You know I have a thing about Santa. You probably noticed we we only posted once about Saint Patrick’s Day. We don’t really do Halloween, so if you’re wondering about how we do the Easter Bunny, dying eggs and Easter baskets, you’ve come to the right post!
I don’t get into the word “easter” at all. It’s not in the Bible. It has nothing to do with Jesus and honestly, it’s just confusing. Have you ever noticed that stores say “Happy Easter” all the time? But not “Merry Christmas”? Even though both holidays are central to Christianity and focus on JESUS, they feel free to say EASTER because it’s not a “Christian” word. (OK. Stepping off soapbox. That was NOT the reason for the post…)
When Lydia was one year old I read the best Easter alternative ever: just do all the Easter stuff (baskets, hunts, dying eggs, etc.) on the first day of Spring instead of on Resurrection Sunday! Why didn’t I think of that? We like to celebrate the first snow, the first day of school and even summer, why not Spring?
So, yesterday we hosted a Spring Party at our house. When the kids woke up, they got their baskets full of toys and (slightly full) of candy!
Then we got going on setting up our party. You might remember my Puppet Party and my Gingerbread Party—it’s kind of my hobby to throw parties. I’m not suggesting you do this exactly the way I did, but the idea of celebrating the fun American-ized Easter-y stuff AWAY from Resurrection Sunday? I think you’ll enjoy how it feels and help your kids understand what this holy day is all about.
Here’s what we did:
We dyed eggs. (Nothing says Spring like Christmas mugs!)
We made animal-eggs. How cute are those?!
We made plastic egg flowers. (Tutorial for recycling eggs)
We even made Easter bonnets! And even the boys wore them. It was fun–just a paper plate, with a paper bowl glued on top. Add some paper grass, baby chicks and let the kids decorate!
Then we donned our bonnets and let the kid play a cross between musical chairs and ring-around-the-rosies and an egg hunt. They all walked in a circle while the music was playing. When the music stopped they ran to pick up eggs—but only in the amount that I shouted out to them. This insured they all got the same amount of eggs AND that the big kids didn’t stomp on the little kids. I think it was pretty fun!
Oh, and I have to mention the food because it was so fun!
Squeezable yogurt. I put them in a jar and slapped on an Easter egg sticker!
Chocolate-chowmein noodle nests with Cadbury eggs on top! YUM.
Plus, Peeps and Starburst jelly beans, of course! Annie’s bunny fruit snacks were perfect! But my kids’ personal favorite: bunny carrots (which is just a big carrot with the green tops attached). They eat ’em right up!
Now, when the REAL Easter rolls around—remember, the one about Jesus? I hope my kids will see the difference between the two celebrations! (Wanna celebrate Jesus with some flair, too? Join us for A Sense of the Resurrection!)
What do you think? How do you celebrate Easter? Resurrection Sunday?
I love it!
.-= Kat @ Inspiredtoaction.com´s last blog ..Narnia, Snuggies and The Most Important Choice You Make =-.
I love this! What a perfect way to separate the non-essentials (but fun stuff) from Resurrection Sunday!!!
You have to get those chocolate nests up there! They were adorable!
.-= vanessa@silly eagle books´s last blog ..color mixing activity and book for preschoolers =-.
This is such a great idea! I love it!
We also do the secular Easter traditions on the first day of Spring. We love it, my girls love it, and it makes sense to us. Last year for Easter we made the Resurrection Cookies, which we will definitely do again this year.
Your party looks like so much fun!
Love all your ideas… I have a fun idea posted on The Empty Tomb… you might like it… anyway… love your blog… ~ kim
.-= kim´s last blog ..Kiddos and Easter =-.
I love this idea. We do “sinning stones” and “blessing baskets” on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. But other than the basket so much of the secularized Easter celebrations my kids have missed out on. What a great way to get them to have that experience.
Great idea. I love the bonnets. Thanks for linking up. I hope you’ll join me next week for another Tot Tuesday!
.-= Jenn´s last blog ..Easter Crafts for Little Hands =-.
so fun! and what a great idea!! am going to pocked this for next year
.-= Candace´s last blog ..Flickr Friday: Springtime Edition =-.
I’m super excited about our celebrations this year. I just picked up a cute spring time bowl and a bag of plastic eggs. I’m going to fill the eggs with ideas of things that our family can do together OR something that the kids can give to someone else. Each day they will get to open an egg. My emphasis will be on Jesus sacrificing so much for us, our response should be to give to others. Leftover inspiration from your advent ideas! Thanks much!
Thank you for the inspiration! We’re putting together a family “spring” party for this weekend, thanks to your post. I imagine it will be our new family tradition.
Such a good idea. I want to incorporate that every year. Spring party and set the clock party too?
For Holy Week we do a passover seder, we have services on Thursday, Friday, Saturday night (the great candlelight and miracle/scripture reading event of the year), sunrise service on the beach, breakfast, Sunday worship service and then dinner with friends, maybe at lunch and at dinner, different groups!
Decorating the house this year my daughter is drawing the stations of the cross and I’m putting up Ann Voskamp’s pictures from Trail to the Tree, along with sometimes lighting the Lenten wreath. Love it!
We celebrate Easter week beginning with Palm Sunday. Each night we hold a short devotional focused on the events from the last week of Christ’s life. This year I added a miniature symbol inside Easter egg ornaments, which are super cute and helped to keep the kids’ attention. I have a post about it on my blog here: http://www.jonlund.com (I have links to all of my Easter posts on my Favorites page). 🙂
I totally loved your idea of Easter Spring party and did just that this year.
I just love all your beautiful Easter ideas! I am so excited to do these with my family! By the way, you mentioned the Happy Easter thing… in Greece they wish each other Kali Anastasia, which literally means “Have a good resurrection” Isn’t that wonderful? Thank you for your site!
I want to start saying that now! I love it! Kali Anastasia! 🙂