Holy Week Family Guide: Christ-Centered Activities to Celebrate Easter at Home

Discover meaningful Holy Week activities for families to deepen your Easter celebration. Engage in daily reflections, crafts, and traditions that honor the true significance of the season.

A few years ago I took the leap of making our Christmas less focused on materialism and "me me me" and more focused on Christ and connection, and we all absolutely loved it, including the kids! This year I am making the same switch for Easter.

Easter egg hunts and baskets full of knick knacks just don't do it for me anymore and feels meaningless and flat. This is the most important event in Christian history and I want this season to feel and look like that. So I have compiled a calendar of special events and moments to make it a deep meaningful tradition full of connection and reflection and most of all CHRIST.

I have kids ranging from 1-14 so this calendar of events is designed to include all of my children. We are a deep conversations type family. When my boys were just 4 and 8, we started having deep theological discussions late into the night. So this calendar also caters to that aspect of our family culture along with meaningful events. Make sure to include special things that cater to your family's unique home culture!

As always for my content, it is all very budget friendly, much more so than traditional Easter in American Culture.

For the breads, I will be making them homemade from sourdough in advance. Homemade baked goods are something that has become very special for our family and also allows me to make them gluten free (long ferment) for cheap.

I will be printing some beautiful Easter countdown cards off of Etsy that allows us to have a daily visual prompt as well as some stories/scripture on the back that explains the significance of each day.

I have also saved some paintings that emotionally impact me, that point to Jesus and the empty tomb that I will be printing and hanging on the wall for the week. This will also be a time of specific Easter devotional for me during my quiet times.

This year I am trying to focus on my kids having a personal relationship with Jesus so each day I will be facilitating a time where THEY pray quietly on their own to God while we sit together instead of just relying on me and Dad to pray while they sit and their minds wander.

Let's get to it!​

📅 Holy Week Daily Activities & Reflections

Each Day we read the scriptures together over candlelight and sometimes include a cartoon of the events off of Youtube like this series. You can also include a picture Bible to keep them engaged during scripture reading, and then we always end with prayer like I describe above.

Throughout these days we also reflected on the Messianic prophecies from Isaiah from roughly 700 years prior to the events in the New Testament. I'll list some of those at the bottom of the post for your reference.

🌿 Palm Sunday: Jesus Enters Jerusalem

Scripture: Matthew 21:1–11; Mark 11:1–11; Luke 19:28–44; John 12:12–19​

Activity:

• Create palm branches using construction paper and popsicle sticks.​

• Reenact Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, celebrating with shouts of "Hosanna!"​

  
  

🍃 Holy Monday: Cleansing the Temple

Scripture: Matthew 21:12–22; Mark 11:15; Luke 19:45–48; John 2:13–17​

Activity:

• Make origami tables using a Youtube tutorial and read the passages of Jesus flipping the tables in His righteous anger. Flip your tables and say the words Jesus said. We liked to yell at the top of our lungs His words while we flipped our tables clear across the room.

  
  

📖 Holy Tuesday: Teachings of Jesus

Scripture: Matthew 21:23–24:51; Mark 11:20–13:37; Luke 20:1–21:36; John 12:20–38​

Activity:

• Read, watch, and discuss Jesus' teachings on faith and obedience.​

  
  

🕵️ Spy Wednesday: Judas' Betrayal

Scripture: Matthew 26:12–14; Mark 14:10–12; Luke 22:3–6​

Activity:

• Place 30 silver coins on the table as a visual aid.​

• Read the scriptures by candlelight, discussing the gravity of the betrayal.​

• Reflect on 1 Timothy 6:10 and the dangers of loving money.​

  
  

🍷 Maundy Thursday: The Last Supper

Scripture: Matthew 26:17–75; Mark 14:12–72; Luke 22:7–62; John 13:1–38​

Activity:

• Prepare a Mediterranean-style meal with grapes, dates, pita bread, hummus, and cheese.​ I will also include things I know the kids will actually eat like pepperoni and summer sausage.

• Dine on the floor the room only lit with candlelight to emulate the Last Supper setting with a scarf or fancy table cloth on the table.​

• Use grape juice, or in our case kombucha, as a representation of wine during the meal.​

• Conclude with candlelit scripture reading and personal prayers.​

  
  

⚫ Good Friday: Crucifixion and Burial

Scripture: Matthew 27:1–62; Mark 15:1–47; Luke 22:63–23:56; John 18:28–19:37

​Activity:

• Construct a "tomb" in the garden using natural materials or craft supplies like air dry clay or popsicle sticks.​

• Create a figure of Jesus from twigs, wrap it in cloth, and place it in the tomb.​

• Seal the tomb and assign "guards" to watch over it.​

• Light a candle representing the "Light of the World," extinguishing it during the reading of Jesus' death to symbolize the world's darkness.

• Sit in silence, reflecting and praying together as a family.​

  
  

🌑 Holy Saturday: A Day of Waiting

Scripture: Matthew 27:62–66; Mark 16:1; Luke 23:56; John 19:40

​Activity:

• Visit the tomb, ensuring it remains sealed.​

• Recite Isaiah 53:5–6 in the darkness.​

• Engage in silent, personal prayers, acknowledging the anticipation of resurrection.​

🌅 Resurrection Sunday: He Is Risen!

Scripture: Matthew 28:1–13; Mark 16:1–14; Luke 24:1–9; John 20:1–23​

Activity:

• Before the kids wake, open the tomb, remove the figure of Jesus, and fold the burial cloths inside.​

• Have the children discover the empty tomb, celebrating with shouts of "He is risen!"​

• Relight the candle as a symbol of the resurrected Christ - the light of the world has returned!

• Prepare a celebratory meal with traditional foods like sourdough challah and in our case sourdough pizzas cut out with little fish cookie cutters (my kids will not eat fish lol).

• Conclude the day with prayers of gratitude and personal reflections.​

Some Isaiah Messianic references:

Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 9:2 , Isaiah 42: 1-4 , Isaiah 52, Isaiah 53

There are others as well!

🧩 Additional Resources

• 65 Meaningful Holy Week and Easter Activities for Families​Other Than A Mom

• Christ-Centered Family Activities For Holy Week​The Peaceful Haven

Explore more of my blogs ranging from my natural healing journey, parenting tricks that have worked for me, and even DIY natural products here!