Holy Week and Easter Family Ideas

It’s Easter in less than 2 weeks. Next week is Holy Week or Passion Week, starting with Palm Sunday & going through to Easter. Many churches will celebrate Maundy Thursday and Good Friday before services for Easter Sunday. So how can you celebrate or what activities can you do as a family? This post which is for the letter ‘H” for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge will give you some Holy Week and Easter Family ideas.

Palm Sunday Ideas

• Palm Sunday Craft with handprint palms & footprint donkey
• Palm Sunday Playdough Mat
• Make Palm Crosses – pictorial instructions or watch the video below

Holy Week Ideas

• Holy Week Explained – Some questions and answers about Holy Week
• Celebrating Jesus Week – Some ideas for celebrating Holy week as a family.
• Easter All Week – print out a little booklet with simple pictures to colour
• Holy week in a box – Symbols & part of the story for each day
• Holy Week Activities for Kids
• Holy Week Trail – scroll down to see the idea
• Holy Week in Handprints – a different idea for each day, use some or all of them.
• Homemade Resurrection Eggs – Fill plastic eggs with a different symbol in each to help tell the Easter story.
• Make a Holy Week Banner
• Road to Easter Activity Sheet to print, cut-out and complete

Maundy Thursday

• A Messianic Passover Seder for Families with Young Children – A meal to share together, adapt to suit your family.
• Decorate a special last supper cup
• Last Supper Easy Flat Bread Recipe
• Wonder Bread
• Last Supper Playdough Mat
• Gethsemane Playdough Mat

Good Friday Ideas

• 15 Hands-On Cross Activities for Kids
• Chocolate Crown of Thorns – made with melted chocolate & pretzel sticks
• Crown of Thorns Bread – bread braid in a ring with toothpicks
• Hot Cross Buns or these Gluten & Dairy Free Hot Cross Buns
• Hot Cross Bun Multi-sensory prayer – use these prayer ideas as you enjoy eating hot cross buns.
• Make a Good Friday Cross using wool, tinfoil, and markers – reflect on the crucifixion accounts as you go.
• Symbolic Lunch for Good Friday – Each food item is symbolic to the Easter story & has scripture to go with it.
• Talking about the Cross with Young Children
• Good Friday Playdough Mat

Easter Ideas

• Easter Story Cookies (Resurrection Cookies)- This is something that we made as a family on Easter Saturday night for a number of years. Also gluten and dairy free.
• Printable Easter Finger Puzzles
• A Sense of the Resurrection: An Easter Experience for Families – Buy this downloadable book with a 12 fun, easy, hands-on, meaningful activities to help experience the Easter story.
• Build a Lego Resurrection Garden
• Easter Egg Prayers – using a hollow chocolate egg
• 2 Easter Playdough Mats – In the tomb & He is Risen
• Empty Tomb Biscuits – For a gluten free version use a GF biscuit, ice with green icing using pure icing sugar, stick on a GF choc biscuit on its side on the edge of the other biscuit and add a GF marshmallow in front.
• Resurrection Story Napkin Rings – Print off & make these napkin rings. Each ring has a piece of the resurrection story to be read in order by guests.

What are you going to do to celebrate Holy Week and Easter?