How To Celebrate The Nativity Of Mary

So the most obvious idea for celebrating this feast day is to make a birthday cake for Mary. Any cake would be a great cake for Mary’s birthday! I would suggest icing your cake in white (to symbolize purity) and blue (Mary’s traditional color).

If you’re getting together with friends for a Marian celebration, consider making a cupcake rosary! You can have 3 families sign up to bring about 20 cupcakes each, iced white, and one family to bring the “Our Father” cupcakes iced in blue. You can use a real crucifix for the bottom, or assemble with a cake, cupcakes, or chocolate.

If you’re only one family and 50-something cupcakes is WAY too many for you, you could make a “one decade” cupcake rosary, or assemble rosaries out of something smaller such as marshmallows and candy. Find some pictures and ideas for making edible rosaries here.

Put 10 candles on the cake. Pray one decade of the rosary, lighting one candle for each Hail Mary. When you’re finished, sing “Happy Birthday” to Mary, and blow out the candles!

Set Out A “Baby Mary” Doll

This feast day is such a great day to be able to focus on the infancy and the childhood of Mary, a concept that we don’t really think about too often!

I love the idea of celebrating by stressing that it’s Mary’s birthday by portraying Mary as a baby! This is such a hands on and effective way to show children the meaning of the feast day. 

Our Little Catholic Corner put out a “Baby Mary” doll for their table centerpiece. What a great visualization for kids! Love it!

Make Mary a card for her birthday! We went ahead and used the same puffy microwave paint  as our cake craft and monogrammed am “M” for Mary, a crown, and a birthday cake with a candle. Inside I wrote a prayer for the nativity of Mary (that I found here). At the birthday party, everyone can sign the card with promises of prayers as presents.

Effectively, this birthday card becomes a spiritual bouquet! 

Party Decorations

You can decorate with anything blue! Be sure to bring out a Mary statue (or several) if you have some. Think party hats and streamers- it is a birthday party after all! 😉

Sing Some Mary Hymns! 

I love singing Mary songs! You can find lyrics and guitar chords for Haily Holy Queen here. I really need to find the time to post some more lyrics and guitar chords for Marian songs! Some other songs you could sing are the Hail Mary, Immaculate Mary, or Ave Maria.

Play A Game

If you’re looking for a simple activity for celebrating with your family, check out this Hail Mary game from The Catholic Toolbox. (It’s free to print!)

You can find even more fun feast days to celebrate with Catholic kids in September here.