Activity – Lenten Tree

Posted on by Fay Rowland (Mother Clanger)

In our family, we have an Advent tradition. We have Bible verses that tell the Christmas story printed out, and we read one each day of Advent then hang them on the Christmas Tree. This is a similar activity for Lent using 14 readings to hang on a Lenten Tree. Why not make it part of your family tradition?win_20170215_09_42_42_pro

You will need:

What to do:

Mix up some stiff plaster and coat the outside of the yoghurt pot roughly. Then fill the pot with more stiff plaster and put your twigs in the middle. Arrange the twigs so that they look like a small tree

When the plaster is set, you can paint it – gold looks good. You can also paint the twigs if you want, or glitter them. I have left mine bare.

Decorate your tree with eggs, chicks, ribbons or blossom made from crumpled tissue or cotton wool. I have used eggs covered with tissue, ribbons and lace.

Next you need to print out the Lenten Tree readings. [Click here for the readings PDF: lenten-tree] I have used coloured paper. Carefully tear out the 14 strips – tearing looks better than a cut edge. (To tear accurately, used only your fingertips very close together and make lots of small tears.) Add a coloured border on the unprinted side to make a good scroll effect when the paper is rolled up.

To make your scroll, have the strip so that you can read it and, starting at the top right-hand corner, roll tightly to the bottom left-hand corner. Curl this last corner outwards and add a thread or ribbon loop to the top left-hand corner for hanging.

On Ash Wednesday you can read the first scroll and then hang it on your Lenten Tree. There are readings for Ash Wednesday, for each Sunday in Lent and for each day of Holy Week.

You can follow the journey through Lent to Easter on the accompanying leaflet. [Click here for a leaflet PDF: lenten-tree-path] This also has instructions for making a Lenten Tree.