The days are full and golden, the hedgerows thick with green and heady fragrance, and bees hum busily amongst the flowers. Evenings stretch on and on, and our children seem to sense that this is one of those turning points of the year, even if no one has quite explained it to them.
For families who want to live more closely with the seasons, then Midsummer offers us a beautiful opportunity to pause, notice, give thanks, and mark the passing of time in a meaningful way.
For Christian families, Midsummer is more than simply a celebration of the longest days. Traditionally, it is connected with St. John’s Tide, the feast of St. John the Baptist, celebrated on the 24th June.
Why celebrate Midsummer?
Charlotte Mason wrote of education as an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life. Seasonal celebrations sit beautifully within this way of thinking. They are not about adding yet another elaborate activity to an already full week, instead, they are about forming an atmosphere within the home, one in which children learn to pay attention, to recognise beauty, to connect the natural world with the rhythm of the year, and to understand that time itself can be received as a precious gift.
Midsummer gives children something very concrete to observe:
The height of the sun.
The fullness of the garden.
The abundance of flowers.
The warmth of the long evenings.
The sense that the year has reached a very bright, and golden pause.
These are not abstract ideas. They are things children can see, touch, smell, and remember, which is very much in keeping with a Charlotte Mason approach to nature study. We do not begin by over-explaining, we begin by helping the child to notice.
Midsummer and St. John’s Tide
Traditionally, Midsummer is celebrated on the 24th June, the feast day of St. John the Baptist. At this point in the year, the sun is high in the sky and the days are long and luminous; a natural moment to think about light. In the Gospel of John, St. John the Baptist is described as a witness to the Light. Jesus Himself spoke of John as “a burning and shining lamp.” This makes St. John’s Tide a rich and meaningful celebration for Christian families: The outer world is full of light, warmth, flowers, and growth. The inner invitation is to prepare the way for Christ.
This is the heart of the season: to notice the light, to give thanks for it, and to make straight the way for Jesus in our hearts.
An open-and-go family guide
Celebrating The Seasons With Children: Midsummer and St. John’s Tide is a 37-page PDF handbook designed to help you create a simple, thoughtful, and authentic family celebration. It is part of the Celebrating The Seasons With Children series: a collection of handbooks written to guide families step by step in observing the natural rhythms of the year alongside the seasons and celebrations of the Church. The format is simple and open-and-go. You do not need to spend hours planning or gathering complicated supplies. The guide gives you the background, ideas, readings, and journal pages you need in one place, so you can shape a celebration that fits your own family’s needs, and is written for a wide range of ages, making it suitable for younger children, older children, and family learning together.
Inside the guide, you will find:
Midsummer and St. John’s Tide Journal Pages
Getting started: notes on using this guide
About Midsummer and St. John’s Tide
Joyfully Observing Midsummer and St. John’s Tide
Book List
A poem to enjoy as you celebrate
A piece of art to enjoy as you celebrate
A Charlotte Mason approach to seasonal celebrations
This is not a craft pack designed to keep children busy for an afternoon, it is a guide for creating a living family tradition. A Charlotte Mason education teaches children to form relationships: with books, with nature, with art, with poetry, with history, with Scripture, and with the world around them. Seasonal celebrations help to gather many of these relationships together.
At Midsummer, a child might observe the wildflowers in bloom, listen to a poem, look carefully at a painting, hear about St. John the Baptist, draw in a journal, and spend time outdoors noticing the long light of evening. None of these things need to be forced, they simply become a part of the atmosphere of home, and over time, these repeated seasonal observances become anchors in a child’s memory: they remember that the year has meaning, that faith is not shut away from the natural world. They remember the flowers, the light, the stories, the prayers, the books, the family table, and they remember that the created world speaks of the goodness of God.
Begin a simple Midsummer tradition
Midsummer does not need to be elaborate. Small things, repeated with love, become family culture.
Celebrating The Seasons With Children: Midsummer and St. John’s Tide gives you a thoughtful and practical way to begin.
From my home to yours,
