It’s all about deciding what traditions make the most sense for your young family right now.
Holy Week can be a tricky time of year if you have little kids.
There are so many beautiful and wondrous liturgical events happening this week. There are palms on Palm Sunday, foot washing and Seven Churches on Holy Thursday, and the once-a-year glory of Easter Vigil Mass on Holy Saturday.
But many of these sacred events happen late in the evening, well after your children need to go to bed. You know they are going to struggle if you take them to a long service after bedtime.
And even the ones that aren’t after bedtime aren’t exactly kid-friendly. We all know what happens when we give kids light sabers, I mean palms, during an extra-long liturgy.
So let’s say you’ve got little kids at home and you want to live the liturgical year fully. What can you do to honor Holy Week with your tiny crew?
1Accept this season of life
The first step is just to make peace with the fact that you might not be able to do everything you want to.
When my oldest kids were little, I didn’t want to miss out on any of the Holy Week events I loved. So I dragged my baby and toddler around to seven churches on Holy Thursday.
Shockingly, they didn’t enjoy being put in and out of the car over and over for two hours past their bedtime. They were miserable, and pretty soon, so was I.
Before I had kids, I loved going to all these things. When my kids were really little, I had to accept that it’s not practical in this season of life. It’s OK. This season is temporary. It’s a short blip of time in the context of my whole life. I want to spend this time grateful for the blessings of this season, instead of bummed at what this season doesn’t permit.
And now that my kids are getting older, we are able to start doing these traditions together. Last year, I took my older kids to Seven Churches on Holy Thursday, and it went shockingly well. They loved it, and are looking forward to doing it again with their friends this year. I appreciate all the Holy Week traditions so much more now that I'm able to do them with my kids!
2Choose devotions that matter to you and are doable
Accepting this season of life does not mean you can't have a meaningful Holy Week! The key is thinking through what makes sense for your family. We all have different energy levels and different things that sound doable to us!
I don’t want to reinvent the wheel here, so let me direct you to the wonderfully well-thought-out ideas for liturgical living during Holy Week over at Catholic All Year, Catholic Icing, and Lazy Liturgical.
These are a few of the ways you could possibly celebrate Holy Week…
- Bake Lenten pretzels
- Spring clean your house
- Hold a scavenger hunt for coins on “Spy Wednesday”
- Make Holy Week handprints
- Put together Resurrection eggs
- Make a Rice Krispies lamb cake
- Watch The Prince of Egypt or The Robe
- Wash each other’s feet on Holy Thursday
- Visit seven churches on Holy Thursday
- Make hot cross buns
- Pray the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday
- Dye Easter eggs on Holy Saturday
- Make a favorite breakfast treat for Easter brunch
You might do all or just pick out some of these things. It’s all about deciding what makes the most sense for your family right now.
Personally, I plan to do some intense spring cleaning and bake pretzels early in the week. I'll take my older kids to Mass and Seven Churches on Holy Thursday. We will pray the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, and make Hot Cross Buns to eat while we dye eggs on Holy Saturday. And if we are feeling especially brave, we might attempt Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday - fingers crossed that goes ok!
The one thing I know for sure is that we will head to Mass on Easter Sunday. The kids will make their joyful noises unto the Lord, and we’ll bask in the glory of the Resurrection, the linchpin of our entire faith. Can’t wait to see you there!
