Lacy Rabideau’s blog, Catholic Icing, provides creative ways to observe Lent, Easter or any Catholic holy day or feast day.
The Spartanburg native and mother of three started it as a way to share ideas on teaching the faith to kids through crafts and activities.
Rabideau’s daily posts at www.catholicicing.com feature her original ideas, plus suggestions from other blogs and links to various sites for kid-friendly material.
Some of her most popular crafts include mini one-decade rosaries made from pipe cleaners, a printable Lenten calendar for kids, paper bag nun puppets, and a giant rosary made from pool noodles.
She also suggests ways to celebrate feast days and holy seasons. Recent posts, for instance, showed how to make a special cross and offering box to teach almsgiving during Lent.
Her blog received its name because Rabideau wanted to create a fun place focused on helping children learn to love God and the church.
“I’m not an expert on the Catholic faith, and I didn’t want people to think this is a place to debate or get into discussions of hard-core Catholic issues,” she said. “I avoid things that are controversial. The things I feature are the extras, the icing on the Catholic cake. Once you have a solid foundation for your faith, why not add some icing?”
She started blogging in 2009 because she wanted to learn more about observing the liturgical year, and had a hard time finding ideas on how to plan activities such as an All Saints Day party for her kids.
Rabideau also writes about customs such as making sweet bread on the feast day of St. Lucy.
The blog was voted second place in the Best Catholic Blog category at About.com. Results of the contest, determined by readers’ votes, were announced March 15.
Rabideau, 25, attended Jesus Our Risen Savior and St. Paul the Apostle churches in Spartanburg. She was studying art at the University of South Carolina in Columbia when she met her future husband Mark at the Newman Club.
The couple now lives in a farmhouse in Virginia. Rabideau stays home to raise their children and works on her blog whenever she can. Lydia, her oldest, often pitches in to help with craft projects.
Catholic Icing has attracted a worldwide following and averages about 70,000 unique page views each month. During Advent and Lent, that number climbs to 100,000, she said. She hopes her visitors use the blog as a way to learn more about the riches of church history and tradition.
“The great thing about the liturgical year is it has so much going on,” she said. “I want to teach people about that in a way that’s colorful, fun and eye-catching.”