Celebrating St. Lucy's Feast Day for Beginners

On St. Lucy day (also know as St. Lucia Day) is just around the corner on December 13! On this day, it's a big tradition for the oldest girl in the family to dress in a white garment with a red sash (symbolizing martyrdom) with a St. Lucy crown on her head. She wakes up early and brings her family members sweet rolls (or 'Lucia buns') to their bed. Traditionally, this would be saffron bread (find the recipe here) but other sweet breads can be substituted.

My daughter is only 4, so we staged her bringing some rolls upstairs to my 2 year old (pretending to be asleep in bed). Lydia wore her flower girl dress from a wedding last Summer, and I tied a red ribbon around her waist. It's traditional to wear a red sash, but we didn't have one.  

We all know I'm not a cook, so in place of the saffron bread, we made out-of-the-can cinnamon rolls. It seems that an "S" shape is traditional, so I re-shaped the cinnamon rolls. A lot of St. Lucy bread seems to be garnished with dried cranberries, dates, or almonds- I was going to use raisins, but we were out.

It is said that St. Lucy wore a wreath on her head with candles in it to light the way as she brought food to the poor. We made our St. Lucy crown from construction paper- I didn't want real fire on Lydia's head. Lol! I cut strips from green paper and taped them in a loop the size of her head. We taped on white rectangles for the candles, and I twisted pieces of yellow tissue paper for the "flames". I had some extra greenery leftover from our advent wreath craft, so I hot-glued some leaves on. We made the whole crown while our bread was baking.

It's also traditional to make your sweet bread in the shape of a braided wreath and put candles in it. Again, I braided straight-from-the-can cinnamon rolls and formed them into a circle.

After baking, I drizzled it with the icing and inserted white birthday candles. Yay for easy St. Lucy bread! (I made this wreath and the two sweet rolls all from just one can of cinnamon rolls.)

After lighting the candles, I wasn't sure what we were supposed to do. Since St. Lucy is the patroness of the blind, we said a prayer for St. Lucy to open the eyes of the spiritually blind. Then we sang "Happy St. Lucy Day to You..." and blew out the candles. This seemed like the logical thing to do to me! ;-)

More St. Lucy Resources:

Paper Dali has a free printable

St. Lucy Paper Doll. So cute!

I would love to have a children's book about this 

day, like Lucia, Saint of Light. I've read great 

Catholic reviews about this book!

This is such a great way to have fun with your kids and teach them about St. Lucy! We're going to make celebrating St. Lucy day an annual tradition at our home!

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