Christmas is a magical, fun time for every child. Presents, snow, time off school, and crazy family members—what’s not to love about Christmastime for a child? But with everything being thrown at them, sometimes the real meaning of Christmas gets lost in the mix. Online you’ll find five ways to help your toddler learn what a Catholic Christmas is all about.
Four quick and crafty ways to celebrate Thanksgiving with Catholic kids
This is a delightful time of year to encourage thankfulness, the in between season between the feasts of All Saints’ Day and Souls’ Day and Advent. For those of us in the Midwest, a time for wrapping up fall gardening projects and hunkering down in the rain and/or snow. What better time to get out the crayons, markers, and glitter glue and go to town on giving thanks through art? Teaching Catholic Kids has ideas.
Pray the O Antiphons with your children
The O Antiphons are seven verses in the Liturgy of the Hours that contain powerful pleas for the coming of the Lord. They are chanted or recited during Vespers on the last seven days of Advent. Find this post online for each days antiphon, and listen to a hymn, O Come Emmanuel.
Not the same old (Christmas) story
Every year around this time, we’re bound to hear a familiar set of narratives in the media. How much we’ll spend. How far we’ll travel. How far behind retail sales are compared to last year. It’s time to put aside the tired stories. Here are three replacement conversations we should be having this Christmas, including talking about how much to give, not how much to spend! Find the conversations online.
Have yourself a drama-free Christmas
Can you have a drama-free Christmas? Ever since Cory Bussee’s mom and dad passed, family holidays have taken on a very weird flavor. He and his wife, and his siblings and their spouses and kids, all struggle with family identity now that the keepers of their shared history and traditions are gone. So, the family decided to host a “Drama-Free Christmas.” To pull it off, they made three, simple rules. Discover what they are online.