Easter Eggs and Baskets

Holy Week is upon us and I wanted to share with you all some fun ideas the might help you keep the focus on Christ. Our salvation is a gift given through the events we have entered into a celebration of. I pray that we can learn to dwell on this for the whole year and that the entire Holy week would actually feel like a Holy week due to the concentrated time and attention we give it. I'm not there yet with my family but each year we try a little harder to grab the kids attention (and our own) off of "life" and onto the giver of it.


Please remember this is not to make you feel guilty or take away any of the fun for your family but it is simply my way of getting your creative wheels spinning.

Spring/Easter Baskets

I have 5 kids and about 2 kids ago we realized that giving each of them an Easter basket full of fun toys, clothes and candy (that I wouldn't even let them eat) of their own was a bit over the top. Here are a few basket related ideas to encourage you to simplify and help you come up with your own way of doing this.

- Instead of each family member getting a basket try doing one basket for all to share. Include something that reminds you of each child in it but encourage them to share it all because it is for them all.


- Skip the basket thing all together!


- If that last one was too hard try doing a Spring Basket at the beginning of spring. You can put all the silly eggs, bunnies, chocolates and goofy stuff in it but give it in the name of the fun season rather than on the most Holy of days! It might be fun to make that a tradition and each year to get a new book your family is going to focus on through the spring season.

Easter Eggs

Resurrection Eggs are a fun set of eggs full of symbols that tell the story of the Easter Season. When you buy them they come with a devotional that helps you talk through the events of Holy week with your child. Here are some fun ways to use them as a family:

- Instead of sitting down and doing them in one night use it as your Easter countdown. Do one egg per morning as a family devotional and of course on Easter morning your kids will be delighted with the best egg of all - an empty one... reminding us that Christ has risen indeed!

- The last couple years we decided to do a scavenger hunt for them. We pulled out the carton like we were going to look at our resurrection eggs and in the carton there was a note from one of the eggs. It said that some guy who doesn't love Jesus had egg-naped them and taken them away so we wouldn't think about Jesus this year. The egg also left a note that if we didn't hurry and find him he might get cooked (hint hint). So the kids ran to the kitchen to save the egg (which they found in the oven) and when they brought it back we opened it, talked about what was inside and then read the note the next egg had given that egg for us. Each egg they went searching for we assigned a new head investigator so that our oldest didn't get to find all of them. It was tons of fun and really kept all of their attention!

- I was also thinking that this year we would do Easter Egg hunts for fun throughout the season but on Ressurection Day we might just skip that and leave the focus where it belongs - on Christ!

Easter Celebrations

I plan on coming back in here (eventually) and making these more detailed and informative but this is all just taken from notes I used in a class taught to 4th graders last year. This might help you explain to younger ones all the wonderful days of reflection and celebration the Easter season has in it. May God be glorified in this season by us all!

Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday is the 40 days before Easter, not counting Sundays. It is the first day of Lent and is always on a Wednesday (duh). It was a biblical tradition to throw ash over your head to show repentance and at a lot of church services on this day the pastor will use their finger to put an ash cross on our heads while saying something like "repent and hear the good news".

Lent
Lent is the 40 days, leading to Easter, not counting Sundays (didn't I just say that above?). The Lenten season begins on Ash Wednesday. It symbolizes the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert. Lent is a time for people to reflect and prepare for Holy week (the week we celebrate the events leading up to Christs' death and resurrection).

Easter is the celebration of a wonderful gift from God. His love for us should be our ultimate source of joy and contentment. During Lent it is a common practice for us to fast from one of the things in our lives that we think brings us joy. Missing out on that food, activity or thing can be a constant reminder to us that indeed our Joy is in the Lord (or at least it should be!).

Palm Sunday
The Sunday before Easter is Palm Sunday. It is the first day of Holy week, a day when we celebrate Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem on the back of donkey. Crowd of people lined the streets waving palm branches and shouting "Hosanna" to Jesus. Sadly later the same crowds shouted "crucify him".

Maundy Thursday
This is the day we celebrate the Lord's Supper where Jesus introduced the breaking of bread and drinking of wine in remembrance of what He was about to do for us. The word Maundy comes from the latin word mandatum meaning commandment. It was on this day that Jesus said "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you".

Holy Thursday, as this day is also known, is also a time to reflect on Jesus washing the disciples feet ( a humble act of service), Jesus suffering in Gethsemane, and also the betrayal of Judas.

Good Friday
This is the day we reflect on Jesus' crucifixion. Although that is a very sad thing to think about, because it is our sins that put Him on the cross, there is also such joy in knowing that he was willing to do that for you and I and most importantly there is hope for us all because he conquered death and is truly a king of kings!

Easter Books

Here are two Easter books I HIGHLY recommend... they are both written for younger kids and our family has already read them both several times this Lenten season. The first one is super cheap and the second is not expensive but it's around 10 dollars. The only suggestion I would give is when you read the title and everywhere in the book it has that phrase I change it to "Easter is for YOU and ME"... in fact the kids love that part because I say the "Easter is for YOU" and they, as well as dad, yell back "and ME".

The one above is written around all the activities we do around Easter time and how they all relate back to the meaning of the season and the one below is written in a format telling the story of Jesus. It says things like "when he called the disciples to follow Him, I think he was calling me (obviously I change that to "I think he was calling you" and the kids yell back "and me". It also has a page saying how he healed the lame and "He knew He would need to heal me" it is super good with great pictures as well.