Here’s how it works . . .

If your kids are dressing up in a Catholic costume for Halloween or All Saints Day share a photo on Instagram and Facebook using #catholiccostume tag @catholicallyear and @kendra_tierney. (If you have a private account, you’ll need to set it to public for the day so I can see your tag.) If you are not a social media type, you can email your photo to me at helpdesk@catholicallyear.com.

We’ll do a round-up post following the close of the contest, which is November 1, 2022 at 11:59PM. Three winners will be selected & announced on November 2!

And now, for the PRIZES:

1. Requiscant In Pace Banner:
   Requiscant In Pace is Latin for “May They Rest In Peace.” Decorate for Hallowtide and the Month of the Holy Souls (November) with this beautiful and meaningful banner. Twenty-one 2.5 x 3.5 inch cards, professionally printed on 110 lb smooth white cardstock, featuring vintage line art illustrations of the Holy Souls and stamped gold foil details. Includes three yards of black waxed cotton string for hanging. 

2. Eternal Rest Candle
Use this candle during the month of November or any time, to remember to pray for the souls of beloved friends and family members who have passed away, and for all the holy souls in purgatory, especially those who have no one else to pray for them. Burn it daily during prayer time or dinner. Following the instructions for use below, the candle will burn for about 40 hours. 

Catholic All Year Handmade Candles are 100% beeswax + essential oils + natural resin incense. 9 ounce amber glass jar, wooden wick, black metal screw-on lid.

3. Memento Mori Hat
You will be the first to get one of our brand new Memento Mori embroidered hats! This is a special edition Catholic All Year item.

4. $100 CAY Gift Card
Treat yourself (or a friend) with a $100 CAY gift card! Grab that subscription box or a membership that you’ve had your eye on for sometime.

5. Eternal Rest Wooden Sign

This Eternal Rest sign was handmade in our VA warehouse. “Eternal Rest, grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.”

Don’t want to wait to see if you win to grab some Hallowtide items for yourself? We are also happy to refund the winners for a previous purchase.

The post The Catholic All Year Costume Contest is BACK! appeared first on Catholic All Year.

Is that too strong? Well, it’s what WE are going to do anyway: CLEAN OUT THE COAT CLOSET!

St. Martin’s Day is a great time to do necessary cleaning and repairs (why are all of our coats always put away filthy?) and be boldly generous with what we’ve got, because, odds are, there is someone who could really use our help.

I’ve been on a bit of a tear around here, as you may have noticed. I cleaned out my closet, cleaned it WAY out. And it’s been great. Even though I made a fall wardrobe and it’s consistently been in the nineties all week. Whew. At least I didn’t put away all the short sleeves. (Have you cleaned your wardrobe out? Have you linked it up?)

I’ve also done the kids’ closets. Blogging is forthcoming on that. But on Tuesday, November 11th, St. Martin’s Day, I’m going to go through the coat closet and get that down to a reasonable number of items for us as well. We’re going to get rid of duplicate sizes, and sizes we won’t be using for the next couple years. And I’m going to give our extra coats to families who will be able to use them NOW.

Did you notice the background of my capsule wardrobe graphic? That’s St. Martin of tours, cutting his cloak, to give half of it to a beggar.

We live in Southern California, of the aforementioned ninety degree weather in November. But I still have all the coats we had when we lived in Chicago.

I’m planning to go through and keep 3-4 for me, and no more than two per size for the kids, one light weight jacket and one heavier coat. (It WILL cool down enough for sleeves here at some point, and we go camping.) That should still give me quite a few to donate. Of course, giving away a whole coat, even many whole coats, when I still have a closet-full at home, isn’t quite the same as giving away half of the only warmth you have. But, I figure it will be a good start.

I made the St. Basil quote printable, for inspiration!

And since it’s a FEAST, after the cleaning out, we’re going to have dessert.

We’re also going to have dessert today, since November 10th is the Marine Corps Birthday, and you only turn 239 once.

With dessert, silly. Here’s what Betty made for her dad last year:

For more FUN things to do for St. Martin’s Day check out these posts . . .

From Molly Makes Do: Martinmas Hide and Seek

and Two Os Plus More: 7 Quick Ways to Celebrate Martinmas, the Feast of St. Martin of Tours

And have you heard about the new Advent Journal from Blessed is She?

Click here to learn more and order! All proceeds go to help with operational costs for Blessed Is She. Help US help you, ladies.

