Easter Traditions - West Des Moines,IA

We have gone to the MN Zoo every Easter since my daughter was born to see the "farm babies" exhibit. Easter is about spring, birth, and new life. What's not to like about baby chicks, goats, calves, etc. I grew up on a farm, so this is nice for me, too.

Hi T..
I love that you are working on making traditions with your family. Over the years, the little traditions we have at home have come to be a very important part of every holiday.
For Easter the kids and I have a tradition of doing Easter cookies that have a recipe that goes along with the Easter story in the Bible. For example, there are egg whites that you beat until they are white and fluffy and it represents your sins being turned white as snow. There are pecans that you put in little baggies and have the kids beat them with wooden spoons to represent the beating that Christ suffered. Each ingredient and step in the recipe goes along with a verse in the Bible and it proved to be very meaningful to my kids. If you would like me to send it to you I would be glad to. My kids look forward to this more than coloring eggs!
Good luck and God bless!
Christi

I like Sandi's suggestion. Resurrection Eggs are a great way to incorporate the true Easter story. I'm heading to the christian book store to pick up a set for my son. They're about $12 a set. When I was little we had a hand-made set, but it broke a lot. I figured possibly a store bought one would be sturdier.

We also make a big deal of putting together little Easter gifts for his cousins. He helps me pick them out and we always make up the packages with Easter stickers before mailing. It's really fun.

Other than that... I've already told him the Easter Bunny is really mommy and daddy pretending. I can't share my faith in Christ with him and in the same breath tell him that a bunny is bringing him candy eggs. So, we pretend there's an Easter bunny together instead. We giggle about how mommy and daddy pretend to be the Easter bunny and hop around hiding eggs for him.

After reading these posts, I am inspired to go out and get a set of Resurrection Eggs (I see there are also instructions for homemade ones online) and pass them out before Easter dinner. I am going to have each person explain what their egg represents and read their Bible verse.

I have two little girls and Easter is a HUGE deal! The Friday before Easter we have our friends over for a BBQ and egg decorating. We always talk about the egg and how it symbolizes new life. We use plastic eggs and have each child put the Easter story into the plastic eggs. This year we will have 32 people. It is a lot of fun and a GREAT way to start off Easter weekend.

The night before Easter we read the Easter story. On Easter morning we wake up and the girls find baskets by their beds. We also do a scavenger hunt. I put clues in plastic eggs and the clues lead them to a small gift. A necklace, braclet or special movie. Then we have breakfast and it's off to church. After church we go to my grandmas for an Easter celebration.

The easter bunny is not a big deal at our house. In fact we don't really mention the easter bunny. The girls have never asked where they're baskets come from they are just excited they are there.

I am NOT religious, but I have found a lot of churches do fun things with the kids - they may also have the kids participate during... Some even have easter egg hunts!! You can also check in with activity/town halls in your area for fun easter ideas!!!

My mother found an Easter story it is a plastic egg carton comes with 12 different colored eggs with a small something to go along with the Easter story I'm doing with my daycare girls.

I do Easter baskets for my kids (7, 6, 4, & 1.5) that I put outside their bedroom doors after they have gone to bed for them to find when they wake up. I try to do a little candy, but more small toys, puzzles, coloring books, etc. from the Dollar Spot at Target. Then, we go to church (just like every other Sunday.) After church, we have a big traditional Easter meal with family. We then gather all of the cousins together, read the Easter story from a children's Bible and do an egg hunt. We do not "do" the Easter bunny. The kids know that the baskets are from Mom & Dad and that we are the ones hiding the eggs. We wanted the focus to be on the real meaning of Easter, but still incorporate some of the fun traditions. We have, in past years, done Resurrection eggs as well.

Growing up my parents always took us kite flying on Easter...no matter the weather. I have pictures from almost all of them. Sometimes in the snow and sometimes in shorts! We always got a new kite and I have continued this with my own kids.

For my kids we started scrapbooking. Even very small children can help color their own art to use as a background or embellishments. Make a page of photos of the kids with grandma, one with mom and dad, one of the kids together... As they get older they can get more involved. There are tons of sources online for free scrapbooking images you can print and use. And you can scan your masterpiece and print it to give to the relatives you featured, like grandma.