Religious Christmas Dinner Ideas

Looking for a way to Keep Christ in Christmas as you serve your roast beast? Well, here are a few cute ideas I have found on the internet.

Cleverly share a Reading of the Christmas Story with your

dinner guests- check this out on Inspiring Ideas. 

Jeanne from Inspiring Ideas also prompts us to remember our true

guest of honor at our dinner table this Christmas.

Cut Out and Keep has directions on how to make

Baby Jesus Buns as your dinner rolls.

For your centerpiece, use your advent wreath, but add a white 

Christ Candle to the middle. You can make this as easy or as hard 

as you'd like, from a plain white candle to a very decorated one.

Keep using your Christ Candle through the entire Christmas season.

I absolutely love these Nativity Candles from My Little Flower!

I'm hoping to decorate our Christ Candle using this technique!

I almost forgot! Be sure to Make Jesus a Birthday Cake
for your dessert! This one is from Jeanne at Inspired Ideas.
Click here to see a round up of Happy Birthday Jesus
cakes that I put together last year.

I'm hoping to use all these ideas at our Christmas dinner table, but we'll see what I have time for! ;-) We're definitely having at least a plain white Christ candle, and I'm really going to try to include the reading of the Christmas story! Also, the birthday cake is s must for us. ;-)

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Easy Nativity Cookies

We all know that I'm a crafter- not a baker. But being a baker seems to be a mommy-requirement at Christmas time. My awesome friend Liz (from Frugally Blonde) hosted a cookie exchange for my Catholic mother's group this year that I was not going to miss out on! I got an adorable set of nativity cookie cutters this year, so I thought we'd give 'em a try!

I didn't want to be stressed out about decorating enough cookies for an exchange, so I was determined to come up with something simple to do. Rather than utilizing all the icing tips that came in my cookie cutter set, I decided we would just sprinkle the cookies with colored sugar. This was a perfect job for little fingers! We sprinkled the sugar on before baking the cookies.

In my opinion, the price they charge for the colored sugar they sell in little spice jars is bordering on highway robbery, so we make our own colored sugar. If you're new to this idea, check out my directions for diy colored sugar. I tried to choose colors symbolic to each nativity piece as best as I could. The nativity colors I ended up using were blue for Mary, green for Joseph, yellow for Baby Jesus & the star, white for the angel & the sheep, purple for the kings, red for the camel, and brown for the shepherd & the donkey. (No need to make brown sugar- I'm sure you already have some!)

 

I made one set for everyone exchanging cookies, set them on paper plates. Then wrapped them up in plastic wrap.

The set I got came with these pieces:

There was no shepherd in the set, and it didn't have an angel either! I already had an angel cookie cutter that I threw into the mix, and I also had a star that I felt was a little more "star of Bethlehem" than the one that the set came with.

No shepherd cookie cutter? No problem! For my shepherd, I used the king cookie cutter. I just used my finger to round out his head and get rid of the crown. I also flipped him over before I baked him so that he would face the opposite direction of the kings. I flipped some of my sheep, too. When the shepherds were almost done baking I carefully pressed a candy cane "staff" onto the cookies and put them back in the oven for just a minute. Watch them carefully- you only want the candy cane to melt a little bit and it doesn't take long!

I thought the cookies turned out really cute, and my kids loved getting to help! It's so great to be answering questions about the wise men while cutting Christmas cookies with my kids. I was going to be making cookies anyway, so this was a great opportunity to make another Christmas activity focus on the true meaning of Christmas.

 

I can't wait to find some other uses for our nativity cookie cutters! Maybe next year I'll stop being so lazy and actually crack out some icing for decorating them... or maybe not. ;-) 

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

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!

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Edible Advent Wreath for Kids

As advent approaches, you might try making this super fast and easy Advent snack to learn about advent wreaths. All you need is store bought doughnuts (or if you're really awesome make them from scratch), birthday candles in pink and purple, sugar, and green food coloring. I highly suggest Krispy Kreme doughnuts, the best doughnuts in the whole wide world, but I can't get theme where I live.

Talk to your kids about how advent wreaths are round (like the doughnut) and just like God- there is no beginning and no end. Then make some green sugar (I had some left over from Mardi Gras) and sprinkle the doughnuts. Evergreens are a symbol of eternal life.

 

Tell your kids that the purple candles stand for royalty because Jesus is our Prince of Peace. The pink candle is the color of a rose. Light the candles and tell them what each one stands for as you do. The first purple candle stands for hope, the second one for love, the pink candle joy, and the last purple candle stands for peace. We light the advent candles to remind us that Jesus is the light of the world and from the darkness he brings life. (Little disclaimer here to remind you not to burn your children).

What order should you light your advent candles in?

Light the purple candle across from the pink one first and then go around clockwise.

I love this "Jesus is the Gift" plate it's on! I got it at the blogging conference I went to, and I wish I had the whole set!

The Jesus is the Gift Snowflake Collectionis available from Dayspring. I really wish I had this platter and the pitcher. We might use our little plate for setting out Santa's cookies this year. :-)


I know some families give up sweets for Advent. If this is true for your family, maybe you could make round soft pretzels and green salt. Be creative, and happy waiting! :-)

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Epiphany Crown Food Ideas

I found all kinds of crown cakes, king cakes, king breads, and everything else under the sun for celebrating the epiphany. So whether you're celebrating on the 3 or the 6 this year, I hope these ideas are useful for your epiphany party!

Try Making Family Fun's Crown Cake for the Epiphany.
I also found this Cute Crown Cake on from Bright Ideas.
Here's a recipe for Epiphany Almond Cake.
In Mexican tradition, Rosca de Reyes (or Three Kings Bread)
is served on the Epiphany. Get a recipe here.
I found these adorable Crown Cookies on
a Picassa Web Album.
Check out these Crown Sandwiches.

And if you're in need of some crown-shaped cookie
cutters, find them here:
Crown Cookie Cutter (Large)

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.