Printable Chinese New Year Activities, Crafts for Year of the Snake

Chinese New Year begins Feb. 10, 2013. It's year of the snake! Make crafts. Family Fun offers printable crafts like dragon kites and puppets, ribbon dragons, good luck gold fish and paper lanterns for parents. Craft Jr. has a CNY crafts and Animal Jr. has masks animals of the Chinese zodiac: snake, rat, dragon, horse, dog, tiger, sheep, rooster, ox, monkey, rabbit, pig, First-School has several animal coloring pages and paper lantern crafts.  Read on for more crafts and links. Chinese New Year for Parents and Kids

Free Printable Mardi Gras Masks

Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is a Catholic Christian celebration. Around the world, Mardi Gras is also called "carnival," meaning "farewell to the flesh" in French. It kicks off in mid January. In New Orleans, the Mardi Gras celebration fills the city with costumes, parades and feasting in preparation for the solemnity and fasting of Ash Wednesday and Lent. Free Printable Mardi Gras Masks

Free Printable Mardi Gras Masks to Color

Mardi Gras begins around mid January. Also called "fat Tuesday" (the translation from French) and "carnivale" meaning "farewell to the flesh," Mardi Gras is a big celebration leading up to Ash Wednesday and Lent, in the Catholic Christian church. In New Orleans, France and parts of South America, Mardi Gras is celebrated with costumes, parades, parties and feasting. In New Orleans, costumed groups called "krewes" spend months on lavish masks and outfits. Here are printable masks to celebrate. This article was written about Halloween masks which can be used for the holiday. For traditional Mardi Gras masks, scroll down a bit. Free Printable Halloween Masks: Coloring, Cut and Paste Fun 

Free Printable Imbolc Activities, Wiccan Sabbat Crafts

The pagan holiday of Imbolc is celebrated on February 1-2 (depending on year). It's a Gaelic druidic holiday, called St. Brighid's Day, and honors the coming of spring. Much is known about Christian and national holidays. Many Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh and Hindu celebrations are familiar. The holidays that are least known (also some of the world's oldest) are pagan or wiccan. I don't practice Wicca, but as a homeschool parent and teacher, I explore different cultures. If you're a pagan parent or homeschooler or you're teaching world religions, here are free printable Wiccan crafts, coloring pages and resources for holidays (or sabbats). Imbolc Printables

Free Printable Catholic Saints Paper Dolls for Feast Days, Holidays

I've been blogging since 2008. I write a lot about holidays and it's inspiring to see that the holidays that draw the most reader are Catholic feast days. Ash Wednesday, Lent, Holy Days of Obligation--those are the biggees. I enjoy looking for free printable coloring pages, but my real passion lies in finding homeschooling and religious education free printables. I remember my early teaching days and late homeschooling career, sans computer. I must have made thousands of lesson plans. Alas, I am woefully inept as an artist, so the lesson plans that required drawing skills...lacked. With the Internet, we've printable lesson plans, coloring pages, cut and paste crafts, games and activities. Just in time for Valentines Day, here are Saints Feast Day Paper Dolls, Printables

Best Personal Calendar, Online Planner, Organizer Apps

If I have any success, my secret to it is organization. Family, finances, home management, events, jobs, religious observances, holidays and church activities, volunteer work--it requires coordination to juggle them all. So I admit it--I am an organizer-ophile. I find it therapeutic to wander the planner aisle in Barnes & Noble. When I get a new cellphone, the first thing I play with is the calendar function. But I am also a tightwad--I will not pay for organizer apps or software. And I don't have to, nor do you, when there are so many free utilities available online. Here are the best organizer apps on the net. Use these for holiday planning.  Read more

Free Printable New Year's Party Invitations

Planning a New Year's Eve bash? How about a New Year's Day event? Then you'll need party invitations. Here are links for free printable New Year's Eve party invitations. I've weeded through the links for free printable invitations to bring you the best of the Internet. These links are safe, user-friendly and require no personal information or registration. You may want to bookmark these links as good sources for other free printable party invitations.  Read more