Lent Activities for Families

***This post has been updated on February 2019***

Lent is almost here! Today I have a whole list of Lenten activities you can do as a family that I am going to share with you.

***Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Thank you!

Meatless Friday Cooking with the Kids: Try new meatless meals during Lent and let the kids help you! I admit, I quickly lose my patience when I let my kids help me but if you let them help, despite how frustrating it can be, it can be a great sacrifice to offer up, especially during Lent. I plan on letting the kids help me with prepare our Friday meatless dinners. You can check out my Pinterest board of Meals for Lent for possible dinner ideas and see what we will be trying.

Lent Board: Make a Lent board to help you along your Lenten journey. You can get a tri-fold board from the dollar store, decorate it with Lenten symbols, add prayers, and so on. Having it on a tri-fold board also makes this great for when you are limited on space. Check out my blog post on more information.

Lent board from 2016

Crown of Thorns & sacrifice jar: Make a crown of thorns and every time a child makes a sacrifice they get to pull a thorn out of Jesus’ crown. It’s a precious idea that even the littlest family member can enjoy doing. You can make a crown of thorns out of salt dough and toothpicks or you could use a small grapevine wreath and add toothpicks to that. Here are a couple recipes I’ve found for making it yourself RECIPE 1 and RECIPE 2. I also have a free printable card to use for a sacrifice jar available.

Lenten Calendar: Keep a Lenten Calendar up to give your children a visual way of keeping track of Lent and countdown to Easter. I have a predated Lenten Calendar in full color available for FREE that you that you can download.

Stations of the Cross for kids: A lot of parishes offer a children’s station of the cross during Lent. I highly recommend looking into this if available. If not, here are a couple of books that are great for kids.

• Stations of the Cross for Children by Julianne M. Will
• Walking with Jesus to Calvary: Stations of the Cross for Children by Angela M Burrin

Books: Read some books to help you really dig deep this Lenten season. Nothing like the power of a good book that really speaks to your soul and gets the brain pondering. I have provided a list of options for the whole family.

• Lenten family books
  • Bringing Lent Home with Mother Teresa by Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle
  • Bringing Lent Home with St. Therese of Lisieux by Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle
  • A Family Journey With Jesus Through Lent: Prayers And Activities for Each Day by Angela M. Burrin
  • Lent and Easter in the Domestic Church by Catherine Fournier

  • My Catholic Lent and Easter Activity Book: Reproducible Sheets for Home and School

• Here are a few books that would make for great read alouds for children.
  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
  • Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
  • The Lost Princess by George MacDonalds
  • The Tale of Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt
  • Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien 
  • The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado

  • Make Room: A Child’s Guide to Lent and Easter by Laura Alary

  • Stations of the Cross for Children by Julianne M Will

  • Lent: One Day at a Time for Catholic Teens by Katie & Tommy McGrady
    – FOR TEENS

• Books that will fuel your soul:
  • Every Step with Jesus: Following the Saints in the Way of the Cross
  • Above All by Elizabeth Foss
  • Lenten Reflections From A Father Who Keeps His Promises by Scott Hahn

Prayers: Look up Lenten prayers to say as a family. Try praying the rosary every day with your children. I know this can be difficult with young kids but I suggest you give it a try. Pray only one decade a day, taking the whole week to complete one mystery. There are many great tips to make it interactive for little ones on Pinterest. Happy Saints has a wonderful ebook of the Rosary that is beautifully illustrated. I do have a printable of some Lent prayer as well.

40 Bags in 40 Days: Declutter and rid your life of excessive worldly possessions to allow yourself to be able to focus more on the priorities in your life, mainly Jesus. This is a great website to help you get started and I also recommend Catholic Minimalism by Sterling Jaquith. 

Other resources:

• Another amazing FREE resource for kids is Holy Heros’ Lenten Adventure!! We have signed up for the past couple of years now, so I highly recommend it. They also have a ton of other products you can buy on their website.
• An idea for almsgiving this Lent is CRS – Rice Bowl. It’s a Lenten faith-in-action program that shows love to our neighbors who hunger and are in poverty. Learn more about CRS – Rice Bowl check out their website at www.crsricebowl.org.
• Formed.org – an amazing website that offers Catholic movies, ebooks, audios, and much more for all ages
• Preparing for Lent – here is a short video from Father Mike, who is always funny, about preparing for Lent
• Here is a list of all my Lent posts:
  • Lent with Kids 2017
  • Lent Board
  • Catholic Easter Gift Ideas
  • 2019 Lenten Calendar (free printable)
  • Free Printables for Lent

If you are subscribed and have access to Subscribers Hollow, check out all my FREE printables available for Lent. Not subscribed? Click below to subscribe and get access.

Do you have any special Lent traditions? Please share in the comments below!