Can we just say that y'all pulled out all of the stops for this year's contest!? It was so fun to get to see which saints your families chose to dress up as, and so difficult to narrow it down to just three winners! But alas it had to be done, so without further ado...
2024 All Saints’ Day Costume Contest
It's time again for the annual Catholic All Year All Saints' Day Costume Contest! We've LOVED getting to see all of your cute and creative costumes over the years and can't wait to see what you have dreamed up this year!Need some inspiration? Check out our previous...
The Catholic All Year Easter Gift Guide: Everything you need for baskets, gifts, and your home!
Easter is upon us! Really, Holy Week is upon us . . . but after that Easter is upon us! We know that you are searching for some simple and meaningful gifts to tuck into baskets this year, so we've put together a great mix of items to gift, as well as items to help you...
Shop Catholic: 2023 Catholic All Year Christmas Gift Guide
Another Advent is almost upon us! At Catholic All Year we are BIG believers in getting all of your Christmas shopping done before Advent starts so that you can actually focus on Advent and not on watching sales. In this guide you'll find gift ideas from all of your...
The 2023 Costume Contest: Winners & Honorable Mentions
Another All Saints' Day has come and gone, and it was amazing to get to see all of the saints that your families chose to dress up as! The Catholic All Year team loved getting to look through each and every costume...
Y’all Ready For This? It’s a CAY All Saints Day Costume Contest!
The very first Catholic All Year costume contest was in 2015. We brought it back last year because it was so cool to see you and your families in your most saintly attire, and we can't wait to do it again!Need some inspiration? Check out our previous costume...
CAY Holy Week and Easter Playlists on Spotify
We've talked a lot on this blog about prayers, pious practices, and foods associated with particular days and seasons of the liturgical calendar. The deep and wide deposit of Catholic tradition ALSO includes beautiful music associated with these feast days. You might...
Catholic All Year at Home, Ep. 6: Holy Thursday
Join my family as we prepare to celebrate Holy Thursday! WATCH NOW Holy Thursday is a day of contradictions. On the evening of Holy Thursday, Jesus' Passion began. But before that, he gathered with his friends to celebrate the Last Supper and at this meal, he...
Catholic All Year at Home, Ep. 3: Fat Tuesday
Introducing the newest episode of Catholic All Year at Home! This episode is all about celebrating Fat Tuesday before we buckle down with our Lenten Disciplines for the next 40 days. As you watch you'll discover creative, family-friendly ideas for your own Fat Tuesday...
CAY Mailbag: Indulgences and The Rosary
(question edited for clarity) Hello, Thank you for the work you put into your webpage . . . . I scrolled through the Manual of Indulgences to clarify a question I had about praying the rosary in church. But found that it just states: praying the Rosary IN...
What’s to Gain by Saying No to Abortion: A Story of Teen Pregnancy, Grandparents’ Prayers, and . . . Me
A note from Kendra: This is a guest post by my friend Emily, the Catholic All Year Warehouse manager and my partner on the Liturgical Living Subscription boxes. It's a beautiful story of how her mother's crisis pregnancy brought their family together. I'm so grateful...
Why I Love Friday Abstinence, Meat Fridays, & the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Happy Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus! In honor of the day, I'd like to share why I think Friday abstinence is a beautiful and effective form of penance and also, oh yeah, that Catholics are actually STILL required to do Friday penance EVERY WEEK. Unless it's a...
Is Pentecost the Birthday of the Church? (and if not, should we be mad about it?)
Health update: The husband's treatments are progressing and we * finally * got the test results we were waiting for and it was good news for the spine! Thanks so much for your prayers. Happy feast day! Red for Pentecost! #dontcountus #someofusareoutsick I’ve had some...
Catholic Liturgical Wall Calendars (or: The Ultimate Solution to Your Liturgical Living Overwhelm)
Catholic All Year has been around for (almost) a decade. In that time, I've shared hundreds of liturgical living and feast celebration ideas, liturgical wall calendars, dozens of prayer booklets for you to print, over a year of physical boxes with feast materials, and...
How To Start Liturgical Living in the Home (with help from me in 2008)
Health update: Not much to report. Treatments are progressing. We are awaiting test results. We are all in good spirits. Your prayers are SO appreciated. God's will be done. In case you prefer watching/listening to reading . . . this post is also available as a video....
