Disclaimer: I was sent this item in exchange for an honest review.
So do you remember last year when I shared an article I wrote for Catholic Mothers Online about adding saints to your busy life? No? Well anyway, I just received a new product that will make learning about and adding saint feast days to your busy life quick and easy.
Saint Mail
Saint Mail is a monthly subscription service from a mom of 3 littles. Like many of us, she seemed to always come up a day late & a dollar short when trying to remember feast days. She was inspired to help families be able to learn more about the saints, one month at a time.
The first month, you will get an introductory package:
- Mail Bag to keep all of your Saint Mail products (red or blue)
- A necklace so you can wear some of the saint medals you will receive in future packages
- A small box to hold your saint medals
- A letter that explains who saints are and how to become one
After that each monthly Saints Mail package includes the following:
- A letter from a Saint friend that has a feast day in that month
- Saint medal (or something similar)
- Tips to celebrate the saints feast day (recipe or craft)
- A Saint refrigerator magnet to remind you of the upcoming feast day
- Small trinket
To facilitate the review, we were sent an introductory package as well as the package for January’s saint, St. Sebastian.
Our Thoughts About Saint Mail
My girls were totally stoked about the introductory package. The mail bag is a promotional soft-sided messenger type bag. There was a small box made of cardboard, with a chain inside to hold medals and such. It also included a sticker, a small coloring/activity book that explains the process of beatification, and a letter explaining how future months would look.
The first package was for St. Sebastian whose feast day was January 20. To give you an idea of the types of activities included, I will share them all.
First, we read the letter from St. Sebastian. It was a 2 page letter written on brown cardstock and sealed with wax, which was a fun touch. It was well-written & fun to read. They tried to martyr him. Twice.
There was a summary sheet with an activity (a family nature hike to enjoy God’s creation), a dinner suggestion & recipe for Kale chips, and a discussion question. Because St. Sebastian was also known for his strength (he was a soldier), there is a 10 item nature scavenger hunt. Since its been so ridiculously cold (like 0-10 degrees, cold) we have not done this one yet. My 6 year old is waiting for the next warmish day, though. At this point, anything above 30 feels tropical!
The kit also included a craft. Since the first time they tried to kill him was with a bow & arrow, the kit included 2 tongue depressors, a small dental floss and a few q-tip, neatly tied together with a piece of blue ribbon. The presentation of this stuff is super fun. The directions for building the tongue depressor bow were easy but mom is, um, knife challenged. I kept breaking the wood and it took awhile to soften & by then, they had lost interest. Which was my fault — we started at dinner time and they go to bed within an hour or two.
There is also a card to guide a family discussion. For St. Sebastian, we received a large magnet (about 2 business cards large), a red dog tag with “St. Sebastian, Soldier for Christ, Pray for Us” on it, and a St. Sebastian medal.
My daughter promptly added the dog tag to her VBS necklace from last year. Since he is the patron saint of soldiers, we decided to send the medal to my step-sister who is stationed in Afghanistan and pray for his intercession on her behalf.
Even though we didn’t successfully complete all the activities (yet), it was still super valuable. I will always remember the story of Saint Sebastian now & will remember his (approximate) feast day. My kids loved the trinkets that came with the box and think that looking through their holy treasures is the greatest thing ever.
The Saint Mail shipments are $12.95/mo + tax and if you have more than one child, you can get extra medals and such so each child gets their own for $3.75/mo. So, if you have ever said to yourself, “I wish I could get my act together an do more of this,” these monthly kits are a great way to do it. They involve very little prep (I’m the queen of no-prep) and I think the whole discussion, craft starting & trinket exploration took about an hour that evening.
And the conversation hasn’t ended. My 6 year old is still talking about it and we are looking forward to the Nature Hike/Scavenger Hunt. And they keep bugging me about February’s saint so I need to get off my butt and set it up. I never thought of the idea of having a holy treasure chest before, but they love it.
The variety of activities really help you remember the saint and they are also very simple. I don’t have to find a saint, search my books for a kid friendly bio, and spend hours scouring the web for activities and crafts. Nor do I need to shop for the trinkets & supplies. This is a fabulous idea for busy families and would be awesome as a baptism birthday gift, Christmas gift, or even an Easter basket stuffer. I highly, highly recommend it!
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