The post What Everyone Should Do for the Feast of St. Martin of Tours, with a printable appeared first on Catholic All Year.

It seems important somehow to let everyone know that, yes, there are Overachieving Pinterest Mom All-Saints costumes, hand-sewn and with special effects. But there are also Crafty Mom no-sew costumes. And Last Minute Mom stuff-that-was-laying-around-the-house costumes. There are as many ways to make an All Saints costume as there are paths to heaven. Which is to say . . . plenty.

But first: I was supposed to pick one winner, but they were WAY too good. I just couldn’t. I still only have one grand prize to give away. So, I’ve picked my favorites for ten categories. Each winner gets a custom-made-by-me free printable prayer of the prayer or quote of their choice. And one of those ten will be randomly selected to be the grand prize winner and receive the three month subscription to Saint Mail.

You can click on any photo to see it bigger.

Here are some categories I just made up . . .

1. BABIES

Hey, let’s start with something awesomely adorable, shall we? Babies. Dressed up as saints.

2. MOMS WITH SKILLS

Okay moms with skills, you know who you are. You look forward to All Saints Day. You plan ahead. You can sew, and wield a glue gun. You’ve got production value. Check you out.

Each one of these costumes is truly stunning. Seriously. How lucky are your kids? But I’m pretty sure Our Lady of the Assumption has LIGHTS in her CLOUDS. She wins the Printable Prayer in the category of Moms With Skills.

All the St. Lucy eyes are really great, obviously. And, if we’re being fair, Bl. Fra Angelico’s painting is clearly UH-mazing. But it’s my blog and the St. Juan Diego picture is pretty much the best thing I’ve seen all week. I can’t stop looking at it. It’s perfect. He wins the printable prayer in the category of Props.

7. KID-MADE

Not a crafty mom? Maybe your kids will make their OWN costumes. These kids did. VERY impressive.

Kid-made St. Kateri wins the printable prayer!

8. MOMS IN COSTUME

Hey, who says the kids get to have all the fun?

Hey! That bottom one is me. And it isn’t even a SAINT! I don’t win. The Virgen de Guadalupe wins the Printable Prayer in this category.

9. FAMILY GROUPS

The more, the merrier.

Okay, seriously. This St. George. And the little red dragon? I die. They win the Printable Prayer for the category of Family Groups.

10. THE BEST OF THE REST

I’ve run out of clever categories. But you should see these, too.

Yes, that’s my little St. Francis with tonsure. He needed a haircut anyway! It was pretty great. But the win goes to St. Therese for the printable prayer.

They are all so great!

And NOW, for the GRAND PRIZE! The winner of the Three Month Subscription to Saint Mail is . . .  Our Lady of the Assumption! If you won a custom-designed printable prayer or the Saint Mail subscription, please email me at catholicallyear @ gmail . com to claim your prize. And congratulations!

Pats on backs all around people. Nicely done.

Now, if you didn’t win the Saint Mail subscription, click here to subscribe for yourself! I did.

p.s. If your photo appears here, it’s because I think I have permission to use it on the blog. If you’d prefer that it not be up here, please let me know and I’ll take it down.

If you’d like to keep track of ALL the feasts of the Catholic liturgical year, I’ve created a wall calendar to help you do it!

It features the all the feasts and fasts of the Universal Calendar and then some, illustrated with images featuring the traditional Catholic monthly devotions. It’s an easy visual way to bring liturgical living into your home. You can keep track of the feasts and fasts and seasons of the Catholic year, and be reminded to focus your prayer on a different aspect of our faith each month.

As the Church year begins with December, so does this calendar. You get December 2018 through December 2019, thirteen months. Available for purchase here. Thanks!

Coupon codes are available from the publisher here.

The post Over 150 All-Saints Day Costumes for Kids appeared first on Catholic All Year.

“The life of a family is filled with beautiful moments: rest, meals together, walks in the park or the countryside, visits to grandparents or to a sick person… But if love is missing, joy is missing, nothing is fun. Jesus gives always gives us that love: he is its endless source. In the sacrament he gives us his word and he gives us the bread of life, so that our joy may be complete.”                                                                          –Pope Francis October 2013 

We certainly feel blessed this year.

(thanks to Nana, who’s cooking today, and Grandad, who’s wrangling kids so we’ll have Thanksgiving! and the two extra little girls in there are Emma and Skylar, our Iowa cousins.)

The post Happy Thanksgiving! appeared first on Catholic All Year.