Holy Week at Home

Janelle Peregoy offers family-friendly ideas to observe Palm Sunday and the Holy Triduum in your home.

If I have one prayer for families during this Holy Week, it is to take a pause. 

Holy Week should feel different. Readying ourselves for Christ should feel different. We can do this with an intentional choice to spend this week differently. 

Consider canceling extracurriculars or shortening the workday. Spend time together as a family and make time to pray beyond what you would normally do together. Reading the daily Gospel readings can be a sacred way to enter into the week. Attend Triduum services together, although the length of the Easter Vigil may be daunting for younger children. Here are some additional suggestions. 

Palm Sunday 

• Have younger children color and cut out palm frond templates, which can be easily found online. Alternatively, go on a family nature walk to collect leaves and branches from the neighborhood. With your fronds and branches, create a path into your home for Jesus. Pair this activity with a children’s book such as The Donkey that No One Could Ride by Anthony DeStefano. This charming story relays Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem from the perspective of the humble donkey who carried Him. 

Holy Thursday 

• Host a family foot-washing service. Read the account in John 13: 1-20. If any two siblings are particularly prone to fighting, make a point to have them wash each other’s feet. This can be a poignant opportunity for creating a context of family unity. With adolescents/teens, this ritual can provoke further conversations. If Jesus was here today, who would He consider marginalized? Whose feet would He wash? 

• Jane Korvemaker has a great suggestion of incorporating elements of the Jewish Seder meal into your Holy Thursday meal. The Seder meal ritually commemorates the Lord passing-over the Jewish households. As Catholics, we recognize the Eucharist as our preeminent celebration. Yet on Holy Thursday, we can acknowledge our spiritual ancestry by incorporating aspects of the Seder meal such as bitter herbs (horseradish), matzo, and grape juice into our family meal. If the adults in the family are interested in learning more, I recommend reading Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist by Brant Pitre. 

Good Friday 

• Pray the Stations of the Cross with children. The Word Among Us has a simple presentation for children aged 10 and younger. Families can go to a parish or retreat center that offers the Stations of the Cross outdoors so that children have a sense of Jesus’ movement throughout the day. Alternatively, families may choose to pray the Stations at home. If so, your family should have an illustrated guide or artwork to represent each Station. For teens, I like Via: Finding Hope in the Stations of the Cross from Life Teen. 

• Venerate the Cross. If you have crucifixes hanging in your home, take them down for Good Friday. For younger children, veneration may look like a quick kiss and the encouragement to remember Jesus’ sacrifice for us at a mealtime or right before bed. For older children and adolescents, the Diocese of Corpus Christi offers a brief guide, How to Venerate the Cross at Home. 

Holy Saturday 

• Dye Easter eggs with intentionality. I like wrapping eggs with rubber bands to create a cross pattern. Remove from the dye and then remove the rubber bands. It leaves a cross design on the eggs. Alternatively, decorate eggs with Jesus- or Resurrection-themed stickers. 

• Bake Kelly Guest’s Resurrection cookies as a family before bed on Holy Saturday. The symbolism works best if family members do not taste the cookies until Easter Sunday. Surprise: The cookies are hollow inside which represent the empty tomb.  

However your family chooses to pray together this Holy Week, I wish you the peace and joy of the risen Christ this upcoming Easter season. 

Hallelujah! 

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Copyright 2025 Janelle Peregoy
Images: Canva