I’ve been updating the Catholic family activity pages since earlier this fall. After a busy November, I have a newly updated version of the 10 Activities for Catholic Families in December printable available now. This is such a great time of year to spend some really meaningful time with your family. I hope that you’ll take this as an opportunity to do that!
All of the excitement of Advent and Christmas, as well as the start of a new liturgical year, makes December a perfect time to weave in some faith formation activities into your month.
Note: Just in case you prefer the old look, I’ll leave the link to download the older version near the new version’s download link.
As always, many of these activities would even be great to do with non-Catholic families. So, pick and choose what works for you. You can always cut off the title after you print it out if it doesn’t apply to your family. You could just print out the sheet and cut out the specific activities you would like to do. Easy peasy!
Contents of 10 Activities for Catholic Families in December
(The downloadable printable is farther down in this post)
1. Pray for missionaries all over the world who are spreading God’s Word. To extend this activity, see what your family can do to help those doing a mission. (Saint Francis Xavier’s Feast Day is December 3rd.)
2. Fill your children’s shoes with small gifts or wrapped candies while they’re asleep to celebrate Saint Nicholas’ Feast Day on December 6th.
3. Attend Mass on Christmas Day (December 25th) and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8th). Both are Holy Days of Obligation.
Quick Note: In some years, Holy Day of Obligation may not require Mass attendance because of the day of the week they fall on. However, I like to leave them on the printable. I think it’s still important to be mindful of them as important days and ones that are usually a Holy Day of Obligation.
4. Have a Mexican-themed dinner with roses as decorations to celebrate the feast days of Saint Juan Diego (December 9th) and Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12th). You can make your own paper roses with this template and directions.
5. Plan to give a gift (or three) to Jesus this year to celebrate His birthday. Jesus taught us that when we help those in need, we are helping Him. Find a way to give a Christmas gift to someone who is particularly in need this year.
6. Try one of these fun hands-on Nativity themed activities.
7. If there is on within traveling distance, visit a Living Nativity. If this is not possible, set up your family’s Nativity scene and have a discussion about what the sights, sounds, and even smalls may have been.
8. Read one of the Gospel accounts of the birth of Jesus on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Wait until then to add Jesus to your family’s Nativity scene. Ask the youngest family member to add Him to the crèche. (Or you can give the honor to someone different each year.)
9. Brainstorm with your family things you can do to live more like the Holy Family. Plan to do at least one of those things before the end of the month. (The Feast of the Holy Family is the first Sunday after Christmas.)
10. Choose an activity that will help babies, such as donating to a crisis pregnancy center, praying for babies in danger around the world, or even just spending time with a special baby in your lives. (The Feast of the Holy Innocents is December 28th.)
Want even more ideas for activities for Advent and Christmas? You might consider also grabbing one (or both) of these free printables:
Terms of Use for the 10 Activities for Catholic Families in December Printable
This download is free for personal or classroom use. You may also share it in a church bulletin or newsletter. However, the copyright credit line must be included. This just means that you need to make sure that you don’t accidentally cut off the line with the copyright information at the bottom of the printable when you are reproducing it to hand out.
This printable (and its contents) cannot be sold, published, or hosted on other websites. This includes, but is not limited to, the fact that this printable and all other printables from Real Life at Home should NOT be uploaded to church or school sites for others to download them there. That’s not only illegal, but it just stinks. Don’t do it.
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Download the 10 Activities for Catholic Families in December Printable
Download the 10 Activities for Catholic Families in December Printable
Download the Older Version of the Ten December Activities for Catholic Families Printable
*If you are having clarity issues with the printable, it might be because of your web browser. I have some ideas that might help though.
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This post and printable were originally published on November 22, 2013. Both the post and printable were updated in November 2017.
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This year December 8 is a Sunday and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is trumped by the second Sunday of advent. The feast is being observed on December 9, but not as a holy day of obligation. I was sad to learn this as the Immaculate Conception is my favorite feast day. We’ll still go on the 9th but it will probably lose some of its excitingness for me as normally our church has an evening mass on that day with incense and everything and they will probably just have normal daily mass this year.
Yeah, I had seen that on how the dates fell this year, but it seemed wrong not to list it anyway. 🙂
hi Angie- it seems that the link isn’t working quite right. I’ve tried clicking on the image and then where it says download and it pops up but there are no words just bars of color instead. thank you for all your hard work on these!
Near the bottom of the post, there is a little section with some suggestions if you are having problems downloading it or with clarity issues. I have had that happens sometimes when I download things too, but hopefully one of the suggestions should help. (It’s been download a couple of hundred times so far today, so it definitely is working. But, let me know if you still can’t get it after trying some of the suggestions for alternate ways to download it.)
thank you! Sorry I wasn’t a more thorough reader! should have caught that!
It’s no problem at all. 🙂
We have chickens and goats. I think we’ve got the olfactory covered for the living Nativity 😉
Your comment made me burst out laughing when I read it.