St. Therese For Kids (Crafts, Printables, And More!)

Saint Therese is an amazing Saint with some very inspiring quotes, and an even more inspiring life! Kids and adults alike fall in love with her story, her sacrifice beads, and her “little ways”. When celebrating the liturgical year at home, you do not want to miss teaching your kids about St. Therese! You can read here about how to celebrate Saint feast days at home with your kids. Today, let’s look at some celebrating the life of St. Therese for kids with crafts, printables, and even more resources. 

When To Celebrate St. Therese

She is an amazing Saint to bring up when teaching kids about sacrifice, and also during their First Communion year! St. Therese’s feast day is October 1, which is her “birthday in heaven” (the day after the anniversary of her death, September 30). At our house, we love to celebrate

St. Therese on her canonization day, which is May 17! So many of her beautiful quotes about roses and flowers leave the Spring a very happy time to celebrate this feast day. (Somehow, I’m just not as into Spring flower crafts during her feast day in October. Also, October is already a very packed month liturgically, and I find that celebrating her feast day tends to fall through the cracks at that time.) 

Also her order- the Carmelite order- has a special devotion to Our Lady Of Mount Carmel, who’s feast is on July 16. 

“For me, prayer is an aspiration of the heart, it is a simple glance directed to heaven, it is a cry of gratitude and love in the midst of trial as well as joy; finally it is something great, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus.”
― St. Therese of Lisieux

St. Therese “Cheat Sheet”

It is a lot easier to plan a feast day celebration and teach about it to our kids when we can work off the main parts of that Saint’s life. Let’s take a look at some St. Therese highlights. (It’s very easy to get St. Therese of Lisieux mixed up with St. Teresa of Avila as well because they are both from the Carmelite order, so watch out for that.)

• Her name is sometimes spelled “Thérèse,” “Theresa,” and “Therese”
• She was known for her “Little Way“, which was based on Proverbs 9:4 “Whosoever is a little one, let him come to me”
• Also known as the “Little Flower” because she did not see herself as elegant as a rose or a lily, but rather as a small wildflower.
• She was also called “St. Therese Of The Child Jesus” because she had a big devotion to the child Jesus. 
• She was a Carmelite nun
• Her parents, Zelie and Martin, are also Saints- canonized in 2015
• She invented sacrifice beads (more info below)
• On her death bed, she said “After my death, I will let fall a shower of roses. I will spend my heaven doing good upon earth. I will raise up a mighty host of little saints. My mission is to make God loved…” Miracles of St. Therese are often associate with the appearance of roses or the aroma of roses.
• You can find the St. Therese rose novena here.
• St. Therese wrote the book Story Of A Soul, which I highly recommend if you’ve never read it. 

Ok, I think we are ready to look at some ways to celebrate St. Therese with kids! 

St. Therese Picture Books For Kids

Ya’ll know that it’s not my jam to recommend every single resource under the sun. When it comes to children’s books and resources, I’m fairly picky. Plus, I never find that a list online that has like dozens of books is a great resource to me, as I can’t order them all! Which one is the best and tell me that one- that’s how I feel about it. So here is a list of my absolute favorite St. Therese resources for kids. 

When it comes to Catholic children’s picture books, I can’t recommend the Treasure Box Books enough! They are quaint, have beautiful illustrations, are well written… they’re just beautiful books and I recommend for Catholic families to own the whole set, and they’re not super expensive either. This is a set of books that you can’t judge by the cover for sure. (They should definitely fix the covers! lol) Here is the set that includes the story of St. Therese The Little Flower for kids. (Here’s a tip- I write on the covers of my treasure box books with a sharpie so we can know what is in each one.)

Another one of my favorite Catholic kid resources is the Glory Stories from Holy Heroes, and they totally have a Glory Story for St. Therese! Now available as a downloadable MP3. Whoo hoo!!! I really think that you will find the money on these to be well spent. 

