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Ready for this week’s MH? This is going to be a good one!
This weekend we celebrate Easter! Actually, for many of us, this week will be filled with sweet family traditions. Traditions may seem very simple and not a big deal, but they root us deeply. They become those little things that bring our hearts back HOME.
This week is the perfect week to do the LITTLE THINGS with your sweet family. Even now, my grown children expect certain things THIS WEEK. 🙂 They KNOW that this week they can count on mom setting aside time to make this week special. It is not even in the BIG STUFF. It is in the little things.
So, what are YOUR family Easter traditions? What does your week look like? What do you do to celebrate the Resurrection? Take us into your home and share a glimpse into your celebrations this week.
I am looking forward to all of these! It will be super! Have fun! 
DIG IN!
Love ya!
Cindy
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I hate to admit that we don’t do a lot of traditions. I hate to admit it, because I looooove traditions. I just have a hard time following through on them each year. I would really like to start making the scripture cake?????. Isn’t there a recipe for a cake or cookies that you bake at Easter? Maybe one of you other ladies will remember what these are. 🙂 I would also like to attend the Easter sunrise services. I hope the rest of you have some good ideas.
Linda Sprague
For Easter, we haven’t established too many traditions yet. Growing up, we always colored Easter eggs, and had to hunt for our Easter Baskets – my dad bought my mom & I (cuz I was the only daughter) corsages and we always enjoyed our Easter services. Our Easter baskets always had candy we preferred, but they also usually had something of spiritual significance – a new Bible, a devotional, a CD or something else that lasted longer than candy. As I got older, I also got less candy in prettier, more useful baskets for organizing things in my bedroom – that was always nice and I appreciated it.
For my girls, I want them to understand the significance of the best day to celebrate of the year. Easter is so meaningful to me, I cannot attend any Easter service without crying. My 4 year old is especially sensitive to the story of Jesus’ death and suffering right now, and while she cries about His death, we are teaching her about his resurrection and His power & glory. It’s an amazing year this year to see her so tender to the Lord – and I don’t want it to get lost in the “stuff” that Easter brings. They will have an Easter basket from us, and both sets of grandparents like to have egg hunts for them. I want to do something more significance – like a Christian seder meal or something, but my hubby & I haven’t settled on anything just yet.
Some years we have used the resurrection eggs leading up to Easter but not every year. The things we do every year include going to church on Good Friday and Easter. Also, we dye eggs on the Saturday before Easter and eat them for breakfast on Easter morning. We always make resurrection cookies with an Easter story book that I have.
I have 10 children. As our family grew in size making Easter baskets for each child became too expensive so now each child gets a chocolate or white chocolate cross and I make up one large basket (usually a container of some sort) for the whole family.
We also have an Easter egg hunt on Easter morning for the younger children with candy filled Easter eggs.
After church on Sunday the older girls and I will cook our Easter dinner which will be ham, pineapple stuffing, potatoes, creamy corn, cranberry relish and pies.
When I was a child we always went to Easter sunrise service on the beach behind our church followed by a breakfast at church and then worship service at the normal time. I loved that.
We don’t really have true traditions. I change year to year. Well, I take that back, We do Scripture Eggs and Bible readings. If you search Resurrection Eggs or Spiritual Easter Eggs you will be able to find them. Those scripture eggs are a really cute idea. I found them off the internet somewhere about 4-5 yrs ago. You need to have 12 plastic eggs and then each gets filled with something about the Resurrection. There is 1 eggs that gets 3 nails and the Bible verse about the nailing to the cross. Another has a Palm Tree leaf, another a piece of bread. My kids really like them.
We have done secular Easters, with the chocolate bunnies and eggs and baskets. I have seen some chocolate Crosses at Walmart. I think I’m going to do those this year.
We have done nothing more than just a Bible reading.
I do try to have plastic eggs with candies in them. The kids take turns hiding them and then searching for them.
We try to just be home and remember and talk about the best gift that God has given us and the Large sacrifice that Jesus made for us.
We don’t have a special meal….just whatever Daddy wants that day.
