Showing posts with label Advent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advent. Show all posts

Sunday, November 23, 2025

December Radiant Roundup

   

It's almost December! Amidst the decorating and shopping and baking, here are some resources to help you and your kids keep your hearts focused on the reason for the Season. As I pulled posts from the archives, this round up grew larger and larger- but don't let that overwhelm you. Choose 2 or 3 things that suit your home of classroom and will help you pray as we look forward to the celebration of the birth of Christ. From books to crafts to meals to Saints and more, there are plenty of tools gathered here to pick from!


A great resource to guide you is my book All about Advent & Christmas: Sharing the Seasons of Hope & Wonder with Children, which you can find at The St. Paul Center here or on Amazon here:


And the illustrator Shari Van Vranken and I have made a whole of resources for the Seasons of Advent and Christmas available for free. Posts are sprinkled below and in various blog posts, but you can find all of them here:




Check out this list for a huge list of books great for Advent & Christmas, as well as St. Francis Xavier, St. Nicholas, the Immaculate Conception, St. Juan Diego & Our Lady of Guadalupe, Fulton Sheen, St. Lucy, and the Holy Family.


The Advent Wreath:


Printable Advent Activities:
What Advent Looks Like* Coloring Page
Advent Family Traditions* (printable booklets about the Liturgical Year and December Feast Days)
Advent Traditions for Anyone and Everyone* (Info cards that are easy to display and share- one for the Advent Wreath, Jesse Tree, O Antiphons, Christmas Tree, Nativity Scene, St. Andrew, The Immaculate Conception, St. Lucy, St. Nicholas, Ven. Fulton Sheen, St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe)
Advent Prayer Ring* (printable Bible verses for each day of the Season)
Advent Prayer Cards for Each Sunday (Year C)*






Digital/Shareable:


Decorating for Advent (simple ideas for decorating your home for the Season)
Advent Today (Youth Group Activity)


St. Nicholas' Many Gifts Bingo Game-Here's a fresh update of an old post! This game is set up so that each child makes their own bingo board. Blank boards and a list of words related to the life of St. Nicholas are provided, making this game perfect to play either after reading a story of St. Nicholas' life or to tell a fact about him as each word is called. Use gold chocolate coins or punch out yellow circles as Bingo markers.
St. Ambrose: December 7th
St. Ambrose coloring pages* (all ages)
Sweeter than Honey Psalm coloring pages* (all ages)
Included in the Advent Feast Days Booklet*

Venerable Fulton J. Sheen: December 9th
Ven. Fulton Sheen Activities* (all ages)
So, SO many activities under that tab!

Our Lady of Loreto: December 10th
Our Lady of Loreto Digital Scavenger Hunt (6th & up)

Juan Diego: December 9th
Our Lady of Guadalupe: December 12th
Our Lady of Guadalupe Block Print* 

St. John of the Cross: December 14th

Gaudete Sunday: December 15th




Christmas Activities:

St. John: December 27th 


The Holy Family: December 28th
Holy Family Collection*

And just in case you are working ahead, here are a few resources for Epiphany!
Epiphany: January 6th (observed Sunday, January 4, 2026)
Epiphany Home Blessing Kit* (updated through 2026)
My Gift: An Epiphany Readers' Theater*
Gifts of the Magi Google Classroom Assignment


Books for all of December, including December Saints:



You can find the links to the monthly Radiant Roundups here:

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Clickable Advent Calendar for 2025

Our clickable Advent calendar has been quite popular over the past few years, so here is the update to align with dates in 2025! This version of the calendar is a collaboration between myself and Shari Van Vranken of Catholic Paper Goods to support our book All about Advent & Christmas. My original (much simpler) version from back in 2020 also includes an editable version if that is a better fit for your needs. 

This calendar is intentionally digital so that you can click and be sent right to the resource. You can save it on your desktop or bookmark it in a browser for easy access to the activities organized throughout Advent. It has ideas for every single day of the Advent Season as well as all twelve days of Christmas. There is a wide variety of activities including coloring pages and printables, meal ideas, music playlists, charitable projects, and more. The events of the Advent and Christmas Seasons are highlighted along with Saint Feast Days and the celebration of the O Antiphons. Almost everything links to a FREE resource, but a few will take you over to Shari's shop, who I encourage you to support!

You are welcome to share this calendar far and wide! Email it out to your CCD program, include it in your parish bulletin or school newsletter, send a QR code home with your students- it's all yours to send!

Click here for the pdf of the Clickable Advent Calendar (just a note, in order for the links to be clickable, you have to share the pdf, not just the image, or you can send people back to this page if that is easier!):

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Monday, November 10, 2025

Pool Noodle Advent Candles- Super easy bulletin board or display!

This easy-peasy door decor for Advent was inspired by a bargain bin of pool noodles in the late fall- they happened to be all purple and pink, so even though it was October...my Catholic teacher brain went to Advent!