St. Therese Videos For Kids

Here is a video from Christian Kids about St. Therese of Liseux for kids.

My Catholic Family also has a video for kids about St. Therese available.

Jesus Wonder Animations has one here that I would say would be better for older kids.

St. Therese Sacrifice Beads

“Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look,

there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”
― St. Therese of Lisieux

St. Therese Printables For Kids

I have a brand new printable St. Therese statue craft for kids. No St. Therese statue? No problem! This little craft will make a fun addition as a centerpiece to any St. Therese celebration. 

Here is a really awesome (and free!) Sacrifice with St. Therese printable activity for kids.  

In my Catholic ABC Saints, “T is for Therese”! So you can print this easy stand-up St. Therese craft for your kids. It can print in color or in black and white so you can color it yourself. Kids love these little paper stand up Saint statues! They can be played with like toys.

Check out these absolutely adorable St. Therese paper dolls for kids! I love how this set has St. Therese as a little girl and the imagery is based on historic photos of the Saint herself!

Holy Heroes has a downloadable coloring book for St. Therese. It costs $3.95 but it’s a beautiful 13 page pdf, which seems like a great value to me.

St. Therese Crafts And Activities For Kids

You can use the templates inside of my Saint Puppet Ebook to create any Saint you wish! St. Therese included (just cut the pieces from the right colors of paper for her order) . 🙂

My kids absolutely adore Saint peg dolls, and they have hands down been the most played with toy in our home among 4 children! You can see the St. Therese peg doll here that we got from our peg doll exchange. If you’re feeling crafty, paint one with your kids! You may be surprised how young kids can make their own peg dolls. 

Have ya’ll seen the Sew-A-Saint dolls? These are so fun and as easy as sewing a pillow with kids! My girls love when I take the time to sew with them, and they absolutely adore these dolls that they made themselves. Here are my girls with theirs. You can order the St. Therese Sew A Saint doll here. 

For older kids, you may want to teach them to embroider! It’s a great hobby to learn. Check out how to embroider the Saints here along with a link to some patterns. Here is our embroidered St. Therese doll (Violet’s middle name Saint) with Violet when she was a baby. So cute!

Ok now stay with me here. Last year I made a video on how to draw St. Teresa of Avila. So she is a different Saint than St. Therese the little flower but… they are from the same Carmelite order, and St. Therese is also considered a doctor of the church, which would make the symbols in this video also good for her. It would be more traditional to draw St. Therese with some roses, but I am going to drop this video here in case your family can find it useful for this feast day.

Plant some wildflowers with your kids! I love this quote about flowers from St. Therese:

“The splendor of a rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of it’s scent nor the daisy of its simiple charm. If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, Spring would lose its lovliness.”

-St. Therese of Lisieux

You can totally celebrate St. Therese by planting some flowers, or even working on a Mary garden with your kids.

“Little Flower” Crafts For Kids

I have a super awesome round up here with 30 flower crafts for kids. Any of these would be perfect for celebrating St. Therese!

Fun St. Therese Food Ideas

Our family likes to make these simple “little flower” snacks to celebrate St. Therese. It doesn’t get any easier than this, and kids love them!

If you make any flower treats, I have a free printble pack with Saint food labels that includes a sign for St. Therese’s Little Flowers.

Make your own “Little Flower” lollipops from hard candies. It’s fun and easy!

Years ago I threw a shower of roses baby shower that was St. Therese themed. There are tons of ideas in there that would translate well to a feast day party or even a St. Therese tea party at home. Check out how we made a “shower of roses” by dangling fake roses from helium balloons! This really made the room a wonderland. I will never forget this! 

You also may like these rose cupcakes, which are very beautiful and were easier to make than I thought they would be! Click over to find my full directions. 

“When I die, I will send down a shower of roses from the heavens, I will spend my heaven by doing good on earth.”
― St.Therese of Lisieux

I hope you found some of these ideas useful for learning about St. Therese with your kids. 

Be sure to check out all of my other October feast day resources as well!