As many of you know, I converted when I was a teenager. No one else in my family is Catholic, but my FH is. I feel it is very important that he and I have a Catholic culture in our home, but I don’t know all the subtleties and odd traditions. This has led to some interesting days, like being randomly surprised by a parade in honor of a saint going down my street. (Did I mention I live in a very catholic neighborhood?)
Anyway, when discussing how to have this culture in our home together after we’re married, my FH only commented “That’s something my mom does, I don’t know.” I tried asking after specific traditions he liked/didn’t like, but he was very vague, and shrugged it off as a “mom thing”.
While I am asking others in my area, (including my FMIL), I thought I would ask here too: what kinds of things do you do in your home to encourage a Catholic Culture?
Congrats on your future “do” date =).
Well I grew up right across the street for most of my life from a Parish with a school/ rectory/convent (the ultimate Catholic all in one lol the Parish spanned a few blocks of property). We saw the sisters every day about their business hanging laundry, passing out rosaries, etc and we looked forward to the processions during the year for random saints. Around this time (Lent) makes me a little homesick because I remember every Friday of Lent the street procession of the stations of the Cross where people would just start following the crowd (lol -Catholic and not) or coming out of their homes to walk.
Where I am located now, the area is definitely and unfortunately anti-Catholic. However, I do little things around the home to make sure that my children are understanding/making the connections with our everyday lives. We go to Mass as much as possible and I do have visible things around the house - a few small crucifixes & a holy water font by the front and back doors (as you may know home is the domestic Church so fonts are there for blessing as when entering/exiting our regular Church), a few small pictures of the Saints, and the Nativity scene on our table that I have always kept up year round (even when I was lapsed!) with a few prayer candles and our family rosaries. I have a website if you’d like where you can order a lot of very inexpensive but quality Catholic items. My fonts, for example were under $5 each.
I am trying to keep in sync with the Liturgical calendar and make sure that we do daily/weekly activities to reinforce the appropriate time (I homeschool). I have a lot of Catholic Childrens games/books that I’ve ordered online (as I have to order anything else Catholic around here). We listen to a lot of Catholic radio/CD’s and watch Catholic shows online. I still let them watch/listen to their mainstream faves just with an attentive ear/eye. We also do family prayer - grace before meals, a decade of the rosary at nights before bed seeing as my oldest is 7.
I pray more alone during the day and leave the doors unlocked though closed if my children are awake- sometimes they peek in and close the door, sometimes they sit quietly and join in. I encourage them to ask questions and our priest is always willing to answer questions and explain things to them (he is funny and finds ways to make them laugh/keep their attention even when almost verbatim quoting the CCC or Cannon Law lol). So far they are really engaged and enjoying learning a lot, their CCD teacher is amazed at how much they are able to contribute in the class and how enthusiastic they are to learn.
I hope that was a little helpful
There are lots of books available that may be helpful also, maybe you can check them out and see if there are things that you may want to incorporate that you aren’t already doing or find some new things to make a Catholic family tradition for you and yours!
My fave: The Big Book of Catholic Customs and Traditions for Children’s Faith Formation by Beth McNamara Branigan (great for adults, too with lots of resource information in the back)
Good stuff.
That’s Ok as long as it was answered 
. I am proficient with reading it- and a little better with Spanish reading, writing and conversation though not fluent (10 years of Spanish and 5 of French in school).