Easter is always a special time; we start on Good Friday with a special church service. Each year the pastors and worship team put together a poignant service to remember the day Jesus was crucified. This year the theme verse for that service was John 12:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."
On Easter we have a brunch at church and then, during the service, we have a baptism service. This year there were two people baptized. A beautiful picture of our new life in Christ; the fruit borne thru His death and resurrection.
This year I had two of my kiddos "lament" the fact that we don't celebrate Easter with egg hunts and baskets. We certainly do not have anything against these fun traditions but, having not grown up with them, celebrating that way has just not been on our radar, to speak. So, I thought I'd share how we do celebrate (and yes, our kiddos got chocolate bunnies this year) 😊.
Each year the kids; especially the girls, get new dresses or new outfit to wear Easter Sunday. I "torture" them twice a year for a nice picture (first day of school and on Easter). Here is this year's:
Another tradition we have is to make Easter story cookies. I love that not only are these delicious but each ingredient has a tie-in illustration to the death and resurrection of Jesus. The recipe I use is from Allrecipes. You can follow this link for the recipe and Scriptures. Easter Story Cookies
Another fun treat that we made this year were "empty tomb" rolls. This is very simple and we made them with the nursery kids at church. You simple buy cresent roll dough. Wrap a marshmallow in each triangle and seal well. As you do this you explain how that just as the marshmallow is white; Jesus was pure and innocent from sin. Then he was wrapped in clothes (wrap the dough around the marshmallow), sealed in a tomb (seal all edges well; I roll them in my hand a bit to make sure). After baked and cooled a bit have the kids open their "tombs". The inside is hollow and the marshmallow gone. Discuss how that the stone was rolled away to show that Jesus wasn't there. Then as they eat their treat discuss how the rolls are sweet, and that the sweetest thing ever done for us was the death and resurrection of Jesus so that we could be forgiven of our sins and live with Him.
One last thing that I've found to be helpful to explain Easter to the littles is the book titled God Gave Us Easter; we love the "God Gave Us" books and have found them to be a fun resource for explaining concepts and traditions in an easy, positive way.
What are your favorite traditions or treats?
Do you have books that have helped your kiddos understand Easter a bit better?
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