This spring is an especially exciting time for us, as my son Zachary will be making his First Holy Communion. Zachary will be my third child to receive communion, so I have a few ideas I’d like to share to help you prepare for the big day. To get started, let’s talk Invitations! I love this one from Be A Heart. I love that you can fill it out and make it personal and it is adorable! read on for more ideas and party planning tips!
1. Pick An Outfit — Choosing a great outfit really sets the tone for your child’s day. When children dress up, they understand they are attending something important. Traditionally, girls wear white to symbolize purity. They’ll wear a white dress, white tight and shoes, and a white veil or headband. Little girls absolutely love getting dolled up in all white — it’s like a mini wedding since they are becoming one with Jesus! Boys typically wear a button up shirt, tie, blazer, dress pants, and church shoes.
2 Choose Party Food — If you’re having a party to celebrate, I highly recommend getting something that is already made. You’ll most likely be trying to get everyone ready in the morning, especially your first communicant, and it’s less stressful to come home to something that is already ready. I like to serve chicken salad on croissants. I buy the chicken salad from Costco, and set out lettuce, tomato, and Caesar salad. for dessert, I serve a beautiful white cake. You could also do cookies! For drinks, I usually serve water and sparkling lemonade.
3. Plan Party Details — Before the big day, plan all your other party essentials. what sort of entertainment will you have? How will you decorate? What gifts will you buy? I like to have a party for my first communicant at my house because I love hosting. If you don’t want to deal with clean up, you could go to a park or rent a space. I use this beautiful Alleluia tablecloth(I use this for Easter too!) and set out white flowers. This year, we bought these beautiful first holy communion paper plates!
To keep the kiddos entertained, I use free printables and set them out with crayons. You can usually find great coloring sheets at Shining Light Dolls or The Little Rose Shop. It is customary to give the child a small gift. A rosary or statue makes a great gift.
For your free printable First Communion Party Planner, click HERE.
4. Prepare Your Child Spiritually — We review the Baltimore Catechism the year before our child receives First Holy communion to that they are fully prepared. To get our kids excited about the big day, my husband I like to write letters telling them how proud and excited we are. This goes a long way in preparing them spiritually and emotionally for First Communion.
I hope this has been helpful. If you have any First Communion traditions or ideas you’d like to share, drop a comment below! As always, God Bless!
Here is a example!
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Our daughter Faith,made her First Holy Communion at age 11.Our parish,St.Jeromes,required the girls to wear the full outfit,the poofy,short sleeve,knee length communion dress and veil with tights and white maryjane shoes.The dress was considered as an extension of the baptism gown the girls were baptized in as infants,so a cloth diaper and rubberpants had to be worn under their tights with a white tee shirt as the top.I made her diaper from sewing a package of 24×27 inch diapers together to make one diaper out of them and it was pinned on her with diaper pins.I was lucky to find the rubberpants in super large size in a thrift store and they fit her snug.The tights were the high waist kind that came up to the belly button and the tee shirt had to be tucked into the tights.The diaper and rubberpants looked cute under her tights and made her feel pure like when she was baptized. Faith wore the diaper,rubberpants and the white tights on Easter sunday and on Christmas eve and day with her dresses up untill she was 15.
Our niece who is 15 just made her FHC back on May 19 and all of the girls had to wear a cloth diaper and rubberpants under their dresses.There were three other teen girls in the class with her so she didnt feel so embarrassed having to wear them.
To Brenda D.-Our parish also has thecloth diaper and rubberpants requirement for the girls.Our daughter was 14 when she made her FHC and had to wear the diaper and rubberpants under her communion dress.I sewed baby cloth diapers together to make the required diaper and then got the white adult size rubberpants.The girls had to wearlace anklets and white maryjane shoes with their dresses.The daughter felt little girlish and pure in her outfit!