All Saints Day Party Games

The Catholic moms group that I belong to recently celebrated All Saints Day (because Friday is a much better party day than Tuesday!).  To my surprise, two of the games used Paper Dalis. I snapped some photos to share their ideas with you.


Saints Ring Toss

Copy and paste the saint paper dolls into a Word doc, so they are all small and the right-size for a ring toss. Color them up! Laminate them (so they'll be good next year) and affix them to a skewer. Then, just stick them into the ground in a good configuration. Give a kid a plastic ring to toss, and see how many they can get around a saint picture. Don't forget the sweets, holy cards, stickers, etc., for rewards. Here's a close-up:

Cupcake Walk

It's like a cakewalk---with cupcakes. Just do the same as you did with the ring-toss saints, though you might want to make the paper dolls a bit bigger and arrange them in a circle. Also, make sure to put the name of every saint on a separate strip of paper and put them in a plastic baggie.

Here's part of the cupcake walk circle. 

Have each kid stand at a saint, then play some music. Stop it suddenly (like in Musical Chairs), so that every child is behind a saint picture.

Can you tell it was a warm day and many kids ditched their costumes later?

Have a mom pull the name of a saint from the plastic baggie. Whoever has the name of that saint wins a cupcake.

For more All Saints Day party ideas, check out my Ultimate All Saints Day post.

Blessings galore,
Vee

The Ultimate All Saints Day Party Post

Updated Oct. 28, 2011
Planning an All Saints Day party? Or just need an excuse to dress up like your favorite heavenly peeps and eat yummy treats? Me, too!

So, here's my Paper Dali guide to a fabulously fun and sweet All Saints Day Party. This post is packed with game ideas, ways to give Halloween candy a Catholic flavor, and ideas for using Paper Dali printables for a party.

Invitations

Pick pictures from the Saints archives, color them up, paste them to construction paper, and you've an inexpensive but creative invitation to send to friends.

Game Ideas
For the past few years, friends and family have gotten together to celebrate All Saints Day with a party. We meet at the park, and each family sponsors a "booth" (a table or just an area set aside for a game). Every family volunteers to facilitate a game and also bring prizes for participants. (Please note: We picked up these ideas through our reading of various online sites and books, so I'm not sure where credit is due. But thanks to the brilliant moms who came up with these ideas.)

• St. Peter Fishing Booth
  Each child tosses a mini play fishing pole and hooks a toy. You can use a kiddie pool for this. We've had a sibling hide on the opposite side of the booth and pin fun things to the hooks.
• 7 Deadly Sins Bowling Pins Game
  Use a child's play bowling set, label each pin with a deadly sin, get a plastic ball and label it "grace" and then knock down as many sins as you can.
• St. Therese Flower Toss
  Display a photo of St. Therese of Lisieux. Each participant receives a rose (real, paper or otherwise) to toss to the picture. Whoever's rose is closest wins the prize.
• Pin the Halo on the Archangel
  A sweeter version of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey," participants get to pin a halo on an archangel. (Feel free to use my St. Michael the Archangel drawing for this game!)
• St. Isadore Pumpkin Roll
  Each participant rolls a pumpkin from a designated starting point to a designated finishing line. Whoever gets there first, wins.
• St. Christopher Relay Race
  Participants race from a designated starting point to a basket filled with baby dolls (i.e. "baby Jesus") then have to hurry back to the finishing line while carrying the baby doll on their shoulders.
• Follow the Straight Path Race
  Use some wooden blocks or beams for a fast-paced balancing game. Participants race across the straight path to get to the finishing line first. You can also do an alternate version and use a stopwatch to see which child has the best time across the beam.
• St. Martin de Porres Broomstick Relay Race
  Set up a starting spot and finishing line, then have the children push an object by using a broom (a symbol associated with St. Martin) to the finishing line. First one there wins.
• Saints Ring Toss
  Print out pictures of the saints then affix them to sticks then put them in the ground (like garden markers). Have a small hoop (a plastic embroidery hoop works) and the kids can decide which saint to  put a hoop around. If they make it, they can get candy and a holy card related to that saint.
  

Party Food

You can get good ideas from Catholic Cuisine. The gals there do a fab job of creating yummy eats for liturgical feasts. Any post for a saint will do in a pinch for an All Saints Day party.

Also, the St. Nicholas Center features fun ideas for St. Nicholas, including cookies.

We've bought a St. Lucia crown from Hemslojd, a Scandinavian-themed shop, which has a lot of other Saint Lucia-related items (including cookies).

Catholic Candy Ideas

Take your regular Halloween candy and give them a Catholic flavor!

