Celebrating All Saints Day and All Souls Day in the Home

I have been busy preparing our Advent study this year with our older children and while doing so decided to share our plans for All Saints Day.
Here is what we have done in the past as well as our plans for this year.
PAST CELEBRATIONS-
Our Earliest Celebrations of All Saints/All Souls Day/Halloween
Highlights from 20
2012
2013

Here is a list of what we typically do as part of our celebrations-
READ the Books-

*Father Phillip Tells a Ghost Story
*Pumpkin Moonshine

*Fifty Seven Saints for Boys and Girls or one of our many other books about various saints.

ACTIVITIES-
*Word Search (one I created, Just not sure how else to share it here)

ALL SAINTS DAY WORDSEARCH 2015

N O S D V A R F V K O U X Y R N P N J D J P E R Z M Q L O E

H F S W E A H J K I L W A D E I X E L R R P Z S H R F W K A

O N F V P F V C Z N M F R B U A I C N D F A D X C N V Z O C

J M H F Q J F W I S N B Q O P E S O C E B P R Z W O Y A V F

C B E R N A D E T T E E X A G K E J S L Z O S E H O U G F J

Y P A G T N J O A B A V O J O Y G I X R Z R E C G L I I M Y

E I I Z I F V F G R E G O R Y U Q J J C M P R L L W L L U J

N T O K V N S E B P T J V K B F B R Q S G E E C P V Z I I A

E Q S G E N A G I D M N M T W R W X Q V I A W Y O D Q G A Y

C L M T C A Y O W F A F U M E C E I X O H E E N Y U Q X X T

I H I K N P E A J I C U Q Q P N J E E C O E G E W M Q D A D

K X Q Z B T X Z L K P Q C K C Z M E I G L Q R B Q K R N S X

J Y Q Y A S J L A X Q Q S W C B S M L D J W O V I T N R M U

F A T L G B I H W H F V C M A N V T U E L U E O V E X T F H

J G I I L M E N G O C B Q U T F I Z N Y J L G H K A H K X N

D B K U I E R T N R D E L A H W W Y H J Y F D M D T C X M T

F M L X I M Y K H N V N K R E H R N S B S R M Y R M M F T I

M X A W L Z F T N R Q G F K R G I M D Q M A D H A H V Q D R

A M A H T H Y L X L Y C G P I E U C N I R N W K N K S I L X

K W I L G P T M L L G X U Y N J Z H H H Y U U R R A W B U H

L D D S L F G Y D T N Q W K E C N L A M Z L D C E O T J C O

A C N U J E I L O I R V B A D D T S G K C J L T B T S B U T

R M J S K R B M A R I A L J E H Z T H Q F Q I U M D E B J D

Y G A N M B V A I R R O J C S G P J D E Y G D Y O N N O I L

G H W R O W O Y S X K R O E G X Y Y V H S C K Y E T S U Q Y

D B W F Y N L F Y I J Z N P A P F M Z C V T X D M E I P G E

K N D C I B V C G A E G Q G H O F M Y S P C I V P P H M V Y

A H T R A M F Y S O A E S O R W V Z G P T C J H F R H Q J D

I S E V C G N N I X T F B J P I D Z A U T E P R E P M N P L

U X E Q V G A T Q L Q N B S V L C H X P L Z E K S F H P A M

AGNES

ANNE

BENEDICT

BERNADETTE

BERNARD

CATHERINE

DYMPHNA

ELIZABETH

GEORGE

GERARD

GREGORY

ISABELLA

JOAN

JOHN

JOSEPH

MARIA

MARTHA

MARY

MAXIMILLIAN

MICHAEL

PERPETUA

ROSE

WULFRAN

ZITA

*Colouring pages
*Know your saints Quiz
*Beatitudes Card Game 

GAMES-
*Pin the sacred heart on Jesus

*Tower of Babel-build a tower out of building blocks; see how tall they can build it before it falls

*How Many Saints? Guess the jelly beans in a jar. Winner gets the jar

*St. Helen’s search for the True Cross: search for little crosses (tooth picks tied together work well)

*St. Anthony’s Lost and Found: search for little prizes or wrapped lollies

*For older children or even adults, "A Trayful of Saints" is a good game. 

On a tray place a dozen or more objects that symbolize familiar saints. 

For example:
key--St. Peter
flower--Little Flower
rose--St. Rose of Lima
dog--St. Dominic
bird--St. Francis of Assisi
cross--St. Helena
crown--St. Elizabeth of Hungary
eagle--St. John the Evangelist
shell--St. James
Sacred Heart--St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
kitchen utensil--St. Martha
half coat (paper cut-out)--St. Martin of Tours

Go slowly from one person to another, giving them time to memorize what is on the tray. Then pass out paper and pencils and have them list what they remember, and what saint they think they symbolize.

PROCESSION-

*One of the best celebrations we have had in the family and most remembered was when we had a  Procession to the 'Graveyard' we created
First off the children dressed up as their chosen saint for the day then we would have  a candlelight procession, if at night or if by day we would just carry candles, while singing the Litany of the Saints, we have played this to help us as we process to the graveyard we have created. Here it is in In latin, an abbreviated sung version in English

There are 4 tombstones or grave markers -Departed Family, Departed Friends, Departed Clergy, Forgotten Dead.
We have made these from cardboard and from ply wood in the past, in both cross shapes and rounded shapes. These are gravestones are simply to represent the souls we need to remember in prayer.
As we reach the gravestones we lay red berries and an evergreen branch to symbolize the passion of Christ which wrought eternal life for us. Then prayers led by Dad for each group are said after the berries and evergreen are placed.

FOOD-
We have had variations of donuts, popcorn, apple juice, nuts, apples and cake to eat. Easy to prepare food and coffee and hot chocolate to drink, as we have come home for the 'presentation of the Saints' we are dressed up as.
Sometimes we have had a bonfire but if not just inside spending time together.

PRESENTATION-
*Each child presents who they are, if no one can guess first, and then tells a little about themselves.

Blessings to you and your homes,