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Suggestions for Family Celebration - Costumes - Parties - Games
Help kids create Hallowe’en costumes drawn from Church history – saints of the past, who are examples (witness/martyr) for Christian life. The children might choose their own name-saint.
Get together with other families (perhaps in your childrens’ school) and have a pageant of saints. This could be as simple as a procession, where the children tell about the saints portrayed by the costumes they are wearing. It could also be more elaborately organized, with props and children acting out the saints’ lives – either with spoken parts or a narration. (Obviously, this idea needs active adult planning and organizing.) This pageant could be held in the early evening, so that children could go trick-or-treating afterwards.
Have an All Hallow’s Eve party with several families. Begin with the children’s “saints procession” with parents and grandparents as the audience.
Play classic parlor games together. Some examples: Charades, Twenty Questions, The Minister’s Cat, Musical Chairs, Blind Man’s Bluff. If you don’t remember these games, ask your parents or grandparents! In the days before television, many families entertained themselves by playing games involving the entire family – from the toddler to the great-grandma.
Other family activities for Hallowe’en parties could be making taffy or fudge or popcorn balls or candy apples. Messy but memorable!
When making decorations or invitations for Hallowe’en parties, have the children help. Instead of black cats and bats, or cute little witches and ghosts, you might consider gluing real autumn leaves to a black or orange construction paper card, cut to fit ordinary envelopes.
Stickers of autumn leaves or pumpkins or scarecrows also fit the autumn/harvest season.
And remember – this is the Vigil of a solemn feast of the Church. So the inside of your party invitation could say something like “To celebrate the Vigil of All Saints Day, we invite you to join us for a Hallowe’en party on ------”, etc.
While you’re making black and orange decorations with crepe paper streamers, or blowing up black and orange balloons, you can explain what the colors signify.
Refreshments can be very simple. Apple cider or cocoa with marshmallows would be good with bowls of popcorn. Children like to help frost cupcakes and cookies. Black and orange candy sprinkles on either chocolate or orange frosting are effective and fun. Use chocolate chips or raisins to make Jack-o’-lantern faces on cookies (before baking) or on the orange icing on cupcakes.
For party favors, get an assortment of holy cards representing the patron saints of each guest. You could fasten the cards to ribbons for guests to wear around their necks.
At the end of the party, just before the guests leave, assemble everyone to say together the Prayer to Saint Michael, composed by Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) after he had a vision of terrible evils to come in the twentieth century.
wf-f.org/Hallow-Saints.html
Help kids create Hallowe’en costumes drawn from Church history – saints of the past, who are examples (witness/martyr) for Christian life. The children might choose their own name-saint.
Get together with other families (perhaps in your childrens’ school) and have a pageant of saints. This could be as simple as a procession, where the children tell about the saints portrayed by the costumes they are wearing. It could also be more elaborately organized, with props and children acting out the saints’ lives – either with spoken parts or a narration. (Obviously, this idea needs active adult planning and organizing.) This pageant could be held in the early evening, so that children could go trick-or-treating afterwards.
Have an All Hallow’s Eve party with several families. Begin with the children’s “saints procession” with parents and grandparents as the audience.
Play classic parlor games together. Some examples: Charades, Twenty Questions, The Minister’s Cat, Musical Chairs, Blind Man’s Bluff. If you don’t remember these games, ask your parents or grandparents! In the days before television, many families entertained themselves by playing games involving the entire family – from the toddler to the great-grandma.
Other family activities for Hallowe’en parties could be making taffy or fudge or popcorn balls or candy apples. Messy but memorable!
When making decorations or invitations for Hallowe’en parties, have the children help. Instead of black cats and bats, or cute little witches and ghosts, you might consider gluing real autumn leaves to a black or orange construction paper card, cut to fit ordinary envelopes.
Stickers of autumn leaves or pumpkins or scarecrows also fit the autumn/harvest season.
And remember – this is the Vigil of a solemn feast of the Church. So the inside of your party invitation could say something like “To celebrate the Vigil of All Saints Day, we invite you to join us for a Hallowe’en party on ------”, etc.
While you’re making black and orange decorations with crepe paper streamers, or blowing up black and orange balloons, you can explain what the colors signify.
Refreshments can be very simple. Apple cider or cocoa with marshmallows would be good with bowls of popcorn. Children like to help frost cupcakes and cookies. Black and orange candy sprinkles on either chocolate or orange frosting are effective and fun. Use chocolate chips or raisins to make Jack-o’-lantern faces on cookies (before baking) or on the orange icing on cupcakes.
For party favors, get an assortment of holy cards representing the patron saints of each guest. You could fasten the cards to ribbons for guests to wear around their necks.
At the end of the party, just before the guests leave, assemble everyone to say together the Prayer to Saint Michael, composed by Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) after he had a vision of terrible evils to come in the twentieth century.
wf-f.org/Hallow-Saints.html