Here are some ideas:

• Creepy Peeper Mix = St. Lucy Cupcakes
  Our local dollar store had chocolate eyeballs for sale. I had to have them! They were the perfect cupcake toppers ... and we just called them "St. Lucy Cupcakes."
•  Gummy Snakes = St. Patrick
• Hershey's Kisses = Blessed Miguel Pro (Miguel Pro loved Mexican chocolate, so you can use any chocolate and Blessed Miguel would be the perfect patron saint for it!)
• Candy Rings and Necklaces = Any Catholic king or queen (Think St. Wenceslaus, St. Margaret of Scotland, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, etc.)
• Candy Pumpkins and Candy Corn = St. Isidore the Farmer
• Candy Fangs = St. Appolonia (the patron saint of dentists)
• Sweethearts (or any Valentine's Day candy) = St. Valentine
• Swedish Fish = St. Peter
• Red Hots = St. Florian (patron saint of firefighters)

Pumpkin Carvings

After reading this devotion for pumpkin carving (yes, really), I thought it was cute enough that it made me want to carve a pumpkin ... and talk about good things while doing so. You can find some Christian-themed pumpkin carving patterns at:

Catholic Cuisine's Saint o' Lanterns 

Squidoo's Christian Pumpkin Carving Page

Ways to Use My Paper Dali Printables

In addition to just printing out my saints paper dolls and coloring pages for, well, coloring, you can also use them for different All Saints Day party decorations and activities. Print them out to:

• Create invitations, signs and table settings.
• Wrap candy bars with them.
• Decorate paper bags for trick or treating.
• Cupcake toppers.
• Holy cards.
• Prizes (Just tape some candy to the picture!)

Saints Crafts from Paper Dali

I also have a few saints-related crafts for you, too:

• Color and print my Mother Teresa quotes print out and share them. Just add a slit and slide a lollipop through it. Or candy.  
• Make a St. Valentine matchbox craft.
• Make a St. Teresa of Avila bookmark.
• Print out a St. Patrick's Day note card. (Hey, All Saints Day is his celebration.)
• Make a St. Joseph peg doll.
• Make a St. Lucia peg doll with felt.

Hope your All Saints Day celebration is glittery fun and yummy with dashes of the holy, too. And if you're still hankering for some All Saints Day celebration ideas (or just feel like being a looky-lou), check out the great ideas from various bloggers at Catholic Icing's All Saints Day Link Up.

Blessings galore,
Vee

Rosary for the Littles

In the evenings, as we've been praying the novena for the unborn, the five-year-old and a two-year-old participate in their own way. What we've been using to keep them focused and looking at pretty pictures that turn their minds and hearts to God is this:

The Rosary pictures PDF were provided generously by The Bookworm (on the First Heralds blog long ago). Just click on the link then scroll down a spell to see the PDF link to download. Actually, while you're there, check out the fabulous post for creating a rosary box. It's wonderful.

Our Rosary ring was easy-peasy to make:

1. Download the rosary pictures and laminate them.
2. Hole punch the top left corner.
3. Slip the cards onto the ring. (A plain silver key ring works or something like this.)
4. Pray them!

If you laminate them, they should last for quite a long time. I started using these cards when my oldest child was five, and now she's eleven years old. Now, her little siblings use the rosary ring.

Blessings galore,

Vee

Be a Man: Priestly Discernment Program [video]

Set to the song "Be a Man" from Disney's Mulan, this video of the fine young men for the Priestly Discernment program is absolutely hilarious.

And it's so catchy.




(Hat tip to @americanpapist for tweeting about it!)

Cele-Linky with the Saints

Arma Dei is having an All Saints' Day linkup on its blog. The ideas there are just brilliant, fun, colorful, easy peasy, charming, etc. I want to do them all, bu there's just not enough time (or glitter or glue).

Check out the lovely site and share your ideas with other Catholic peeps. And, yep, Paper Dali is there, too. (I shared my Ultimate All Saints Day party post.)

Special thanks to Familia Catolica for sharing the news!

Prayer of St. Teresa of Avila

In celebration of the feast day in honor of Saint Teresa of Avila, I drew a bookmark with St. Teresa's prayer and a drawing on it.

“Let nothing disturb thee,

Nothing

affright thee.

All things

are passing.

God never changes.

Patient endurance

attains

 to all things.

Who God possesses

in nothing is wanting.

 God alone suffices."

(St. Teresa of Avila, 1515-1582)

And in Spanish:

"Nada te turbe;

nada te espante.

Todo se pasa;

Dios no se muda.

La paciencia

todo lo alcanza.

Quien a Dios tiene,

nada le falta.

Solo Dios basta."

(Santa Teresa de Jesús, 1515-1582)

The praying gal and the prayer, however, can be downloaded as a bookmark in English or, if you prefer St. Teresa's language, in Spanish. It's my little gift to you.

En español:
Puse el dibujo y oración en un marcador. Es un regalito para ustedes.

Viva Cristo Rey: A Play About Blessed Miguel Pro

A Paper Dali friend sent me word of a current production of Viva Cristo Rey to share with  friends of Miguelito who live in California.

Viva Cristo Rey, a play about Blessed Miguel Pro, is running at the Miles Memorial Playhouse in Santa Monica, Calif.

It runs Oct. 14 through 30. You can get details by clicking on the G.K. Chesterton Theater Group website.

Viva Cristo Rey!
Vee

October: Month of the Rosary

It's the month of the Rosary! (And if you need a refresher for praying the Rosary, here's a quick, solid article from EWTN.)

All right then.  Here are a few Paper Dali activities from the archives related to the rosary.

My Pro-Life Novena Worksheet is a popular one. You print out the two pages: one of Mary with open arms and the other of the babies. Each day that you pray the rosary is a day you get to add the baby to Mary's care. It's a sweet little craft to track days of your novena.

 I also have a coloring sheet of Mary, Queen of the Rosary. Just visit the link, download it and print it out.

 I also have an easy sewing craft to do to keep little one's hands busy while praying the rosary. (Xhonane of Familia Catolica took my idea and gave it a prettier, easier spin ... and glitter! Go see her nicer version if you've time. )

And let's remember to pray for one another!

♥
Vee