Raising children in the Catholic faith can be both an enriching and challenging experience, especially in today’s secular culture. As parents, we want our children to understand and embrace the beauty of the faith in ways that are engaging, practical, and fun. One innovative tool to help integrate Catholic teachings into daily life while making it enjoyable for kids is a Catholic Family Crate.
A Catholic Family Crate is a subscription service or curated collection that delivers faith-based activities, books, crafts, and resources right to your door each month. The idea behind these crates is to offer parents tools and ideas that can help make Catholicism come alive for their children, whether through hands-on activities, prayer time, or discussions about the saints, feasts, and moral lessons.
In this blog post, we’ll explore how to use a Catholic Family Crate to nurture your children’s faith, create a deeper connection with the Church, and make Catholicism a meaningful part of your family life.
1. Making Faith Fun and Hands-On
One of the most important aspects of a Catholic Family Crate is that it makes learning about the faith interactive and enjoyable. Children—especially younger ones—often connect better with faith when it’s presented in a tactile and engaging way. Crates typically include age-appropriate crafts, games, and activities that make religious concepts concrete and accessible.
For example, a crate might include:
- Saints’ Feast Day activities: These can be fun, themed crafts like making St. Therese’s flower bookmarks or creating a St. Patrick’s Day shamrock necklace to celebrate the patron saint of Ireland.
- Catholic-themed coloring books or scripture verse memory games: These help your children memorize Bible verses and reflect on their meaning in a creative, visual way.
- DIY altar kits: Your kids can create their own little family altar or sacred space, learning about prayer, reverence, and the importance of liturgical seasons.
How it works in practice: Imagine sitting down with your kids on a Sunday afternoon and unboxing a crate filled with materials to celebrate an upcoming feast day. They may get to create a little St. Joseph’s day lantern, complete a scavenger hunt based on the life of St. Therese, or decorate a prayer card. This hands-on approach helps them understand the “why” behind Catholic traditions, while making it fun and memorable.
Catholic connection: By engaging in these activities, your children are learning about the lives of the saints, the sacraments, and key aspects of the faith in a way that connects them to the Church’s rich traditions. The Church has always used art, craft, and beauty as a way to deepen understanding, as seen in the use of stained glass, religious icons, and devotional art in Catholic history.
2. Strengthening Family Prayer Time
A Catholic Family Crate often includes prayer resources that encourage your children to make prayer a regular part of their day. Whether it’s a set of prayer cards, a rosary-making kit, or a devotional guide, these materials help your family develop a deeper prayer life together.
Some crate examples might include:
- Themed prayer cards for each month or feast day that help children learn specific prayers, such as the Hail Mary, the Our Father, or prayers for specific saints.
- Rosary guides and rosary beads: Teach your kids the significance of this beautiful Catholic devotion and encourage them to pray together as a family.
- Advent or Lent devotionals: These help children reflect on the season and prepare spiritually for major liturgical events. A special daily activity or prayer to mark each day of Advent or Lent can help your family journey together toward the great feasts of Christmas and Easter.
How it works in practice: After unboxing the crate, you can start by teaching your child a prayer related to that month’s theme. For example, if it’s the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, you could introduce the Canticle of the Sun as a prayer of thanksgiving for creation. Your family might spend a few minutes each day learning and praying together, helping to form a habit of prayer in your children’s daily lives.
Catholic connection: Prayer is at the heart of Catholic life, and children who are taught to pray from a young age will develop a lifelong relationship with God. Through regular family prayer, your children will also learn the importance of the Church’s liturgical seasons, the lives of the saints, and the power of intercessory prayer.
3. Introducing Catholic Traditions and Feast Days
One of the beautiful aspects of Catholicism is the richness of its liturgical year, filled with feast days, saints’ celebrations, and holy moments that help us connect with God and each other. A Catholic Family Crate often includes materials that focus on celebrating these sacred times, offering simple yet meaningful ways to observe special days with your children.
For example:
- Feast day books or stories: These might be short, child-friendly books telling the stories of saints or important events in the life of the Church. A storybook about St. Nicholas or St. Joan of Arc helps your child connect with the lives of these holy men and women.
- Liturgical calendar charts: These charts show your children the important feast days, helping them learn the Church’s calendar and the rhythm of the liturgical year.
- Special celebration kits: These might include everything you need to celebrate a feast day, such as recipes for St. Lawrence’s Day, prayer cards, or even saint figurines to place on your family altar.
How it works in practice: When a feast day like the Feast of St. Cecilia comes around, your crate may include a small packet with a children’s biography of the saint, a craft idea (such as creating a musical instrument to honor her patronage of music), and a prayer card for St. Cecilia. As a family, you can learn about the saint’s life, pray together, and enjoy an activity to make the celebration memorable.
Catholic connection: Observing the feast days helps children understand the communion of saints and the sacred history of the Church. It’s a great way to teach them about the spiritual family that transcends time and space, reinforcing the idea that the Church is not just something that exists on Sunday mornings but something to be lived in every season and moment of life.
4. Cultivating Catholic Values and Virtues
Catholic Family Crates often emphasize the development of virtues and Catholic values in everyday life. Whether through the stories of saints or through specific activities that focus on kindness, humility, or generosity, these crates are an opportunity to teach your children how to live out their faith in concrete ways.
Crates might include:
- Saints’ virtues activity books: These might highlight a particular saint’s virtues (such as humility, courage, or charity) and include corresponding activities to help children practice those virtues.
- Catholic virtue-based board games: Games that challenge kids to practice virtues like patience, honesty, or empathy while having fun.
- Daily reflection journals: These might include simple prompts to help children reflect on their actions and consider how they can live out Catholic values each day.
How it works in practice: Let’s say your family receives a crate focused on the virtue of patience. You might read a story about St. Monica, who patiently prayed for her son, St. Augustine. Then, you can engage in a family activity where everyone practices patience, perhaps through a board game or a group challenge.
Catholic connection: Virtue is central to Catholic teaching because it leads us toward holiness. Developing good habits of character is essential to growing in grace and becoming more like Christ. Teaching your children virtues in a fun, practical way helps them live out their faith beyond the classroom or church.
5. Strengthening Family Bonding
Finally, a Catholic Family Crate provides a wonderful opportunity to strengthen family bonds. Whether through shared prayers, crafts, or discussions, these crates help families spend quality time together, learning about the faith and growing closer to each other in the process.
How it works in practice: Unboxing and working on a project together gives your family time to talk about the things that matter most—God, the Church, love, and kindness. Plus, working on a shared project encourages cooperation, communication, and connection as a family unit.
Catholic connection: The family is often called the “domestic church,” and the time you spend together engaging in faith-filled activities helps build a strong foundation for your children’s future. A close-knit family helps foster strong relationships with God and one another, reinforcing the importance of community and love in Catholic life.
Conclusion
Using a Catholic Family Crate is an enjoyable and meaningful way to engage your children in the Catholic faith. From hands-on activities to prayer time and feast day celebrations, these crates provide a fun and interactive way for families to learn about their faith together. By making Catholicism accessible, engaging, and relevant to children, Catholic Family Crates can help foster a deeper love for God, the Church, and the beautiful traditions of our faith. Whether you’re looking to nurture virtue, teach your children about the saints, or simply create lasting memories around faith, these crates are a great way to build a stronger, more vibrant domestic church in your home.