Linda, We tried those scripture cookies one year..You have to start them the night before ( I don’t have that much time :blush: ^o^) then when you bake them in the morning they do something special ( I don’t remember what) But what I’m trying to get to is my kids didn’t like them. They thought the special thing was cool, but didn’t like the flavor.
MariaR
We attend several services during the course of Holy Week. Then we decorate eggs on Holy Saturday. We have done the all natural dyes, but I think we’re going to do someo ther type of decorating this year (my daughter has discovered the joys of glitter!). On Sunday morning they will have an egg hunt that will include the decorated eggs as well as the Resurrection Eggs. After all the eggs have been found, they open the Resurrection Eggs and we read the Bible verses together. Then we attend church together and the rest of the day is spent enjoying our time together. The meal varries, but it’s always something a little more special.
We’ve tried the resurrection cookies, but now my son is allergic to nuts so we can’t do them. I have really enjoyed those in the past.
Even before we were married, my husband and I would join out church Easter camp. We carried on with this tradition after we got married. We’ve been attending camp with our children for the past 13 years.
Unfortunately, as our family grew larger, we found that the camp fees are becoming unaffordable for us. So last year, we stayed home and we created an Easter lapbook at home. On Easter Sunday, we hosted our own egg hunt for our neighbors at our home. After the egg hunt, we shared to story of Jesus Christ dying on the cross and his resurrection.
We’re hoping to do it again this year and make it our family’s tradition.
Easter comes at the end of the first term of the year for us here in NZ and I always seem to find myself winding down about now instead of up! We have hot cross buns for breakfast and then a service at church on Good Friday (it is a holiday in NZ) and last year we made a lapbook about Easter but by the time we finished it the children were sick of it and I don’t think it did much for their devotional mindset! Sometimes I do wonder if I “expect” there to be some profound atmosphere about the weekend and am always hunting for that one activity that will make us all emotionally prepared for Easter when actually, it shouldn’t be THAT different to any other day, because we remember everyday all that Christ did for us. It also sometimes feels like I have to make it really spiritual just to compete with all the secular stuff. Sorry, that doesn’t help much with traditions but I would be interested to hear whether others can relate to those feelings. What ever you do I hope that you do have a special and blessed Easter season this year.
We purchased a set of Resurrection Eggs at Wal-mart several years ago. Each egg contains an item that talks about Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. It is presented on a child’s level, which is great and easy to understand. The children love to open the egg and see what is inside. We have a special meal on Sunday with friends. We decide who will make which items and my friends brings some and our family will provide the remainder. We make special cupcakes and pies.
I have a set of Christmas china that we eat off of at Easter as well. This is a reminder of why Jesus was born. SO on Easter, we celebrate Jesus from birth through the resurrection. (It also gives me another time of year to bring out these beautiful dishes!)
We will have an Easter egg hunt, where the children will hunt plastic eggs filled with candy and we do prepare Easter baskets for them. Their grandparents send money to help put something special inside.
We will do a fun Easter craft after the meal and we leave these out for a while to help us remember to celebrate all year long.
Mostly, we enjoy being together!
Katrina
Our Easter traditions are going to the Sunrise Service usually held outdoors, breakfast at church, Sunday School, Morning Service and dinner with family.
My mother started the tradition of making a special fruit salad each year. I have continued to make the salad each year since my mom went to heaven. If some of our children can not be with us, they make it at their gatherings.
This year is a little different two of our daughters live here in NC, My brother and his wife, and my best friend and her husband from NY are here also. So we will have a larger gathering than normal in the last few years. Three of our children and their families are out of state and will not be able to be with us.
In the past we have attended several different Sunrise Services. When we were in NY most of the services were held inside because it was to cold outside. A couple years it was warmer and the services were outside, the one year we went up to the top of a hill with a really beautiful view. Another year our son was asked to play his trumpet in the outside service, a nice touch to early morning.
There has been a few other things we have done from time to time, but overall our main traditions are in church and with family.
Nancy Lewis
We have been doing the resurrection eggs for a number of years now, as well as dying eggs at some point. Another family hosts a yearly egg hunt, and we bring cinnamon rolls. Though I love to cook, I’m not so great at hospitality in general. Sometimes we have people over, and sometimes we don’t. Any holiday is more fun and memorable when we do, but is a lot more work.
