traditions that Make Easter Special

A while back a blog reader wrote asking about traditions that make Easter special in our family. She mentioned she noticed we have a lot of traditions going on during holidays, and asked about our Easter ones.

This resonated with me because I’ve asked the same question. Over and over. What are we doing with this most sacred holiday to make it special. And also to make it fun. Holidays should be fun after all, right? And the best part of holidays as far as I’m concerned?

The bonding and connectedness they can provide.

Traditions create magic

This is where traditions come in. Oh how magical traditions can be to connect those we love!

If you haven’t started any traditions yet, never fear! It’s NEVER too late. But if you stop and think about it, you may have traditions you don’t even realize are traditions at this point. It could be as simple as a breakfast you like to make or something you say, or a decoration you put out.

The little things have power to become the big things.

A Disclaimer

And a disclaimer…sometimes even the “little things” don’t happen very well around here. Life has a tendency to get in the way. There are some years we do these things I’m going to talk about better than others. There have been years when I realize in a panic that Easter is in three days and I haven’t done a thing! But most of the time we do have things kind of laid out. Because we’ve worked on it over the years. And gathered more ideas and things that work each year.

I hope that as I share ideas they will spur some things that might work for you and your family.

Traditions to make Easter more spiritual

Let’s start with what we do to make Easter more spiritual. Because to me it’s the most joyous holiday because of all that spirituality. I want so much to make the spiritual part of Easter even more revered than all that fluff stuff that we love so much. How incredibly grateful I am for Christ and His life, his ultimate gift to us. And how I yearn for my children to feel the same reverence for this day.

Blog readers have shared some wonderful ideas in the comments of another Easter tradition post I did, so check those out.  But here are some of the spiritual traditions we do in our family:

• Holy Week

  Oh I love celebrating Holy Week. We go through the events of that last week of Christ’s life and discuss them. There are all kinds of ideas in this post leading up to Easter, including things like “resurrection rolls” and “Easter Story Cookies” and a favorite Easter book I’ve read a couple times to get my own mind ready to celebrate the resurrection.

• Holy Week Events cards

  These little laminated yellow cards don’t look like much, but they have helped plant all those Holy Week events in our hearts for years.

• Church Videos

  Oh man, our church has created some pretty incredible short videos that have had such an impact on our understanding of the spiritual significance of Easter. I cry every single year when we watch them. This one is my favorite I think.

• Easter scriptures before Easter Bunny on Easter

  I know some families do a Saturday “Easter Bunny Celebration” so that they can concentrate on the true meaning of Easter on Sunday and I love that. For some reason that idea hasn’t made it’s way into our Easter celebrations. But we do work to take some time to concentrate on the Easter story before all the Easter basket hoopla on Easter morning.

Traditions to make Easter more fun

Easter Egg Painting

For years our top Easter activity has been painting Easter eggs.Not just the dip-your-egg-in-dye and watch it color.

No, I’m talking paints and paintbrushes strewn across the counter, looking up all kinds of ideas, trying to be extra creative. 
There’s nothing like sitting around your counter together working on something like this to get the good talking going. And I love it.

Strings to lead to Easter baskets

On Easter morning, the Easter Bunny leaves a string at the end of each childs’ bed. They follow that string all over the whole house and find their Easter basket at the end.
I personally think it’s funny that kids get so darn excited about a piece of string, but they do.
We have our traditional Easter Egg hunt in the back yard. Usually there is a dollar or so in a few of the plastic eggs which makes everyone ecstatic as well.

Eggs Benedict for Breakfast

Somehow our Christmas morning breakfast tradition has also become our Easter breakfast tradition. I guess that’s what happens when it’s everyone’s favorite. We love a good eggs Benedict around here, and some day I need to share the recipe.

And all that is fine and good.

I know that it’s fluff stuff.

But there’s something so good about an anticipated family tradition.

Somehow the air changes around us.

It becomes thick and full of love.

There is something about us all gathered together, excitement escalated, that makes our hearts swell up to the size of giant watermelons.

Happy lead-up-to-Easter, everyone!