Holy Baby! DVDs, toys

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Wayne_Laugesen

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I’m Wayne Laugesen, co-director and producer of the Holy Baby! DVD series. A bit of a controversy has played out in the Family forum about Holy Baby!, based mosty on the inclusion of some colorful toys and sound effects among the religious art, statuary, music and prayers that characterize this series. I have answered some questions on that forum.

The purpose of this message is to announce the long-awaited arival of Holy Baby! characters in the form of plush toys: Baby Scholastica, Baby Bosco, Pubby Grigio and the Holy Baby! ball Baby Scholastica plays with on EWTN and the DVDs. See them at: HolyBaby.com

Sorry if this seems like an ad. I’m merely trying to get word out for those who may be interested, as Catholic Answers has been an enthusiastic supporter of the Holy Baby! series. Again, a more interesting and objective discussion about the philosophy and merits of the Holy Baby! series appears on the Family forum. Thanks. – Wayne Laugesen
 
Are you at all interested in what your target audience has to say by way of suggestions? I’d be more than happy to give you some 😃
 
Yes, I’m very interested in suggestions from our target audience. – Wayne
 
Cool 🙂

I would love to see some more Saints! And Baby Jesus 🙂 Can’t get much cuter than that!

I think that while you do the prayers, try to focus on holy things. You might want to put one prayer, with holy images. Then do a song with more action and you can put some of those random images at this time.

I really enjoyed the part that shows children blessing themselves. I think it would not go awry to have the sign of the cross demonstrated by different children all throughout the DVD. This is something that a lot of parents are interested in teaching their little toddlers from an early age.

I can understand with the Seven Joys of Mary song that you want to incorporate singing about Jesus and Mary while learning about numbers too. There are many number/letter songs out there for children (secular). Why not adapt some of them with your own lyrics? “One little two little three little altar boys” 😃 Instead of monkeys jumping on the bed, you could have “children praying in the church”, etc. You could show images of children playing in Sunday school classes, playing on a playground with a church in the background, or sitting down in a Mary garden.

I hope you haven’t taken any of my posts as rude, but I just wanted to give my honest feedback on your products. I appreciate the opportunity to give you my opinion on how it could be improved 🙂 God bless you and your family!
 
Dear Catholic Sam:

First, I must apologize for my edgy response to your post on the Parenting thread. I think my blood pressure rose when it was suggested that Catholics could get as much from Baby Einstein videos.

I appreciate your comments here very much. All of them would be excellent considerations for future productions. I am quite pleased with the original lyrics we put to the previously Protestant-sounding Jesus Loves Me song.

Thanks again. Your comments are valuable, and I believe they will play a role in helping us continue to bring Catholic prayer and the Lord’s magnificence to babies and small children. – Wayne
 
Wayne_Laugesen said:
Dear Catholic Sam:

First, I must apologize for my edgy response to your post on the Parenting thread. I think my blood pressure rose when it was suggested that Catholics could get as much from Baby Einstein videos.

I appreciate your comments here very much. All of them would be excellent considerations for future productions. I am quite pleased with the original lyrics we put to the previously Protestant-sounding Jesus Loves Me song.

Thanks again. Your comments are valuable, and I believe they will play a role in helping us continue to bring Catholic prayer and the Lord’s magnificence to babies and small children. – Wayne
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No problem 🙂 I’m looking forward to future productions of Holy Baby!

If you don’t change anything else I would change this one thing: Don’t show secular images during the prayers. In between prayers, fine. During the songs, fine. But I think it would really be great for kids to learn that prayers go with holy images/activities. If still photos of statues and stained glass aren’t keeping the kids’ attention, you might want to look into showing small video clips of children going up for the 1st Holy Communion, or even children coloring in paper crosses in Sunday school, etc.

Oh, I just had another idea. If you want to teach about colors, you could maybe include a section dealing with the different colors of a priest’s vestments. That would also help the little children when they go to Mass–their parents could point out and ask them what color the priest is wearing today 🙂 I know this is something we would love to introduce to our 2.5 year old. We’re always trying to keep him focused on the Mass by asking (whispering) questions. If he had a video to go with it (Holy Baby), it would make it more fun for him, I think.
 