One thing my mom did was to give us something “spiritual” in our Easter baskets each year and I’m trying to continue that. The kids are eaching getting a new, age-appropriate, devotional book this year.
My cousin pointed out this fabulous idea that we are trying this year and that I hope to make a new tradition in our home. Here is the link: http://mustardseeds.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/03/tutorial-hill-of-calvary.html
And of course we go to church to celebrate!
Tiffani
As a family we dye eggs, and have some sort of candy egg hunt. I read a couple Easter story books- The Parable of the Lily and Benjamin’s Box. I also have done the Resurrections eggs both for my girls and for the T&T AWANA group at church. We use our “good china” but then we do try to use it every Sunday. I really like the idea of using Christmas China like Katrina, but mine is snowmen. 🙂
~Marni
Our Easter traditions are few, but precious. Sometimes we attend church during Holy Week, but that depends on many things. We decorate Easter eggs on Holy Saturday with as many family members as we can round up. Easter Sunday we get up a bit early and the kids find their Easter baskets, then its off to church. After church we will get together with family and enjoy the day.
Sometimes, most times, its too cold or snowy to do an Easter egg hunt outside, so we do it in the house.
The other MAJOR tradition is kipping. Our family is the only one I know who does it. Two people lightly tap the pointed ends of their Easter eggs together. One shell usually cracks, the other won’t. Then you turn over the eggs to the rounded side, do the same thing. Then they “kip” their unbroken ends together. The win is the one whose egg is not cracked on both sides. Sometimes you get a really good egg and it won’t crack through 20 or more other people’s eggs. Its a major contest in our family. There is one rule though….you have to eat the egg you kip. Kids love kipping…hate eating so we had to put that rule into play after there were 30 uneaten eggs laying about. Its really fun when we would get the whole family together. There were (at that point) over 60 of us kipping eggs.
Karen Gebes
When we pulled out the resurrection eggs this year, I realized I’d made this set about 15 years ago, before you could buy them. It took some imagination..a.nd I’m still a bit proud of my slightly pokey “crown of thorns” made from bread ties stripped of their protective coverings!
I enjoy giving my kis a treat, but wasn’t sure I wanted to do an easter egg hunt. SO I make a goodie bag, and then leave them a clue as to where it is. This year I used my own paraphrase of verses with one word highlighted to give them a clue…Jesus is the LIGHT of the world…Jesus died to make us SONS and daughters of God…He CLEANSED us from our sins….
I also try to make the centerpiece something that will help them in their spiritual lives. When I can afford it, they each get a devotional for the year. When I can’t, we get a family dvd or two that will increase our understanding of Scripture or encourage us in some way.
Hope you find something intesting and helpufl!
Monique
In years past all we have done is Resurrection eggs. This year we are making Hot Cross Buns with wholewheat and from scratch. We are looking forward to eating them in an hour! We have made an Easter lapbook with the boys coloring pictures, and writing the Scriptures and clips for the little books inside the lapbook. It has been fun. My 3 year old enjoys all of the above and is learning about the Lord even though he can not give his heart to him yet as he is not talking.
Oh! I almost forgot! But on Easter Sunday morning, I try to greet each child with “He is Risen!” and they respond, “He is risen indeed”…and then on and off through the day we will repeat this!
Monique
This is a HARD one for me. I really struggle with Easter and whether we should be celebrating it at ALL, since really, easter is a Christian EVENT, non holiday, turned pagan holiday, turned secular holiday, So we celebrate this WHY? at any rate, on the one hand i think, Ok, i tend to be a “fun-sucker” we do lots of fun secular stuff, maybe its ok, if i just call it secular? So we do egg hunts on the saturday before easter… but then we also go to church on sunday, so i dunno… its a work in progress to say the least. This year we did an activity that i posted on my homeschooling blog http://homeschoolingwiththekvenvoldens.blogspot.com making a poster where we listed something we like about each member of our family, it was fun. we absolutely do NOT do eggs of any kind on easter day, because that just seems wrong to me.