More than just playing dressup

Most years we've just tried to raid the costume bin for something fun to dress up in when Oct 31/Nov 1 came along. But now-a-days, we dress up at home a lot, especially as The Avengers. So it has made All Saints Day more special as we represent a particular saint we've learned about.

A Saint is a real person, a real hero, a real role model.

"You can dress up and pretend to be something else anytime,

but it takes effort to be a Saint!" ~ me

 

Saintliness to aspire to (L-R):

Mikayla = St. Joan of Arc

Stanley  = St. Thomas the Apostle

Jonathan = St. George

Eddie = St. Edward the King

Sabrina = St. Rose of Lima

 

We learned a little about each saint that was either for our namesake or a favorite saint. It was a lot of fun, using a chart I made similar to Catholic Icing's All About Saint ? printout. We also made saint puppets, we've played saint games, and used other fun ideas on the web for enriching our faith.

 

St. Joan of Arc was a cotton dress overlayed with a homemade corset top (basically a sundress top without the skirt), with a tie at the waist.

St. Thomas the Apostle was a cheap white fabric with a hole cut in the center for his head, then a red cloth draped and pinned together in a stole fashion, and carrying an architect/carpenters square tool.

St. George is a Thor costume (a costume he'd agree to wear) paired with a stuffed dragon and sword.

St. Edward is a white karate robe, a red rectangle of fabric with a neck hole and metallic ric-rac cross, and a paper crown.

St. Rose has 2yd purple cotton folded in half with neck hole and tied waist over a long sleeve dress. The red cape is an old tree skirt cut in half, with a snap at the neck.

 

Tada!

 

Here's the last few years at a glance:

This was our Disney Costume Year, but Mikayla's Pocahontas doubled as St. Kateri, and Stanley's Prince Caspian doubles as St. Michael the Archangel and St. George.

 

St. George from a Prince Caspian costume can last a few years and a few kids! Bl. Mother Theresa is a few layers of white cloth with stitched on blue satin ribbon on the edges. St. Teresa was a dress of mine from the 80s along with Sacrifice Beads/Decade rosary and silk roses. And of course St. Joseph was a long green t-shirt with a mini apron and a plastic hammer to hold.

 

We've also had some great use of this St. Francis costume passed down from my brother. And I sewed a special dress for Mikayla to be St. Bernadette, layered with a patterned shawl and apron. Halos can be as simple as a ring of yellow paper or pipe cleaner/chenille stems.