Oh when the Saint Pumpkins . . . go marching in . . . -

Umm . . . what are Saint Pumpkins?

Too many years ago to count, I had an idea inspired by a Catholic school project my niece and nephew had. In my house, my ideas turn into giant projects – just ask my very patient and loving husband. My idea was to have the kids in our San Antonio moms group make Saint Pumpkins at our first All Souls/All Saints Day party. I am still in love with them.

You take a small pumpkin – the kind you find in the floral department in packs of 4 at HEB – and you make it look like a Saint. I think it’s a great way to bring Halloween back to the church. Instead of carving a scary face or making a book character out of your gourds, make them into the heroes you want your kids to imitate.

Over the years, we’ve racked up quite a list of Saint pumpkins. As I have the time to type and upload photos between putting out technology-related “fires” for our four distance learners, I’ll put the links here in this post. The names are all listed, and they’ll turn blue as I get them posted. If you see beautiful, perfectly edited, amazing photos, those are from my very dear friend Dora Stone. You can go find more of her beautiful work on her Vegan Mexican cooking blog, Dora’s Table. Any others that look a little . . . off – those are just mine.

You can also use the descriptions of the Saints’ lives any way you like. I wrote them based on research from many print Saint books we have around the house, as well as Catholic.com. Copy and paste until you’re blue in the face!

Don’t forget to check out all the other All Saints/All Souls Day party ideas we’ve got, too. Obviously, the “party” part of it might not work, but the activities can still be adapted for home, or the driveway, or maybe a truck bed for a trunk-or-treat?