Download the craft patterns and templates here
- Experiential activities for celebrating secular and sacred seasons of the year
- Activities can be used in any setting
While these celebrations are popular in our secular culture, all ages will reconnect with the sacred roots and traditions practiced by past generations. All can experience new celebrations that have traditionally been intergenerational events in Spanish speaking communities.
Each event to be celebrated includes key ideas, a cluster of activities to experience the key ideas, materials needed, full instructions for implementation, background history and information, music, art, recipes, and prayer resources to use in a small, intimate, or large multi-generational group.
Audience: Christian educators, youth ministers, camps, schools, parents; for children, youth, adults, or any combination of ages
Introduction
Advent
The Annunciation
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Las Posadas
Christmas
Epiphany
"Sharon Ely Pearson has created a wonderful resource for churches, families, or schools. The theology is complete but easy to understand, and the activities and worship are wonderful examples of how many generations can celebrate together without anyone feeling left out! The wide range of options provided allow for creativity in any situation."
––Anne-Louise Shelton, Director of Children's Ministry, Advent United Methodist Church, Greenville, South Carolina
"As a culture, we squeeze the entire Nativity into one day: Christmas. In today's Church, we recognize this truncates the message of Christ and seek to celebrate the season of Advent. This volume of Faithful Celebrations offers further exploration of the season from the message of Gabriel to Mary, through the Nativity, the Magi, the Baptism of Jesus, and all the way into contemporary celebrations of the Virgin of Guadalupe and Los Posados. Each celebration offers theological and liturgical background so that these new traditions can be connected to the traditions we celebrate in Church. Each celebration also offers ways to tie the Church's celebrations to the world we live in every day. These lessons will help families and communities explore the rich history of the full season of Nativity, and make the connections vital to live as a Christian today."
––Charlotte Hand Greeson, Co-Curator of "Building Faith," Center for the Ministry of Teaching at Virginia Theological Seminary
"Faithful Celebrations is a wonderfully creative, multi-cultural, and easy-to-use guide for families and congregations who want to go beyond the expected traditions, and truly connect to 'reason for the season.'"
––Jerusalem Jackson Greer, mother, minister, author, and speaker
