Him, pray to Him, visit him, share Him, give for Him; live for Him Keep Christ in Christmas

The Advent Calendar

The Advent Calendar is a great way to countdown the days until Christmas. You’ll find lots of chocolate covered ones in the stores now, but you can make your own and fill it with dollarstore Nativity figures, holy medals, Saint pegs, Super Saints, printable Advent Quest challenges and of course your favorite treats or chocolates. There are so many ways to make an Advent Calendar (including this one we made years ago) and we found 35 [Awesome} DIY Advent Calendars here.

Fill up your Advent Calendar with faith-filled toys, treats and prayers:

*with Our Family Jesse Tree ornaments from Faith and Fabric

The Jesse Tree

The Jesse Tree is a wonderful faith-filled activity with Biblical symbols and figures and readings for each day of Advent. Jesus’ Lineage unfolds each day, leading up to His Birth on December 25th. You can make a nicely crafted banner like our The Family Handprint Jesse Tree and bring it out for Advent and Lent each year!

Here are some other awesome Jesse Tree kits and tips:

Our Family Jesse Tree from Faith and Fabric
Jesse Tree Treasures
Jesse Tree Ornament Exchange
My Jesse Tree: The Ultimate Guide to Making a Jesse Tree
Printable 3-D Jesse Tree Ornaments by Drawn2BCreative!
The Mosaic Jesse Tree at To Jesus, Sincerely

The Advent Wreath

It can be tricky getting those 3 purple and 1 white candles at the last minute, so we often pick them up throughout the year when we see them…or we’ve been known to tie purple and pink ribbons around white candles, in a pinch.

We’ve also used Dollar Store Votive candles and dressed them up in purple and pink!

DIY Advent Wreath with Dollar Store Votives

One year, we made this Mailbox Blessings Advent Wreath and wrote little notes to each other throughout Advent, placing them in these adorable little mailboxes.

Advent Prayers

Advent is an excellent opportunity to ramp up our family prayers…morning, before or after meals, around the Advent Wreath, in the car (bustling around to different events) or at bedtime!

Here are some of our prayerful craft kit printables to get you started:

New Family Traditions

This time of year there is a lot of talk about different activities and family traditions to help focus Advent within the family. Don’t try them all at once! Choose one that’s right for you and get your kids involved to keep it going throughout Advent. If good deeds and sacrifices are part of your Advent tradition…consider Nesting…for Sock Baby Jesus.

This year we hosted a Sock Baby Jesus Workshop! Every kid made their own Sock Baby Jesus and we even made a couple more to give to a few other families in our Parish!