Welcome to the Catholic Kingdom's 13th Tournament! As always, it is open to all the members of the Kingdom and the royal invitation extends to all who visit as well. This includes people both inside and outside the United States. So please be sure and spread the word - because everyone can enter! Creativity is a gift from God. All citizens are encouraged to use it to His greater honor and glory. For this Tournament, we desire that everyone express their creativity in ways that glorify God, while having fun as well.

In regards to posting of winning entries, this Tournament will be held in a manner similar to the previous Tournament. Instead of waiting until the end, the judges will simply review and assess the entries as they receive them. Then, for any entry that passes their judgement - and thus qualifying as a winner - it will be posted at the Tournament's Hall of Fame! Any contestant whose entry has merited such a reward will be notified and contacted at the end of the Tournament so that their prizes can be awarded to them.

The Catholic Kingdom's 13th Tournament starts on All Saints Day - November 1st, 2023 and will run until the Feast of the Presentation (Candlemas Day) - February 2nd, 2024. This will give everyone ample opportunity to complete at least one entry.

This Tournament is especially honoring Christmas, and therefore all the entries must have a Christmas theme. There are four categories - Art, Writing, Search & Find, and Questions. As you will read in the Rules below, every entry must be Catholic in content. Since the judging will not wait until Feb 2nd, each entry will be judged when it is received. Entries are not competing with others in their Age Group, but are instead being judged and evaluated individually and on their own merits. If the quality and creativity is judged to be of a winning status, then it will soon after be posted in the Hall of Fame. We do still require you to fill in either your age or your age group so that the judges can properly examine and judge your work.

One last feature that you will notice in the Rules below is the 'Group Entry' option. This means that more than one person can work on an entry - even if they are in different age groups. All that is required is that you tell us how many people helped you and what were their ages (or age groups). It is not required that you give us the exact names of all of the other people involved in the Group Entry. However, if they want their names posted with yours and included with the entry in the Hall of Fame then it is necessary that you include their names with the entry.

We have intentionally designed the Tournament so that anyone can enter, no matter what type or level of creative skills that God has blessed them with!

Remember, it is not the gifts that we have which make us pleasing to God, but how we use the gifts He has given us.

Prizes:

Although their entries will be posted sooner, all the winners for the 13th Tournament will receive their prizes after Feb 2nd. This year's prizes will be digital (enjoyed on the computer) and will be of a special and surprise nature. Everyone who qualifies for a prize will receive an email at the end of the Tournament with the appropriate notifcation and to verify the email address that they want their prize sent to. So please (as is the case in every message you send to the Kingdom) be sure that your email address is correct so that we can write you back. And if your email is filtered and you are not hearing from us, please check and make sure that your email is set up to receive mail from us (@catholickingdom.com). Otherwise, our emails to you may be blocked or sent to your spam folder.

1. Special for this Tournament and in honor of Christmas, all entries must have a Christmas theme in some way. The goal is to honor Jesus' Birthday! We heartily encourage creative ways to portray this theme, remembering to keep the spiritual focus. While there are many beautiful things about winter, as well as many seasonal practices, the focus for this tournament is to honor the gift of God among us.
   
   Please feel free to CLICK HERE FOR EXAMPLES of entry ideas.
   
   
2. All submissions must be Catholic in theme and your own work.
   
   Please do not use copyrighted material (ex. - pictures, music, photos, etc. from movies, soundtracks, or other public artists/groups) or directly create an identical copy of someone else's protected work (aka plagiarism). Do not use someone else’s words, for example, in your poem.
   
   There are exceptions. You can certainly quote from the Holy Bible or a Saint. You could quote your father or mother. But you cannot copy a short story that has been published, like a short story from a collection of Lives of the Saints. If you want to tell the story of a Saint’s life then you must put it in your own words.
   
