Looking for an easy way to help your children understand the importance of sacrifices and good works this Lenten season? Looking for a way to remind yourself to unite your everyday sufferings with the passion of Christ? Here is an easy DIY craft that requires absolutely zero artistic abilities!
DIY : Crown of Thorns Lenten Devotion
Create a crown of thorns centerpiece for your dining room table, prayer table or family altar. The idea is that the Crown of Thorns starts out during lent completely covered in thorns; but as lent progresses each thorn is removed one by one from the crown until there are no thorns left for the celebration of Easter. Here is where children’s participation comes in: The thorns can only be removed if a person has done an extra sacrifice or good deed. (You decide how specific you want to get with extra sacrifices/works/prayers) This encourages children to meditate on the tortured and wounded body of Jesus, by offering up small sacrifices to relieve His suffering.
As a second part of this devotion you could also suggest that if someone commits an uncharitable act or fault during lent, that they personally place a new thorn into the crown. This would show the true relationship between our sins and Christ’s continual suffering, and would also encourage children to make many penances in order to remove all of the thorns before Easter Sunday.
Create a crown of thorns centerpiece for your dining room table, prayer table or family altar. The idea is that the Crown of Thorns starts out during lent completely covered in thorns; but as lent progresses each thorn is removed one by one from the crown until there are no thorns left for the celebration of Easter. Here is where children’s participation comes in: The thorns can only be removed if a person has done an extra sacrifice or good deed. (You decide how specific you want to get with extra sacrifices/works/prayers) This encourages children to meditate on the tortured and wounded body of Jesus, by offering up small sacrifices to relieve His suffering.
As a second part of this devotion you could also suggest that if someone commits an uncharitable act or fault during lent, that they personally place a new thorn into the crown. This would show the true relationship between our sins and Christ’s continual suffering, and would also encourage children to make many penances in order to remove all of the thorns before Easter Sunday.
Instructions:
Materials needed:
Grapevine Wreath - (Or materials to make your own if you are industrious)
A Package of Long tooth picks
Brown Acrylic Craft Paint
Paint Brush
Image of Christ or Crucifix
Flowers, candles, any devotionals that you would like to use for Lent
Table runner or doily or piece of cloth
Shot glass or some other small decorative container
For the Crown: Acquire a Grapevine wreath or make your own out of twigs or vines. How did I do it? The easiest way. I walked into Target and they had Grapevine wreaths already made for only $3.00. They were in the (dollar bin) section. Well that was easy! Now you already have a crown! We’re 75% done! lol
For the thorns: I took long tooth picks and painted them brown to match the grapevine wreath. I used brown acrylic craft paint and did them one by one. If you have spray paint that would be quicker! But it was very quick overall- don’t try to make them perfect, they are supposed to look natural like thorns! Globby and splotchy is totally fine. Set them out to dry on a piece of waxed paper or some surface that they won’t get stuck to while drying. Make sure to keep them separated so they don’t get stuck together. If you are using acrylic they shouldn’t take longer than 15-20 minutes to dry completely. I painted 40 of them for the 40 days of lent. It’s up to you and depends on how many people are participating.
Assembly: Then take each tooth pick and force it through the grapevine wreath so that it stays put. Do this around the whole wreath, try to spread them out evenly and put them in different directions so that it looks random. Once you have all of your toothpicks placed in, the crown is done.
( If you want to make it pretty for Easter you could also replace each thorn with a flower gradually as you remove the thorns, so at the end of lent you have a beautiful flower Crown for Our Lord! Do what you like. )
A Package of Long tooth picks
Brown Acrylic Craft Paint
Paint Brush
Image of Christ or Crucifix
Flowers, candles, any devotionals that you would like to use for Lent
Table runner or doily or piece of cloth
Shot glass or some other small decorative container
For the Crown: Acquire a Grapevine wreath or make your own out of twigs or vines. How did I do it? The easiest way. I walked into Target and they had Grapevine wreaths already made for only $3.00. They were in the (dollar bin) section. Well that was easy! Now you already have a crown! We’re 75% done! lol
For the thorns: I took long tooth picks and painted them brown to match the grapevine wreath. I used brown acrylic craft paint and did them one by one. If you have spray paint that would be quicker! But it was very quick overall- don’t try to make them perfect, they are supposed to look natural like thorns! Globby and splotchy is totally fine. Set them out to dry on a piece of waxed paper or some surface that they won’t get stuck to while drying. Make sure to keep them separated so they don’t get stuck together. If you are using acrylic they shouldn’t take longer than 15-20 minutes to dry completely. I painted 40 of them for the 40 days of lent. It’s up to you and depends on how many people are participating.
Assembly: Then take each tooth pick and force it through the grapevine wreath so that it stays put. Do this around the whole wreath, try to spread them out evenly and put them in different directions so that it looks random. Once you have all of your toothpicks placed in, the crown is done.
( If you want to make it pretty for Easter you could also replace each thorn with a flower gradually as you remove the thorns, so at the end of lent you have a beautiful flower Crown for Our Lord! Do what you like. )
Setting up the Centerpiece: We’re almost done! Now you can use
your own creativity to make your personalized set up. What I did was choose a table runner
or cloth to allow the crown to stand out on our dining room table. I tried two different ways, first was a piece of sheer shimmery cloth, the other was a Purple scarf that I had. Try to find Lenten colors! I took a framed image of Christ to put in the center. You could use an icon, a standing Crucifix or statue- anything that shows the Image of Christ during the Passion. I placed a blessed candle in front, and I also had a few wilting Valentines Roses that I thought would go well. To hold the tooth picks afterwards, I placed a small shot glass in the center. Keeping the removed toothpicks near the crown will keep everyone from being discouraged if they can see their progress, and will also keep the toothpicks from getting lost. That's it!
I hope that you enjoyed this very easy tutorial and I hope that this simple craft will inspire you and your children to participate wholeheartedly in the Lenten Season!
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