Saint Christopher is a very well known Saint with a super awesome story! The feast day of St. Christopher happens every year on July 25. When celebrating the liturgical year at home, this is a super fun day to include on your calendar! You can read here about how to celebrate Saint feast days at home with your kids, and you can find more Saints to celebrate in July here. Today, let’s look at some ideas for celebrating St. Christopher’s feast day with kids!
St. Christopher “Cheat Sheet”
St. Christopher is one of those Saints that has been passed down in legend. Some question if he was real, and you can read a good article about that here: St. Christopher, Fact Or Fiction? We personally love to celebrate Saint feast days here that are passed down in Catholic legend and tradition, so here is a quick overlook to get you started on St. Christopher.
- From the land of Canaan.
- Carried the child Jesus on his shoulders across a river to safety.
- Patron Saint of travelers.
- Was known to say he felt that he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders when transporting the Christ child.
- Name means “Christ-bearer”
Ok, I think we are ready to look at some ways to celebrate St. Christopher with kids!
St. Christopher Picture Books For Kids
Tomie dePaola (one of my favorite children’s book authors of all time) has an absolutely beautiful picture book about St. Christopher called Christopher The Holy Giant. It’s not at all a “biography” of St. Christopher, it’s a truly captivating story of how St. Christopher travels the world looking for purpose and how he finds himself carrying the Christ child to safety across the river. I highly recommend this book.
When searching, I also found this picture book, The Legend Of St. Christopher. It also has beautiful illustrations and looks like a great book, but we don’t have it. If you’ve read it and have feedback, please leave it in the comments!
When you’re starting to teach your kids about the lives of the Saints, I suggest starting with a Saint picture book treasury that includes a lot of short stories you can read together. This will give you a good starting place and then you can add to your library of Saint books over the years. I think this Picture Book Of Saints is a good beginning Saint book for Catholic families, and St. Christopher’s story is included on page 66. (You can read my post about my favorite Catholic children’s bibles here.)
There is also a video on St. Christopher for kids for free on YouTube.
St. Christopher Printables For Kids
Coloring pages are such an easy way to celebrate Saint feast days, so let’s check out some easy printing options for you.
This free St. Christopher coloring page is available over on Dibujos Para Catequesis, and is super cute and free!
This St. Christopher coloring page from The Catholic Kid is also free to print.
Here is a St. Christopher adult coloring page for older kids that is available from Steven’s Social Studies. It does cost $1, but is a great option for the older members of your family.
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St. Christopher Activities For Families
Bless Your Vehicle
Because St. Christopher is known as the patron Saint of travelers, the most common thing you will see is a display of St. Christopher in vehicles! This is a great idea because statically speaking, traveling is one of the most dangerous things we do. The feast day of St. Christopher is the perfect day to bless your family vehicle with holy water. You can find a simple blessing of an automobile prayer here. Then you can go out for a quick drive and grab some ice cream or milkshakes to eat while you “travel”.
Display St. Christopher In Your Car
This feast day is also the perfect time to display St. Christopher somewhere in your car. I love having a St. Christopher visor clip in my car- it’s an easy way to add him there without interfering with my rear view mirror rosary 😉 You could also add a St. Christopher medal to your key ring or display a holy card in your car.
Swim In A River!
We love to head down to pretty much any water hole and have fun and free afternoon in the great outdoors. What a better way to celebrate than to cross a river yourselves?! My kids always love doing this, and it’s the perfect way to celebrate a summer feast day with them.
Go Tubing
If you’re looking for a more structured river activity, try tubing! Google for some local options and travel down the river with your kids for this awesome feast day! My professional tubing tips: bring some rope to tie your tube to your smallest kid’s tubes, and bring a waterproof bag to hold your keys in. Leave everything else in your car! Don’t forget towels, sunblock, and snacks.
Play With Travel Themed Toys
Bring out the toy cars, airplanes, or that train set that you never let the kids get out. You could even build some LEGO cars! If you have a St. Christopher peg doll or statue, he can look over the travel play. 🙂
St. Christopher Crafts For Kids
Try any fun vehicle or map crafts or activities, which would be great for today! Check out this awesome round up of transportation crafts for kids from Artsy Craftsy Mom.
Fun St. Christopher Food Ideas- Travel Themed!
You can also celebrate with some fun travel themed snacks! Check out these idea for making edible car snacks for kids from Hello Wonderful.
Also, check out this adorable St. Christopher statue for kids from Little Drops Of Water. So cute!!!
I hope you found some of these ideas useful for learning about St. Christopher with your kids! You can find more Saint feast days and fun ways to living the liturgical year in July here.
