A Summer Bucket List for Catholic Families

Does your family make a Summer Bucket List? Megan Swaim has 20 ideas for families who want to celebrate their Catholic faith all summer long.

We’re coming down the final stretch: summer break is almost here! My children are looking forward to lazy summer days and endless hours of riding bikes and playing in the water, and I’m looking forward to being able to get into better chore routines. And also spending time together—I promise I’m not forgetting that!

The past few years I’ve seen these great “Summer Bucket Lists” passed around the internet full of fun ideas for making the most of school breaks and warm weather. You print your list, add some of your own ideas, and then spend the summer checking off the boxes—make s’mores, visit a museum, catch fireflies, read in a hammock … these lists can be quite comprehensive!

But beyond the normal fun-in-the-sun activities, our family also really wants to prioritize living our faith as a family this summer. We know first-hand how easy it is to have good intentions and little follow-through, so putting prayer and service into our Bucket List will remind us of our goals and help keep us accountable. If, at the end of the summer, we’ve been to the pool every week, but the Adoration chapel only sparingly, the list will tell us. I’m hoping that it will help us to make prayer and service a high priority and also get us excited to do these things together.

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If you’re making a Summer Bucket List for your family, here are 20 ideas to help you live your Catholic faith together all summer. #catholicmom

If you’re making a Summer Bucket List for your family, here are 20+ ideas to help you live your Catholic faith together all summer!

Visit an Adoration Chapel
Make sack lunches for a local soup kitchen or homeless ministry
Do yard work for an elderly neighbor
Make a pilgrimage to your Cathedral (or a nearby basilica or pilgrimage site)
Pick wildflowers, write a card, and take them to a homebound parishioner
Make a meal for someone in your parish who is sick or just had a baby
Invite friends over for a backyard barbeque and family rosary
Go through your clothing and toys and share with a young family or donate to a local charity
Find area free lending libraries and leave books about saints or the Faith
Pray the Stations of the Cross outside
Visit a cemetery and pray for the dead
Go to Mass and Confession on the First Fridays of the summer
Pass out bottles of ice-cold water at a local event or charity
Stay up late and pray Night Prayer under the stars
Harvest some of your garden produce for a soup kitchen or to share with someone in need
Make dinner for your parish priests or invite them to your house
Host a lemonade stand on behalf of your local pregnancy resource center
Have a movie night and watch The Chosen
Offer an afternoon or evening of babysitting to a family with young children
Take your grandparents to Mass and breakfast on the feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne
Go on a hike and pray the Rosary (inspired by John Paul II and Bl. Pier Giorgio)