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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, I would stay away from the more religious traditions/prayers and do the more fun folk traditions.

Here's what I would do if I wanted to incorporate "cultural Catholic" stuff into my family's life.

Advent wreaths are meant for prayer with the family. I would not include that without the prayer part.   An advent calendar would be fine, though, because it doesn't include the prayers,  the "Yay, Christmas is coming aspects."  (Lego sells some cute ones.) You could also include a Nativity scene as decoration.  There is a lot of lovely religious Christmas music, so include that in your holiday prep.

You might want to put up an ofrenda for Halloween/All Saints Day.  They are a very pretty way to remember deceased family members.

Mardi Gras is the celebration before Lent.  Lent involves giving something up, so people party before it.  Learn about those things and do them.  Ie. "I am giving up Starbucks for Lent and giving the $5 per day that I spend on it to the poor."

For Easter, you could have baskets and an Easter Egg hunt.

There aren't a ton of Catholic holidays in the summer, but May is one of the months that Catholics celebrate Mary.  During Mother's Day, when I was in Catholic school, we always crowned a statute of Mary with roses for Mother's Day.

Some Catholic parishes celebrate pet blessings in the summer or the fall. St. Francis's Day is October 4, and there are also animal blessings on that day.  A parish near where I grew up always had a "blessing of the fleet" in the summer, which involved parading the boast before a priest on a dock or a boat who then blessed each one.  That's pretty fun to watch.

Lots of Catholic parishes have parish picnics in the summer. Those are pretty fun and can involve pretty good ethnic (German, Polish, Mexican, Italian) food. 
[/quote]

Useful advice for someone wanting to be more Catholic, but OP does not -- just wants her kids to be involved in some of the traditions. Thus, it doesn't seem useful to tell her that prayer is needed with an advent wreath  -- that's only if you believe in prayer and want to do it the proper Catholic way.  The same with giving up something for lent.  OP might be OK with the idea of giving something up, but it wouldn't have to be in conjunction with Catholic beliefs.

The last idea of attending parish picnics seem like a way to put OP and child in a situation where they will be encouraged to return to the church not just chow down on ethnic food -- which you can get at a restaurant.  It's hard to imagine an outsider showing up at a parish picnic just for the food.   A better option would be the festivals that some churches have, that are meant to raise money -- like the greek festival at St. Sophia's.  They welcome all comers and people can get a taste of the religion without indicating any interest in joining.[/quote]

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