Sam, maybe Wayne should hire you, so you could be paid for your ideas. 😃
 
Mr. Laugesen,
I have not heard of Holy Baby’s. Some of these items (DVD) look interesting.
One thing on the site I didn’t like it the rosary necklace. I do not like the idea of wearing the roasary…it’s seems to make it a fashion statement instead of what it should be…a prayer tool. I bet most people have there’s in pocket or purse…but not the neck. My opinion.

Your site looks great! Keep up the good work.

God Bless
H
 
H_Opey said:
Mr. Laugesen,
I have not heard of Holy Baby’s. Some of these items (DVD) look interesting.
One thing on the site I didn’t like it the rosary necklace. I do not like the idea of wearing the roasary…it’s seems to make it a fashion statement instead of what it should be…a prayer tool. I bet most people have there’s in pocket or purse…but not the neck. My opinion.

Your site looks great! Keep up the good work.

God Bless
H
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If you look carefully at the site, the rosary necklace is primarily for military and civilian safety personnel.

Trust me, I wish I could have had such a “fashion statement” on one particular night in May 1969 near the Cambodian border.
 
First_of_9 said:
If you look carefully at the site, the rosary necklace is primarily for military and civilian safety personnel.

Trust me, I wish I could have had such a “fashion statement” on one particular night in May 1969 near the Cambodian border.
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I see your point but is the neck the place to “keep it” versus the pocket? I mean all this in good spirit and would not want to trivilize the rosary nor those who have them. Wearing them seems odd to me.
 
H_Opey said:
I see your point but is the neck the place to “keep it” versus the pocket?
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Here’s what one of the Apologists at CAF said about this very issue, and I think it would definitely apply to those serving in the armed forces! 😃

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=98158&highlight=wearing+rosary

By the way, Opey, my husband is also very uncomfortable with people wearing rosaries, and even with our daughter (17 months old) playing with one, since she tends to swing it around. 👍
 
I agree that wearing a rosary as a “fashion statement” would be an abuse. But in this case the rosary is worn around the neck as a convenience. Believe me, there are times when there ain’t time to go rummaging through pockets!
 
When we first began making rosaries to send overseas, they were not wearable. They were, in fact, too small to go around anyone’s head. Then I presented one of our Marine rosaries to an ex-Marine. He’s a Catholic philanthropist in Denver who has given millions of dollars to seminaries, Catholic schools, and various Catholic causes involving the ordained religious. He loved the rosary, until he tried to put it around his head. He said “this is a problem,” and explained that combat Marines almost always wear their rosaries.

Shortly after that, on Nov. 20, 2006, Time magazine had a two-page photo essay of combat soldiers and their religious keepsakes. Several of the pictures featured soldiers wearing rosaries.

We researched the matter and were told there’s no reason one can’t wear a rosary, so long as it’s not worn with irreverence. We made the rosaries wearable by adding a safety release clasp. This means soldiers can possess strong, combat-worthy rosaries and wear them without danger of getting injured or killed should a rosarie get tangled in equipment or grabbed by the enemy. These rosaries will simply unsnap at about five pounds. This makes them ultra convenient to use. Simply grasp, pull, snap together and pray. It never breaks, tangles or gets matted with pocket debris. – Wayne
 
Wayne_Laugesen said:
We made the rosaries wearable by adding a safety release clasp. This means soldiers can possess strong, combat-worthy rosaries and wear them without danger of getting injured or killed should a rosarie get tangled in equipment or grabbed by the enemy. These rosaries will simply unsnap at about five pounds.
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See, I never would have thought of something like a safety-release clasp, since their dog tags don’t have one. 😃 But I do think it’s a pretty nifty idea. I have an all-rope rosary (with knots for “beads”) from a dear friend who served in Iraq, and his did not have any point of release. He gave it to me because as a Lutheran, he didn’t feel right about keeping it. I consider it my very own little piece of history.
 
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