Money Saving Monday: Do It Yourself Crown of Thorns



I remember a few years ago seeing a picture one of my fellow Catholic friends posted on facebook of a crown of thorns she had made herself. Not only was it was big enough to be the centerpiece for her table during Lent, but it was beautiful. What a perfect reminder of Christ's suffering and death He endured for us! As a Catholic, when praying the Sorrowful Mysteries of the rosary, we meditate on the Crowning of Thorns on the 3rd Sorrowful Mystery. Every crucifix in our home (and we have enough to have at least one in each room, bathroom, and hallway thanks to generous guests at our wedding who gifted them to us) has an obvious crown of thorns on Jesus's head. Now that my kids are getting a little older (5) (3 1/2) and (17 months), I've been trying to explain what Lent is, what sacrifice is and why Jesus sacrificed for us.

Now rewind to a few weeks ago. I was doing some Spring yard work and clearing out old leaves from around the rose bushes in the front yard. The rose bush, full of thorny branches, kept pricking my fingers as I cleared around it's base. Then I realized the rose bush branches would be a perfect guinea pig for me to try a DIY crown of thorns.

This is how my crown of thorns turned out.

 

Do It Yourself: Crown of Thorns

 

1. Cut 7 or 8 six inch pieces of thorny branches. The longer the better. If you can, cut them around 12 inches.
2. Find some brown thread/string. I used some brown embroidery thread.
3. Wrap the thorny branch pieces in half or full circles and secure by tying the thread around the pieces.

It's that simple. I probably didn't need a tutorial, but there it is. I just have ours on our table with this random candle as a sort of Lenten centerpiece. It's big enough to fit on our heads and hurts! I've let the kids touch the thorns with their fingers and tried to use it as a teaching point for them to understand how much Christ endured during his passion. However, I did have to make a rule that no one is allowed to pick up the crown or place it on anyone's head...even your own head.

 

Ironically, the same day I made the crown of thorns, I received an advertisement for a local Christian store. I flipped through it and saw a crown of thorns for sale. They were asking, wait for it, $79.99! I couldn't believe it, so I took a picture of it to prove that I'm not making this stuff up. If you use the 25% off coupon in the advertisement, the price drops to $59.99. Still, I'd never pay that much for something you can do yourself for free.

I've seen some really cool ideas incorporating the Crown of thorns on Pinterest. Now, if you follow me on pinterest, please know that just because I may have pinned something, doesn't mean I've actually done it. I'll be honest, I haven't actually tried any of these, but Lent isn't over quite yet. If anything, maybe you could try them. Here are links for my Favorite Pinterest projects:
 

Top 5 Pinterest Crown of Thorns Projects

1. This one is from Catholic Icing. She has AMAZING Catholic ideas on teaching (a preschool curriculum), recipes, arts and crafts, saints costumes and so much more. Please check out her blog if you get a chance. Here, she takes a wreath and places (painted) toothpicks inside the wreath to make the thorns. Each time your child does a good deed or makes a sacrifice, they get to pull 1 thorn out of the wreath a.k.a. Crown of Thorns. The goal is to remove all the thorns by Easter and then transform the wreath into something beautiful on Easter morning. 
2. This one is from Waltzing Matilda. She makes a big crown of thorns and uses it as a centerpiece on her table with a purple (for Lent) candle burning in the center.
3. This one is from Sojourn Kids. They use paper crowns (think Burger King crowns or apparently you can purchase paper crowns at a craft store or you can make your own from construction paper) and decorate half with stickers, jewels, etc and make paper thorns on the other half. They call it, "Crown of thorns/Crown of glory" art project. It seems like a neat visual for children to see that Jesus was both the bearer of such suffering as fully man and also the bearer of all the glory as fully God.
4. This one is from Three Sided Wheel. Of course I'm going to add anything that has to do with chocolate. This one seem easy enough: pretzels sticks and melted chocolate. Layer them into a crown of thorns and allow to dry. In the blog she says it's a perfect treat for Good Friday. I'm pretty sure I'd make the chocolate crown with the kids on Good Friday and purposely not eat it until Easter Saturday night or Sunday morning (after mass). This way, the kids could learn a tangible lesson on sacrifice, which as I have been trying to teach my kids as, "Doing something that is hard because you love someone".
5. This one is from Catholic Inspired. She uses her palm from Palm Sunday (in 2 weeks from yesterday) to braid it into a crown of thorns. This link actually provides tutorials for lots of ideas on how to braid your palms. Never knew it until after browsing through her site, but apparently, I have always done the "4 square palm braid" that I learned from my mom as a girl.

So there you have it. Money Saving Monday tip is: go out to your yard and make a crown of thorns for Lent. Passion Sunday is this Sunday. The crown of thorns can be a perfect visual aid for your family as we journey into Holy Week and Easter Sunday. Happy Money Saving Monday!