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This year we celebrated our annual All Saints Day party the weekend after All Saints Day on November 5th and another homeschool family hosted it on a Sunday afternoon so that Dads could attend vs. on a weekday when many Dads may be working.

Here are some highlights from our special celebration to honor the Saints that pray for us and support us in our life's journey.


In the morning of All Saints Day on November 1, I had our Feast of All Saints banner hung up.

I made this banner a few years ago from Jessica's blog at Shower of Roses.



















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I'm a little behind with posting our annual All Saints' Day celebration because life is full and staying up to 3 in the morning watching the election results this week doesn't exactly help with staying on top of anything, especially blogging.   But, I'm slowly catching up on things so here's a recap of our November 1, Feast of All Saints, celebration... 


Our family attended Mass in the morning then I hosted our annual All Saints Day party at my house for our homeschool group.

We had decorations like this banner that I made a few years ago from Jessica's blog at Shower of Roses.

We did the ever popular Saint guessing jars and as each child came to the party they put in their guesses of how many treats were in each jar.  Thank you Jennifer at Catholic Inspired and Jessica at Shower of Roses for the ideas and printables to put on the jars.  I did make my own St. Lucy and Saints Mary and Martha labels :)  I bought my plastic 1 pint mason jars at Oriental Trading. Another parent brought the plastic jars with blue lids and several parents filled a few each so it was definitely a group effort.   Here's a photo I took of the jars before the rest of the guests brought theirs.


The big and little kids had fun guessing the amount in each jar.

When everyone finished guessing we announced the winners, but then we divided the treats among the 15 children present and put the treats into individual bags so each child had a bag to take home with candy to remind them of several different Saints.

Here are the 18 themed Saint jars we used. The candies in the jar relate to the life of the Saint or what he/she is the Patron Saint of: 
St. Peter: goldfish crackers
St. Kateri Tekakwitha: candy corn

Our Lady of Mount Carmel: Rolo caramel
St. Patrick of Ireland: gummy worms
St. Thomas Aquinas (known in his youth as "The Dumb Ox"): Dum-Dum lollipops

St. Lucy: chocolates wrapped in eyeball foil paper
Doctors of the Church: Smarties
St. Nicholas: peppermint candy

St. Bernadette of Lourdes: pretzel sticks (St. Bernadette was collecting sticks when Our Lady appeared to her)
St. Francis: animal crackers
Holy Trinity: 3 Musketeers

St. Adjuctor: Life-Savers (Patron of swimmers, boaters, and drowning victims)
Saints Mary and Martha: M&Ms
Virgin Mary, Untier of Knots: root beer flavored Twists

St. Gertrude of Nivelles: KitKats (Patron of cats and gardeners)
St. William of York: York patties (Patron of York, England)
St. Isidore: candy pumpkins (Patron of farmers)
St. Dominic: mini Milky Way bars (Patron of Astronomers)

Each family brought a snack to share.  I provided some "pious popcorn" and "All Saints are 'grape'" :)

We had our annual "Communion of Saints Cupcakes"


And my friend, K.C., made this Rice-Krispies cross cake as a way to remember the Year of Mercy with the red/blue coloring for Jesus' Divine Mercy and Baby Jesus in the middle and a little Eucharistic Host in the center.

Some of the adults and kids played Saint Bingo that I printed and laminated from Jessica's blog at Shower of Roses.

My friend, T.D., brought other games to play, as well.
*Our Lady of Guadalupe Flower Toss
*The Brothers' Fishing Hole: St. Peter and St. Andrew, fishermen of fish and of men
*Knocking Down the 7 Deadly Sins bowling game: Envy, Pride, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth, Greed

The Corporal Works of Mercy and Spiritual Works of Mercy ring toss

At the beginning of our celebration, we prayed the Litany of the Saints and we also watched this wonderful video titled How Does the Catholic Church Declare Official Saints.



I forgot to also share this fun video called The Saint Song that I shared last year.  I'll have to remember to play it at next year's All Saints Day party.



After we prayed and I played the Saint videos, each child dressed as a Saint stood up and told a little bit about their Saint's life and everyone had to guess who they were.  Some were more obvious than others.

My 2 youngest children dressed up as St. Rafqa (a new to us and everyone Saint) and St. Elizabeth of Hungary.

     
 Saint Rafqa

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There are a ton of books about Halloween and there are so many wonderful books about the beautiful lives of the Saints.  But, I'm happy I finally discovered a book that tells the story of the true meaning of Halloween and All Saints' Day.

Jackie's Special Halloween by Brenda Castro is a perfect book for children and adults to learn how the two days are related and helps readers understand why we celebrate Halloween/All Saints' Day.  



The book explains the connection between Halloween celebrated on October 31 and All Saints' Day that is celebrated on November 1. ("Hallow" means "saint/holy".  The word "Halloween" comes from All Hallows' Eve, which means the eve of All Saints' Day.)

My children have always enjoyed dressing up at Halloween and collecting candy as something fun to do. However, we have always taught them that what is most important is that the Catholic Church celebrates All Saints' Day on November 1 as a way to remember all the Saints that have gone before us and that pray for us and are our role models while we try to reach sainthood ourselves.   With Halloween being so commercialized, the focus is mostly on candy and costumes so it is difficult to have children remember that what is most important about Halloween or All Hallows' Eve is what is celebrated the day after, All Saints' Day.

Jackie's Special Halloween is a great resource and a fun book to read as a family that focuses on celebrating All Saints' Day with the Saints, our holy heroes. 

Jackie's Special Halloween is about a sister and brother, Bella and Pablo, who choose Jackie, the pumpkin, from the pumpkin patch.  Bella and Pablo are able to teach sweet Jackie about 10 different Saints as Bella and Pablo's friends come dressed as their favorite Saint at their All Saints' Day party on November 1.

My five children of all ages, teen down to Pre-K, liked that the author had them guessing which Saints were being described.  Each Saint is introduced with cute drawings by Maria Boas and a brief description is given for them on the same page as the drawings.  Then when you turn the next page there are realistic photos or drawings of the Saint as the book characters tell who they are dressed as for the party.   

Here is a page from the book to give you a sneak peek of the fun illustrations and how the book is organized.

I loved that the book kept my children's attention from the oldest down to the youngest as they made their guesses. I especially enjoyed that the book teaches various virtues with each Saint and tells how each Saint lived out the particular virtue in their own life.  For example, the virtue for Saint John Paul II is "Forgiveness" because "John Paul II forgave a man who tried to kill him and taught the man about God."

Some of the Saints were more obvious than others to guess correctly, but there were a few that challenged my children.  Families that are familiar with the lives of the Saints will still enjoy reading this book and learning about the virtues. For those families who may not know a lot about the Saints' lives, I think this book would be a great introduction to this wonderful part of our Catholic faith.

Since Saint Therese of Lisieux is my favorite Saint, I especially enjoyed her photo and page.


I am so grateful there is finally a book that is a fun way to learn and remember that Halloween is really about being the eve of All Saints' Day and that celebrating the Saints that are with God now is what is most important when we celebrate All Saints' Day on November 1.  I highly recommend this book for your home or school library!

Brenda Castro has also written God's Easter Gifts,"a story about the two siblings finding the true meaning of Easter".   I look forward to reading (and possibly reviewing) this one as well in the spring!  


If you would like to read another review of Jackie's Special Halloween be sure to check out Nicole's review post at Children of the Church, which is where I first learned about this great and meaningful book.