Lenten Activities For Children (2024)

Lent is a great liturgical season to observe with kids to help teach them about the church year. Lent is the 40 days the come before Easter, and it is a season of adding extra prayers, fasting, and almsgiving. There are many ways to celebrate (or observe) Lent with children, and this is my page that links out to all of the resources I have available to help you with this! I hope you find these Lenten resources for children helpful in your celebrations this year.

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Lent Basics (The Cheat Sheet)

Before going into all the fancy “extra” stuff you can do during Lent, I am going to list out the basics for anyone just starting out or not wanting to forget everything. These things are not necessarily required of every age or ability group, so you research further to make sure you’re meeting Lenten requirements, but you can start here.

The first thing to understand is that Lent is its own season, it is very different in feel and observances than Easter. Easter is also a season that lasts for 50 days, but it doesn’t start until Lent is over. So I fully recommend observing Lent first, and trying some of these Lenten activities rather that going straight for the Easter stuff during Lent. Here is an article I wrote on observing Lent first and then celebrating Easter.

  • “Give Something Up”– I really prefer to call this a “Lenten Resolution” because sometimes it’s better to add extra things rather than only taking things away. I do have several posts to help you set Lenten resolutions including sacrifice ideas from the Catholic Icing community, another article with 50 thoughtful ways to fast technology, and also a sacrifice activity for small kids.
  • Meat Free Fridays! Jesus died for you on a Friday, so every Friday during Lent the Catholic church asks you to abstain from meat as a special sacrifice for him. I have a list of 25 kid friendly and normal meatless meals here.
  • Fasting– Fasting is required only for Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
  • Add Extra Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving– these are kinda the 3 “buzz words” of Lent.
  • Purple– the liturgical color of the season!

Printable Lenten Calendar For Kids

This has been the most popular Lenten resource here for a decade now, so if you would like to print one, you can download yours for free here.

Mardi Gras- The Day Before Lent Starts

So actually Mardi Gras isn’t part of Lent, but it’s exactly the day before it all starts- the day before Ash Wednesday. There are a lot of awesome Catholic traditions for celebrating Mardi Gras too, so I would highly encourage you to check that out!

Kid Activities That Run Through The 40 Days Of Lent

Counting down the days of Lent or having an activity that lasts the length of the season is a great way to observe Lent with kids! I have a post with all of the Lenten activities that start on Ash Wednesday here. I highly recommend this post! It has tons of great stuff and free printables!

Round Up Of 40 Day Lenten Activities For Families– count down the days!

My Favorite 40 Days Of Lent Activity Resources:

  • Lenten Planning Pages For Moms
  • Track Your Lenten Resolution– Printable Pages
  • Crown Of Thorns To Encourage Sacrifices (remove a thorn for each sacrifice)

Celebrating Ash Wednesday With Kids

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. Many activities start on this day and run through the season of Lent. I also have some special recipe and craft ideas for observing Ash Wednesday with kids.

Find all of my Ash Wednesday resources for kids and families here.

My Favorite Ash Wednesday Traditions:

  • Bury The Alleluia
  • Crown Of Thorns Bread For Dinner

Lenten Family Feast Table

Setting up a table for the season of Lent is one of my favorite traditions, and a great way to keep the whole home and family focused on the season! Ours looks different every year, but I always like to put something together.

You can see how I set up our Lenten home altar here.

My Favorite Lenten Home Altar Resources:

  • How to make a $10 Lenten altar with stuff from the Dollar Tree
  • Printables for your Lenten Home altar

Stations Of The Cross

You can find my post here with stations of the cross activities for kids. Lots of great resources there!

Post continues after this brief information about the Catholic Icing Monthly Membership

Monthly Liturgical Membership

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Perfect for families! Each month you gain access to printable activity pages, crafts, home altar pieces, and more.

Never has living the liturgical year been so easy and affordable!

My Favorite Stations Of The Cross Resources For Kids:

  • Stations Of The Cross Eggs (one of my favorites resources of all time!)
  • Printable Peg Dolls For The Stations Of The Cross

Holy Week For Kids

Holy Week is the last week of Lent. It starts on Palm Sunday, runs through Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. The classic stories we all know about for the season of Lent and the stations of the cross… they all happened during Holy Week. It’s a really important and awesome time to celebrate with kids!

I designed a special book to teach kids about the events of each day of Holy Week! The book is printable, and then kids illustrate it themselves with handprints. This helps teach them the story of Holy Week, and also becomes a keepsake for years to come! The book is called Holy Week In Handprints and you can download yours here!

Try celebrating all the days of Holy Week with my new cookbook for families! This cookbook includes 23 recipes that point to the true meaning of Easter. It only includes 29 pages of bonus printables! You do not want to miss this amazing resource.

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I have a completely separate post rounding up all of my Holy Week resources for kids here, and you should totally click over.

More Holy Week Resources For Kids:

  • Holy Week Notebooking Pages
  • Build A Block Jerusalem
  • Holy Week Crafts Round Up
  • Holy Week Food Ideas And Recipes

Palm Sunday Activities For Kids

The liturgical color of Palm Sunday is red, and this day marks the beginning of Holy Week! Check out all of my Palm Sunday activities for kids here.

Holy Thursday Activities For Kids

This feast day lends itself to feet washing, bread baking, and is also the anniversary of the Eucharist and the first Mass! Check out my resource page for celebrating Holy Thursday with your family here.

Good Friday Traditions And Resources For Kids

Out of any day of the year, this is a very somber and very important feast day to observe with your kids. I have a list of 10 Good Friday traditions for Catholic families here.

Holy Saturday For Catholic Families

In our Catholic home, we use Holy Saturday to prepare for Easter celebrations. Finally! I am planning to write a post about what Holy Saturday looks like in our home. Coming soon!

More Lenten Resources

Here are even more resources from some of my very favorite Catholic blogs!

Preparing for Easter? Check out my giant resource list of meaningful Easter celebration ideas here!

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Lenten Activities For Children (2024)

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