I cut the pool noodles in half, attached to my door with heavy duty double sided tape (they stayed surprisingly well, despite the traffic and movement and bumping-up-against that happens to this door). I added some cardstock holly leaves, creased in half to give a little dimension. 

Then each week, we lit one of the candles with a chunk of yellow tissue paper. 


All in all, this display cost me less than $2 and got lots of compliments from kids and teachers alike.
Make sure you grab some pink and purple pool noodles when you see them!

Here is the "It's gonna be lit" heading if you'd like to use it:
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Friday, October 31, 2025

November Radiant Roundup

November, the Month of the Holy Souls in Purgatory
It's the month of the Holy Souls in Purgatory, a time that the Church Militant here on earth focuses our prayers on the Church Suffering. We also strive to orient our own gazes to Heaven, knowing that this life is only temporary. The days of Hallowtide- Halloween, All Saints, and All Souls- give us a perfect opportunity to teach kids about eternity and the hope that we have in Jesus. Here some activities for Hallowtide, as well as upcoming Saints' Feast Days and looking ahead to planning for Advent!

All Saints: November 1st
All Saints Day Info & Coloring Page and Crossword Puzzle*
Collection of Saint Bio Pages and Puzzles*
12+ Ideas for Celebrating Halloween, All Saints, and All Souls Day*
Saint Scavenger Hunt*
Digital Saint Scavenger Hunt
All Saints Day Art Project
Beatitudes and Modern Saints Card Game*
All Saints Day Info Coloring Page*
Happy All Saints Day Coloring Page*
All Saints Day Litany Prayer Cards*
Saintly Friends Bingo Game (and book recs for Saint Pairs)* (all ages)
Saints Q&A Activity Book (5th-8th)*
Saint Trading Card Classroom Reward System (K-8th)
12+ Ideas for Celebrating All Saints Day* (K-8th)
Saint Pennants* (all ages)
Saint Pennants in more sizes*


Two sets of clickable Saint Jeopardy, ready to play with a group or set up for an individual to test their knowledge. You can also make a copy and edit to add in your own favorite Saints!
12+ Ideas for Celebrating Halloween, All Saints, and All Souls Day*

Memento Mori Visio Divina & Reflections
This slide show is intended for junior high and high schoolers to start a conversation on living each day with Heaven in mind, as well as praying for the dead. It included a recommended video, a set of art to use with Visio Divina, and a collection of Saint and Scripture quotes to use for discussion or journaling.
And here's a printable guide to the steps for Visio Divina the kids can use to help with discussion or a written reflection of the included art.





Photos to print here and awesome coloring pages from artist Fabiola Garza here.
My students used all of these tools, some books, and online research to create posters about these six holy men and women.


Vocations Awareness Week- First full week in November
Praying for Vocations* Tactile Prayer Stations





Solemnity of Christ the King: November 23rd
Christ the King Music Playlist on YouTube
Feast of the Miraculous Medal: November 27th
St. Catherine Laboure: November 28th
Miraculous Medal Embroidery Pattern* and links to free resources

Thanksgiving: November 27th
Psalm 9:2 Coloring Page*
Psalm 9:2-I will give thanks bulletin board*


St. Andrew: November 30th




Advent: 1st Sunday of Advent- November 30, 2025
Giant Collection of Advent Activity Pages* (I'd start here!)
What Advent Looks Like* Coloring Page
Advent, Christmas, Epiphany Ideas 2019
Advent Family Calendar (structure & activity ideas, includes an editable version)*
Weekly Advent Reflection Slides (Editable for Google Classroom)
Advent & Christmas Videos
Advent Music Playlist
Sacred Art Visio Divina for Advent (Digital Resources)
New Advent Resources
Printable Advent Wreath Candles*
Printable Advent Wreath Candles (Spanish)*
Printable Advent Wreath Candles (Dutch)*
Advent Traditions for Anyone and Everyone *
Advent Family Traditions*
Decorating for Advent
Advent Today
Favorite Advent Videos
Advent Trivia Jeopardy
Advent Prayer Ring*
Advent Prayer Cards for Each Sunday (Year C)*
Advent Weekly Reflections

New Liturgical Year Resources
The Liturgical Year Coloring Book*
Liturgical Year Calendar
Liturgical Year Printable & Colorable Calendar
Decorating for the Liturgical Year
Liturgical Year Board Game
Monthly Devotion Signs*
Ideas for Living the Liturgical Year in the Classroom*

Books for Advent



And if you haven't checked it out yet, now would be a great time to order my book All about Advent & Christmas: Sharing the Seasons of Wonder and Hope with Children so you have it in plenty of time for Advent! Shari and I also made a giant stack of activity pages that correspond directly with the book that you can get totally free!




You can find the links to the monthly Radiant Roundups here:



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