All Saints Party

I bet domestic-church.com would have loads of ideas.

St Agnes: Long white dress tied at waist. Make palm branch out of green construction paper or pick one up from Michael's or off the houseplant. Add stuffed animal sheep or lamb, if available.

Other saints: Make armor out of aluminum foil and cardboard boxes for St Michael/ St George/ St Louis/ St Martin (add a piece of fabric torn in half) and so on.

Brown tunic= instant Franciscan! Add props as necessary (wolf for St Francis, book and baby doll for St Anthony, etc)

White tunic + black scapular type thingie = instant Dominican! Bring a rosary, and a stuffed dog with a construction paper torch in its mouth, to be St Dominic.

Make a raggedy brown tunic out of felt. Blow up a balloon, draw a face on it, stick the knotted end into the middle of a paper plate. Voila -- John the Baptist!

For the tunics you can just take a length of fabric, fold it in half along the short side, and cut a hole in the middle for the neck (like a poncho) and then belt and drape it.

Does the toy box yield anything for the boys? A sword and shield or stuffed dragon for St. George -- I'd make a breastplate out of cardboard and foil like Peony suggested and top it with a cape (cut off the front and sleeves of an adult-sized t-shirt, leaving neck intact and instant cape!). Helmet can be an empty gallong milk jug, cut off and covered with foil. No need for a plume.

If you have a bow and arrow in the toy box, you can do St. Hubert the Hunter. Green or dark red or brown shirt & pants (sweats?) with boots, another cape and bow & arrow.

Dark hooded bathrobe and a book with a feather pen can be any number of Saints -- Gospel-writers, don't you think?

I don't know enough about other Saints to make any more suggestions. Sorry.

When I grew up the default would be one of those plastic masks of Bugs Bunny or Strawberry Shortcake or Cookie Monster. Maybe someday Catholic culture will become strong enough that parents will have readymade saint masks for Halloween! (Sure, everyone knowing how to sew would be ideal, but I'll take a virtuous Catholic Wal-Mart over nothing.)

You could tell the boys to grow long beards, wear loin cloths and have locust legs and wild honey stuck in the beards. Maybe I will do that one next year. I am probably a bit too well-fed to pull it off, though. Oh well, St. Thomas Aquinas it is for me. Excuse my while I chew the cud and bellow at heretics.

Hi Pansy,

A friend emailed me a long list of saint costume ideas. It's a bit too long to post here but if you go to my blog http://revolutionoflove.blogspot.com you can check it out! Have fun!

Bobbi