Holy Week
Focusing our families on the celebration of Jesus' victory over sin and death - a celebration that has been wildly under-valued even though this is the single most important event in redemptive history!
Remembering and Celebrating Jesus
The resurrection of Jesus is the single most important event in the Christian faith (and I would argue the history of the world!). Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:17, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” But Christ has INDEED been raised, amen and thank you Jesus!
As Easter quickly approaches, our desire is to equip you, as parents, to purposefully remember and celebrate, with your kids, what Jesus has done for us through his death and resurrection. There are countless ideas and resources out there— but we thought it would be helpful to have a handful of good ones all in one place. May you create meaningful, lasting traditions, that cultivate truth in the hearts of your children.
Please keep in mind that it is not intended that you implement each and every one of these activities this week (unless you want to, of course), but that you sift through and find some intentional ways to celebrate that work well for your family.
Lastly, if you want the Bible reading plan that corresponds with Holy Week or would like to join in for the Resurrection Countdown, follow the link below.
Walking Through Holy Week
After much searching, the best all-in-one resource I could find was this ‘Walking Through Holy Week’ packet, put out by Focus on the Family. It has activities for every day of Holy Week, a kids Passover meal, recipes, games, puzzles, a scavenger hunt and much more. Even some ideas for older kids!
Out of respect of Focus on the Family’s work the link below will take you to their website, where you can put in your email address and you will instantly receive an email with the PDF download. I highly recommend downloading this! So many great ideas and helpful tools!
Other Ideas and Resources
Preparation for the Easter Season:
We try to start our Easter festivities 3 weeks before Easter
- Prepare for Easter by giving up something personally or as a family. Maybe sweets or fast food, screens, TV, video games, social media, sports etc. in order to focus that time back on Jesus.
- Give (food, money, gifts, tangible necessities etc.) as a family secretly to a family in need in your church, school, community or around the world. This can be so fun for the kids to be involved with!
- Decorate your house with lambs! Yes, you heard me correctly, lambs! 1 Corinthians 5:7 says, “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed”. In John 1:29, John the Baptist says, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’. Jesus is referred to as a lamb over 30 times in the Bible. Making it a point to decorate with lambs helps to keep the focus on Jesus, and can also be fun for the kids. Who needs bunnies when we could have lambs!?
- Other ideas to decorate could be a “He is Risen” banner or sign, crosses, lilies or beautiful bouquets of flowers, an empty tomb, white Christmas lights etc. Have Easter decorations that your kids are excited to put up in the same way that you have Christmas decorations.
- Play lots of worship music, songs specifically about his death and resurrection! Seeds Family Worship has a Resurrection album where the songs are only scripture. Find that here.
Palm Sunday:
- Have your kids reenact the story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. Make palm branches using the template in the packet above or by using green construction paper. Lay coats and palm branches on the ground as Jesus rides in. Shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”. Then Mom and Dad should take a turn being Jesus and the donkey! Have some fun with it! This is a great way to help kids remember the story!
Monday:
It is widely held that Jesus cleared the temple on the Monday before his death. If you are doing the Resurrection Countdown with us, that is our story for today also. I bet your children would enjoy acting that out after you read it together (Mark 11:15-17).
Tuesday:
Today in the countdown, we focus on Jesus’ teaching of the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:34-40). Love God. Love People. Maybe use this day to find a creative way to encourage or bless those around you who are hurting or struggling. Color pictures and send then to a retirement home or hospital near you. Write encouraging messages on the sidewalk. Bring someone a meal. The options are endless.
Wednesday:
Two major things take place on this day. Jesus was anointed with perfume by Mary (Mark 14:3-9) and Judas agrees to betray Jesus (Luke 22:1-6). Both could be read and then acted out.
Thursday:
- Have the whole family take turns washing each others feet!
- Take communion together as a family!
- The Walking Through Holy Week packet has a great children’s Passover meal–or Seder– but if you would prefer to use one from Ann Voskamp, it is also very good. Click below!
A great blog post on how to celebrate a Christian Passover meal as a family! It’s titled “The dinner my kids cannot WAIT for all year!” Worth the read. Click below!
Good Friday:
- Make hot cross buns for breakfast (pictured above)– lots of recipes on the web!
- Keep the curtains closed until 3:00 (the hour he died) to give the feeling of the darkness that covered the earth in Luke 23:44. Or you could just have a dimly lit dinner and leave the lights low all evening in observance of his death. Maybe even use a black table cloth and some candles.
- Sing hymns at the dinner table (Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?, The Old Rugged Cross, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross).
- Make sugar cookies in the shape of a cross or a lamb.
- Each family member can write a private prayer to Jesus, thanking Him for suffering for us.
- Take your discarded Christmas tree and cut all the limbs off to make a cross for decoration (making the connection between his birth and his death).
- Build a tomb to illustrate the story. Could be something you make out of card board or Legos or just a bucket on its side with a blanket over it. You could put up a dome tent in your backyard and cover it with sheets or blankets to look rustic. Then get a figurine, Lego or doll to represent Jesus, and lay him in your tomb on Friday. Keep your Jesus in there until Sunday.
Saturday:
- Read Matthew 27:62-65 together and put a guard next to your tomb.
- Make an empty tomb cake in preparation for tomorrow (See picture below, lots of recipes on web)!
Easter Sunday:
- Decorate with streamers or banners (before the kids wake up).
- Read the Easter Sunday family Bible reading found in the Resurrection Countdown, linked above (or just read all of Luke 24).
- Once you’ve finished reading the story have the kids run to the tomb you created to see if the Jesus figurine is there (make sure you have removed him!). He is not there; he is RISEN!!
- The next logical thing would be to spend the day CELEBRATING!!
- Attend your church’s Easter Service!
- Light sparklers or set off fireworks (we save a whole bag from 4th of July) to celebrate our true freedom in Christ!
- Set up a bounce house, eat cake, eat a big fancy delicious meal, blast resurrection praise music and have a dance party or play fun board games! Laugh and be merry!!
- Act out the Easter story as a family. Gather props from around the house and assign characters to tell the story from their perspective. Possible characters: the disciples, a donkey, Pilate, Mary, the angel, Roman soldiers, and of course, Jesus. The website Sunday-School-Center.com has a few free skits ranging in length (from 5-12 minutes) and age-appropriateness (from preschoolers to teens), that you can download for free if you want to put on a fun skit.
- Buy or make resurrections eggs to use for an egg hunt (check out Amazon)! There is also a great children’s book called Benjamin’s Box that goes with the resurrection eggs.
- Wait until the sun goes down and have a glow in the dark egg hunt (lots of options on Amazon as well)! Talk about how Jesus is the light of the world and how he calls us to let our light shine in this dark world. Give the kids glow sticks to wear for the hunt!
- Read a bed time resurrection picture book. Our absolute favorite picture book is “The Garden, The Curtain and The Cross” by Carl Laferton and Catalina Echeverri. A few other good ones are “God Gave us Easter” and “An Easter Egg Hunt for Jesus.”
Happy Easter!
He is Risen!
