Future Saint Dry-Erase CARDS
“What do you want for Christmas?”
How many of us are asking this question, or even being asked this question, this time of year?
I don’t know about you, but I remember the first time I realized my response on this question had changed.
As a child in most western cultures, the secular side of Christmas comes with a sense of excitement. Maybe you make a Christmas list and throw yourself into decorating the house with shiny seasonal objects. You set a creche somewhere about your home. Overly-sentimental adverts flood the television (last year’s annual John Lewis Christmas ad absolutely wrecks me). Whatever this “Elf on a Shelf” thing is, maybe something possesses you to do that. You set aside a glass of sherry or milk to keep St Nick warm through the night. For kids, there is magic and mystery in the build-up in the culture and traditions surrounding Christmas.
Then one year, things changed. When my parents asked me “what do you want for Christmas”, my first thought was, “I donno, what do I really need?”
Sure, maybe some of the childhood romance of the holiday season wanes as we mature. But I have found this to be a real blessing. Focusing less on wants and more on practicalities can help us be more attentive to others and more wholly embrace the giving side of “the spirit of Christmas”.
I was reminded of this in a special way when I saw the work of Elayne Miller of Annunciation Designs, whose Future Saint Dry-Erase Cards have sold like wildfire since they went on pre-sale last week. Annunciation Designs aims to “help families call to mind the Sacred in the midst of the ordinary”, and these children’s activity cards do just that.
Future Saint Dry-Erase Cards, Annunciation Designs
The project itself was born from a sense of pragmatic need.
“A high school history teacher drilled into my head that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’,” she says. “I have a preschooler, and I realized that he needed a way to enter into the Mass at his level. He has some dry-erase cards for practicing writing letters, and I love that they are reusable. So I set about planning activities that little ones would love to return to week after week.”
That is super cool. And not just from a keep-the-kids-in-line-during-Mass perspective. (Let’s not be those people that sneer at children who make noise in church.) What I love about Elayne’s product is that, yes, it is a tactile thing that engages children, but it is also a device that keeps them present and directs them toward what is happening in Mass in a manner that is accessible to them at their specific point of development.
I also love how Elayne’s professional formation works alongside her experience as a mother to bring this project to life. Her background in engineering and education gives her insight into the often overlooked analytical and psychological aspects of creativity and entrepreneurship, while her vocation as a mother keeps her in touch with the real needs of a young, Catholic family.
I feel my 'start' as a creative was in Destination Imagination as an elementary student. Working with a team to creatively solve a problem led me to think about problems in a whole new light. I later worked for the Destination Imagination corporation putting on summer camps, and in that process I learned that my style of creativity is pushing the boundaries of the box rather than thinking outside the box. This was important to me, because I'd always seen my linear, practical thinking as very uncreative. But I am actually creative in really useful ways!
Elayne Miller
I think there is a really important point in there.
It’s easy for us to see creativity as an abstract, inspiration-driven endeavor, and it absolutely can be this. But for every painter and musician and graphic designer, the Church needs an engineer, a problem-solver, someone to see things from a practical perspective and act on the needs that are out there in the here and now. That’s not the calling of a lesser-creative, and Elayne shows this with Annunciation Designs.
So yeah. Elayne is killing it this holiday season.
What sorts of practical items inspire you in this way? How might you encounter Christ in the ordinary during this season of preparation? Leave a comment below to share your thoughts. And of course, be sure to give Elayne some love!
by Benjamin Jude
Worship Leader / Recording Artist
CC Admin