The “You Can Still Do This” Guide to All Things Holy Week
Also available as a YouTube video here! Well, you've done it. You AND your children have, somehow, against all odds, survived through to these last few days of Lent. Though for a while there, it looked like you might succumb to an acute lack of coffee / Netflix /...
Succeeding at Lent by Compromise and Cheating
Happy Fat Tuesday, y'all! Scroll to the bottom for a Mardi Gras party printable freebie. Note: Illustrations are from vintage crime novel covers Lent, you guys. Here it comes again. Late this year, but coming nonetheless. I've written about how my general approach to...
Writing a Letter to the Pope for the Feast of The Chair of Saint Peter
The feast of the chair of Saint Peter is on February 22nd! This feast celebrates both an actual, physical, very old chair housed at the back of St. Peter’s Basilica . . . and the spiritual authority that the chair represents, passed down through apostolic succession...
It’s Not a Meat Friday but It Is Black Friday and Advent Is on Sale Here at CAY!
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We are on a family vacation in a cabin at Lake Arrowhead, CA and it's been so fun. Also very cold and windy, but you can't beat a hot drink and a cozy fire after a chilly adventure! Note: Jack made it in time for...
Seven Catholic Advent Traditions, and which ones will work for your family
Advent is coming! What to do, what NOT to do . . . these are the questions. I think I can help. Here are my seven favorite Catholic Advent traditions with pros and cons of each to help you decide which ones will work for your family and personal circumstances this...
An At Home Blessing of Animals for the Feast of Saint Francis
Hey guys! So much fun stuff is in the works around here. We are adding a whole new dimension to Catholic All Year memberships. Different levels include: a colorful daily medallion calendar featuring fun feast day symbols, saint and feast day summaries, five posters...
The Seven Sorrows of Mary: an activity for children
Hey all! It's September, the month of the Seven Sorrows of Mary, and the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows is coming up on September 15. And while "The Seven Sorrows" might not sound like a lot of fun . . . I'm here to try to convince you that it's a devotion worth...
Catholic Indulgences and that Los Angeles is Named for One
Hey all! Catholic indulgences, St. Francis of Assisi, and the surprising history of the founding of Los Angeles: It’s a new installment of the Catholic All Year Liturgical Living Show! Come with us to visit the San Fernando Mission, Old Town L.A.’s Olvera St., and...
How to Dye Your Easter Eggs the Way Mary Magdalene Would Have Except Her Eggs Dyed Miraculously
The story of Mary Magdalene’s miraculously dyed eggs, and how to dye eggs naturally at home using flowers, herbs, and vegetables.
Happy Feast of St Joseph, Get Ready to Cry
It's a solemnity and a Meat Friday, I hope you're celebrating today! I posted last week with some celebration ideas and free printables for the feast of St. Joseph. But I had to pop back in today to share one of my ALL-TIME favorite poems. We read it for St. Joseph's...
It’s Never Too Late to Start: A Lenten Book List
Get this as free printable here!Download Well, here we are on Monday of the first week of Lent. Happy feast of the Chair of St. Peter! (See how our family celebrates the day here.) If Ash Wednesday crept up on you this year, not to worry . . . it's never too late to...
St. Nicholas Catholic Book Stack
Hey, you ever announce you're going to start blogging again and then behind the scenes stuff goes sideways and then your dad has a stroke and you spend the beginning of Advent dealing with hospitals for the second year in a row, but this time it's 2020 so you can't...
The Triduum at Home: a Tenebrae Service
Happy Spy Wednesday! Today we'll be hiding thirty quarters. Here's why: https://youtu.be/2alx0jkg1Jw See the April Booklet for the collects and readings for Spy Wednesday and each day of the Triduum. We've done the quarters thing for many years now, and love it. New...
Palm Sunday at Home and Every CAY Printable for Holy Week
Palm Sunday is tomorrow you guys! I'm inadvertently VERY prepared for an at home Holy Week and Easter, but definitely mourning the prospect. The images of Palm Sunday from old picture Bibles are kinda punching me in the gut right now. The sea of humanity, the crowd,...
From What Shall We Fast?
We are a week into Lent. Probably we've all had some moments to be proud of, and some fails, right? That's to be expected. The spring Ember Days begin today, Wednesday, and continue on Friday and Saturday. Ember Days are seasonal days of fasting and repentance that...