   You may use images as a model. For instance, you could certainly draw a copy of a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, but you could not reproduce the picture itself by scanning it, photocopying it, or tracing over it.
3. All entries become the property of the Catholic Kingdom. The Catholic Kingdom will not be held responsible for returning any submissions.
4. All entries include permission for the Catholic Kingdom to use them, in whole or in part, as we wish, on the website. All entries that are used in the Kingdom will be accompanied by the name(s) of the person(s) who submitted it, unless they choose to remain anonymous.
5. To submit a 'Group Entry', simply select it from the 'Type of Entry' list. This means that you did not work on your entry by yourself, but one or more of your family and/or friends joined you in your work. For this type of entry, you must list the number of people who were involved as well as their ages (or age groups). Again, only list their names if they desire them to be posted with the entry.
6. If your entry is exclusively your own work - select 'Individual Entry'.
7. You can enter as many of the categories (Art, Writing, etc.) as you like.
8. There is no limit to the number of entries that you can submit to any and all of the Tournament categories.
   Ex. - Feel free to write a poem and a story and submit them as two different Writing entries.
9. EVERY TIME YOU SUBMIT AN ENTRY YOU MUST FILL OUT AND SUBMIT AN ENTRY REGISTRATION FORM.
   Ex. - If you enter the Writing category twice and the Art category three times you must fill out and submit an entry registration form five times (send in one with each of the five entries).
   

The judges will certainly take into consideration if it is a 'Group Entry' or 'Individual Entry' and the ages of the people involved. In addition to that, all entries will be judged (appropriate to the ages of the contestants) according to three characteristics:

E-mail -

Mail - The Catholic Kingdom, PO Box 2284, Front Royal, VA 22630

REMEMBER THAT EACH ENTRY REQUIRES ITS OWN ENTRY REGISTRATION FORM. WHETHER YOU SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY BY MAIL OR BY E-MAIL, YOU MUST FILL IN AND SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY REGISTRATION FORM ONLINE THROUGH THE TOURNAMENT. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW TO FILL-IN YOUR ENTRY REGISTRATION FORM, SEE REGISTRATION.

Methods for submitting your Tournament entries

If submitting your Tournament entries online:

1. Please submit all e-mail entries to the Tournament Master's e-mail address:
   REMEMBER TO ALWAYS INCLUDE YOUR FULL NAME, AGE GROUP, AND THE TITLE OF YOUR WORK.
   
   
2. For Art and Writing entries, you can paste them into the text area of an e-mail.
   
   
3. For ALL entries, you can attach them to the e-mail.
   
   
4. For the two categories Search & Find and Questions, these answers can be filled in online at their shields in the Tournament Field.
   
   
5. If for any reason you are having difficulty attaching or sending your entry via e-mail, please contact us.
   
   

- OR -

If submitting your Tournament entries by postal mail:

1. Send your entries by mail to the mailing address given above. You may include as many entries from any or all categories in the same envelope or package.
   
   
2. REMEMBER THAT, ALTHOUGH YOU ARE MAILING YOUR ENTRY, YOUR ENTRY REGISTRATION FORM MUST BE SENT ONLINE THROUGH THE TOURNAMENT.
   
   
3. BE SURE TO INCLUDE A LIST OF ALL OF THE TITLES OF THE ENTRIES YOU ARE SUBMITTING.
   
   
4. We will send a confirmation e-mail when we receive your entry in the mail. If you do not receive this confirmation, you should contact us far enough in advance to be able to resubmit your entry.

Material

You can send in:

1. The original work (not recommended since no entries will be returned)
2. A physical copy (eg. - a print, photocopy, photograph, etc.) via normal mail
3. A digital copy via e-mail

Ideas for making copies

To send a digital copy via e-mail you can:

1. Scan your work (or a photo of it).
2. Photograph it with a digital camera and upload it to your computer.
3. Type it (if the category is Writing) in a word processing application like Microsoft Word. If you use Microsoft Word, please save it as a ‘Rich Text Format’ type file or a ‘Word 7.0 for MS-DOS’ type file or as a ‘PDF’ type file. If we have trouble reading your entry because we do not have the proper application, we will contact you with other options. If you do not use Microsoft Word, we recommend saving your work as a RTF (rich text format) or ‘PDF’ type file to send to us.

You can also print out a copy from any of the steps above and send it through postal mail