50+ Lent Ideas Paper Chain Printable: Things to Add and Things to Give Up for Lent

50+ Lent Ideas Paper Chain Printable: Things to Add and Things to Give Up for Lent Post Preview: This post includes a printable featuring over 50 ideas of what to do for Lent with your family as well as other resources for Lent.

While I love the 40 Lenten Activities printable, I decided to make a new twist on this printable. After receiving an email from a reader about wanting the ideas as a paper chain, I thought that sounded like a fabulous idea!

If you want lots of ideas for Lent, be sure to check out all of the Lent posts on Real Life at Home!

50+ Lent Ideas Paper Chain Printable: Things to Add and Things to Give Up for Lent

I wanted to make sure that anyone who observes Lent could use this set of things to add and things to give up for Lent. So, I made sure that there were more than 40 choices that were not Catholic-specific.

While Lenten practices vary, I have included the following Lent ideas in this printable paper chain project:

• 45 things to add or things to give up for Lent that most people who observe Lent could use
• 10 Catholic Lent ideas
• 5 blank strips so you can handwrite in your own ideas

How to Use the Lent Ideas Paper Chain Printable

You can download the free printable farther down in the post. You will want to download this and then save it to your computer.

If you have any problems with clarity, it might be your web browser. It’s always best to save it to your computer and then open it from your computer (instead of in a web browser). I have more to say about some of these issues that might help if you run into them.

2. Print out all of the pages of the printable that you want to use. You may or may not want to print out all of the pages.

While I used cardstock when printing out my Lenten paper chain, you can also opt for regular paper. You might consider purple paper for Lent. I used three different shades of purple cardstock, just to mix it up.

You can use double-sided tape, staples, glue dots, or glue to make your paper strips into links. If you are using cardstock, you might consider skipping out on glue that might come undone.

3. Cut your printables into strips.

4. Decide which method of paper chain making you would like to do:

• Add to the chain throughout Lent – Leave all of the strips of paper that you want to use in a special place. Add a new link to your chain each time your family finishes one of the Lent ideas.
• Start Lent with the chain already made – Make your strips of paper into a paper chain as we begin Lent. Remove a link and then do that activity with your family. This option acts kind of like a countdown.
• Don’t make a paper chain at all – You could opt to just print out these ideas and keep them as strips. You could also print the pages at a slightly smaller percentage (maybe 75%) and glue them onto large craft sticks instead.

5. Use the Lent ideas throughout the season to add to your family’s observance.

Remember – it’s okay if you don’t start these right at the beginning of Lent or if you don’t do 40 of them. Anything you do to add to your family’s observance of Lent will be a wonderful addition to your family life, even if it starts “late” or you try to tell yourself that it’s “not enough.”

Terms of Use for the 50+ Lent Ideas Paper Chain Printable: Things to Add and Things to Give Up for Lent

This printable is free for Real Life at Home email subscribers. If you really don’t want to subscribe in order to get the download, you can purchase it for a very small amount here instead. ($1.50 for personal or single classroom use and $3.00 for multiple classrooms or large group use.)

The Lent Ideas Paper Chain Printable download is free for personal, classroom, or church/religious education use. It should not, however, be put into church bulletins or newsletters.

When you make copies of these pages to distribute to a class or in a religious education program, please make sure that the copyright credit line is included (which just means that you need to make sure that you don’t accidentally crop off the line with the copyright information at the bottom of the printable when you are reproducing it).

It cannot be included in a publication without first contacting me to discuss details and cost.

It cannot be sold, published, or hosted on other websites. If you want to pass along the printable, please feel free to share a link to this post (not directly to the printable) with others. Thanks! (Please don’t assume about the terms of use. You can read more details about terms of use here.)

If you use a lot of free printables from Real Life at Home, you might consider making a small donation to help us continue to offer all these freebies.

Download the Free Printable

Click here to download the Lenten Paper Chain as a Weekly Newsletter Subscriber

Click here to download the Lenten Paper Chain as a weekly Catholic Printables and Activities Newsletter Subscriber

If you are not already a subscriber, you will have a chance to sign up on either of those pages linked to above. Just pick the list you prefer and click on that option.

Purchase printable instead of subscribing to receive for free

Wanting to add more to your family’s Lenten observances? Here are a couple resources that might be helpful:

Stations of the Cross for Children

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

Lent Activity Page Free Printable

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