Hands-On Holy Week

Palm Sunday is THIS weekend: the start of Holy Week!

Over the years, we have been creating and collecting cute kid crafts to help delve into the Liturgical Calendar and facilitate a Hands-On Holy Week!

Holy Week is the most important week of the whole year! Here's a summary post of crafts you can make and reintroduce year after year... for this special week! Click on the links (or the pictures) for more details and picture tutorials!

Palm Sunday

Last year, we introduced the Kelly Saints Stations of the Cross Craft Kit. There are multiple templates in the kit, and lots of ways to use them!

These Stations of the Cross Votive candles are made by simply printing the color templates from the kit and inserting them in clean, empty glass jars with little tea lights! Baby food jars or condiment jars work great! Let them light up your Stations of the Cross this week!

We also made a Passion Play set out of an egg carton! Give the kids a set for their own Passion Play!

Holy Thursday

NEW this year! We've compiled our Play Mass kit for almost-6-year-old Adam. This will come in handy as we talk about the Last Supper...and the Institution of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday. Although we still struggle with behavior at Mass, I've noticed that reminding Adam about his Mass kit at home sometimes helps him pay closer attention during the Liturgy of the Eucharist and changes the way he plays Mass at home!

We've also made a number of Saints and Passion Play figures out of egg cartons! The Arma Dei knights are actually mascots for our family business Arma Dei: Equipping Catholic Families, but they double as Roman guards arresting Jesus on Holy Thursday.

Good Friday

See what I did there? This is the same Passion Play in an Egg Carton I mentioned for Palm Sunday. We've used it with the Wooden Painted Saints I've painted...and also my Miniature Version of Lacy's Printable Saints and Passion Play Pegs.

The Kelly Saints Stations of the Cross Craft Kit made into the tabletop Carousel works really well for focus during the Stations of the Cross at home!

Holy Saturday

An empty and clean ice cream tub makes an awesome Tomb for Wooden Painted Saints and Passion Play Pegs. I use the Tub Tomb with our smaller pegs, but I think they'll fit the larger size quite well too! I've used the Ice Cream Tub Tomb with traditional wooden pegs as well.

(Send Monica a picture of your Peg Doll tomb made out of an Ice Cream tub...preferably with your peg dolls positioned near it. Best pictures will earn a FREE Craft Kit PDF!)

Holy Saturday is also a good day to dye hard-boiled eggs for Easter Sunday!

I love these 27 decorating ideas over at Tip Junkie.

Easter Sunday

A couple years ago we planted a little pad of cat grass (I still don't really know what a Cat Grass kit is for) and it was pretty neat to see the grass sprouting on Easter Sunday! I planted an empty egg carton to provide the structure for the cave (Empty Tomb) and our wooden painted saints fit right in! You'll find lots of Easter Garden ideas on Pinterest ...that look great on the table and easily accommodate your painted saints!

We've also challenged ourselves to have Easter Eggs filled for all 50 days of the Easter Season.

See our DIY Catholic Kinder Surprise

...and with the release of our unique Super Saints cards in 2016...we've got some fresh ideas to fill your Easter Baskets!

I hope these ideas are helpful! We've found that they are definitely worth the effort and can be enjoyed year after year for a Hands-On Holy Week!

What fun and faith-filled crafts are part of your Hands-On Holy Week this year? Tell us about it in the comments!

Best comment will win a Cathletics Craft Kit PDF from Arma Dei: Equipping Catholic Families.

Copyright 2016 Monica McConkey.

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Artwork and Images copyright 2016 Monica McConkey. All rights reserved.