Easter is about Jesus.
eas·ter/ˈēstər/ meaning “the most important and oldest festival of the Christian Church, celebrating the resurrection of Christ.”
It is a day to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord.
I’m not against fun or chocolate covered eggs, I just like meaningful things to remain, well, meaningful. I want my family to celebrate Him. Sure, we can add in the fun, but I don’t want the fun to be all there is.
Call me a radical zealot.
Thank you.
Here are ten ways to keep Easter About Jesus and have fun:
- Read The Parable of the Lily and plant (or force) a lily bulb
- Create this easy, beautiful watercolor Cross Art
- Plant an Easter Garden
- Dye/hunt eggs. Share the reasons behind the traditions
- Make Resurrection Eggs. Read Benjamin’s Box: The Story of the Resurrection Eggs
along with it.- Bake Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday
- Fill Easter baskets with something meaningful (a new Bible, a cross necklace, eggs with Scripture)
- Make Resurrection Rolls for Easter morning breakfast
- Share your Easter meal with someone who might spend it alone or take a basket to a child in a hospital
- Have a family devotion together and talk about the meaning of Easter (this is a good one)
I think Easter is fun when it’s celebrated for all the right reasons!
What would you add?
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Thank you thank you for sharing this!! I really needed some more activities to apply to my little ones!
It sounds lovely. We use the Resurrection Eggs and read Benjamin’s Box. We also have the Parable of the Lily. I have a few other books devoted to Easter. I heard about the Hot Cross Buns for Easter, last year and liked the idea. I have also used a recipe for Resurrection Cookies. I really like those! I have never heard of the rolls. Those look wonderful as well. We do decorate eggs and hide them for the kids, but I don’t do all the candy and such. I might buy candy once in a blue moon, but it isn’t very often.
Thank you!!!! I have been planning on looking up about Easter Eggs and stuff – You just made it easy for me!!!
Thank you for this list! Cannot wait to use it – we’ll be out of town on Good Friday, but maybe we’ll make them another day (Hot Cross Buns)
Thanks for the great ideas! I couldn’t agree more.
When my children were little, I so appreciated my mother in law’s contribution to keeping Jesus the focus of Easter….instead of joining in on the Easter BUNNY hooplah, she would do “little” things involving precious lambs! She crafted adoreable lamb shaped cakes, gave lamb inspired treats intead of the bunny thing….
That is precious!
We do the Resurection Eggs for days leading up to Easter every night before bed and then on Easter the kids told the family (my parents and siblings) the Resurection story with the eggs (with a little help of course, but really they did an awesome job!– thanks for the reminder that we need to get those out and start going through them!)
Last year we also did the Resurection Rolls- we used Crescent Rolls but those rolls on the linked site are AWESOME with the empty space in the middle– we might have to try that this year!
Thanks for all the tips!
Thanks so much for your wonderful ideas! One of the things I do as a grandmother of 8 in order to make strong lasting impressions of Easter at Nana’s house is to put a variety of items on a table and the children take turns picking up an item and explaining how that particular item fits into the history of the resurrection. Every year I’m always adding items as the children grow. So far, this is the list of items that I use:
a tomb (made from stones), a cross, a lamb, 30 pieces of silver ( I usually just use any silver coins, nickels, dimes etc.), a toy rooster, thorns ( started out using rose bush thorns but now I have a crown of thorns with long thorns), an angel, a small piece of purple fabric, a small silver cup and a piece of bread, small toy spear.
I just use items I have around the house so don’t go out and spend lots of money. Some of the items came from yard sales. If anyone comes up with more ideas for the table I would love to hear them, I’m always looking for new ideas.
Palm leaf, Donkey, Golden Cup, and nails would be great additions.
Thank you for the awesome list- have you ever made Resurrection Eggs? We make these and go door to door and give them away before easter- We read the story and the kids play with the eggs.
Thank you so much – this is exactly what I was looking for!
I don’t know if you do so, but in Germany it’s a tradition to place a beautiful branch with eggs and other decoration in our homes, and I did not know how I wanted the eggs to look like this year until know – I will make some with scripture on them. Such a great idea! But this is only what I will be doing today, we will do more from the list above for sure!
Love,
Lisa
My old pastor and family have a really neat tradition. After Christmas, they cut up their tree and make crosses out of the branches to hang on the wall. On good Friday, they cover the crosses with black fabric. On Sunday morning the kids run through the house and put the fabric down and shout he is risen! I love that!
Oh how I love that!! =D
I have two teenage boys and a 22 year old daughter so their faith is established but I still get them Easter baskets and I think it’s important to remind them even as they are older what it’s all about. I am going to get the boys each a cross necklace, actually my oldest has been asking for one and I just havn’t found the perfect one yet, and my daughter maybe a new Bible with a pretty cover personalized and a gratitude journal. I am also looking for a good Christian rock CD for my boys to add to the basket. At our family Easter get together I am filling eggs for nieces and nephews with candy and little notes that have facts about Jesus and Resurrection inside and I bought packs of colorful wooden crosses from Michaels for them to decorate, put glitter on etc.
Thanks for being a zealot, I am one too! I just listed a bunch of Christ-centered Easter Activities for Kids on my blog, you can find many things here that will point your family to our Savior.
http://joleneengle.org/2012/03/15/christ-centered-easter-activities-for-your-family/
Wish I had made Easter Baskets with you…. Maybe for my grandchildren. Will keep this pin. We were THAT family too.
Great ideas – thanks so much for putting this together for everyone!
One thing we started last year with our boys was Egg Pinatas. I too am always trying to tie symbolism to activities we do for Holidays. So the balloon (represents Jesus) You paper mache the balloon with colored streamers (represents the linen cloth & rock being rolled in front of tomb) **Secretly the parents pop the balloon & pull it out. ** Then fill it with candy & bust it open on Easter Day to CELEBRATE Jesus’ resurrection!!
I can’t tell if you’re joking.
I always put an empty plastic egg in the basket to symbolize the empty tomb.
These are all great ideas! Every Good Friday I make my 5 year old daughter carry around a 30 pound wooden cross on her back for 2 hours! She loves hurting for Christ Our Savior!!!!!!
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