What’s in our toddler’s “mass bag”

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She loves to carry her mass bag on her own, and in addition to the mass bag, she’s usually got a dino or two in tow as well

My first faithful reader (Hi, Mallory!) told me I should write a blog post about what we have in our “mass bag” that we take to church for our toddler, and if there’s one thing I am, it’s loyal to my tiny readership.

We have a busy, rambunctious two-year-old who loves dinosaurs and is fond of yelling “ROAR!” at the top of her lungs. Needless to say, a one-hour church service where she is expected to be relatively still and quiet was never going to be a walk in the park with her. 

When I was putting her bag together, I knew I did not want to use screens or any other toys that would be a distraction to the people around us or take away from the whole reason we’re there, so I did my best to find faith-based books and activities that would keep our girl occupied and quiet(er than usual). For us, it’s important that she’s only able to play with these toys and read these books at church so they retain their novelty. 

Faith-based board books

Our daughter LOVES books, so packing some in her bag was a no-brainer, but I wanted them to be faith-based. I asked around in a few mom groups, and got some great recommendations to add to the few that we already had. 

• Baby’s First Bible Stories by Rachel Elliot
• Let Us Pray by Katie Warner 
• The Word of the Lord by Katie Warner

Teething Rosary

We have and love this silicone rosary, mostly for our younger baby, but our toddler loves playing with it too.

Another option would be a plush rosary like this one, which also looks like it’d be fun for both babies and toddlers!

Bible Stories Water Wow

Our girl loves the Water Wow toys from Melissa and Doug, so I was really excited to see that they have a Bible stories version! If you’ve not seen them before, they’re essentially painting without the mess, AND you can reuse the pages because once they’re dry, they’re blank again.

Crayons and Bible/Saints coloring pages

Coloring is always a big hit in our house, so I found a few free coloring pages online with different Bible scenes and saints (the four saints our girls are named after are favorites) and put them in a folder. We have some regular crayons and a few of the dinosaur crayons we made for our daughter’s birthday party which also double as toys (you can read about how we made those here).

Wikki Stix 

I loved Wikki Stix as a kid and was delighted to find that they still make them. Though Wicky Sticks aren’t faith-based, they are versatile and do their job in keeping our daughter occupied during church.

Snacks (and more snacks)

This (and her water cup, which we forgot last weekend) are the most important for keeping our girl happy during mass. We like to use these containers because they’re harder to spill and less wasteful than a plastic bag. 

Mass bag or no mass bag, the most important thing to us is that we get our kids to church and that they see us and people in our community participating in the service. I used to be so embarrassed by the thought of my toddler causing a ruckus in the pews that I sequestered our family in the cry room, which was really hindering us from forming a church community since we hardly saw any other people each Sunday. We decided to start taking our two little ones into the pews, but I was so apprehensive before each service and I would work myself up so much that I couldn’t pay attention to anything that was happening. When I expressed this to a friend, she told me something along the lines of: “This is part of living in community, and if the church isn’t crying, it’s dying. If other people want to give you dirty looks or have something to say about it, that’s on them, not you.” This completely changed my perspective, and I hope it can have the same effect on you.