Our Easter Family Traditions

I LOVE celebrating Easter – the Resurrection of Jesus my Savior and Lord!   Here are some of our spiritual – and not so spiritual traditions!

First, the not so spiritual…matching clothes. I have no idea why I ever started this tradition but I started it and I guess I’ll do it until the kids complain. Lol!

Easter 2004 – just the boys were matching

easter 2004

Easter 2006 – the entire family now matching!

easter 2006

Easter 2007

easter 2007

Easter 2008

easter 2008

Easter 2009

Easter Day 006

Easter 2010

Easter 005

 Easter 2011

DSC03432

 Easter 2012 –

the year Alexis got a big boo boo on her face while knocking out her two front teeth

 easter familyphoto 2 2012

 Easter 2013

 DSC_0486

So you may wonder what the clothing plan is for this year…I’m still working on it – maybe I’ll post it after Easter. 😉

Now for what REALLY matters!  

Our Spiritual traditions.

Last year I posted our 3 favorite Meaningful Easter Activities.  Just click the links below to get the recipes and details of the traditions.

3 meaningful easter activities

Our Easter Traditions include:

Easter Breakfast – Resurrection Rolls

 

This is the simplest of the 3 traditions.  We LOVE this!

Break open the tomb (the roll) and the body of Christ is no longer there!!

Celebrate!

 

Another tradition is:

Easter Story Cookies

You will find a host of verses and the symbolism of each ingredient for this cookie by clicking here.

 And Finally:

Resurrection Eggs

This one takes a bit more preparation – but it is so worth it and so neat to do together as a family.
Find the list of items needed, verses and script for these eggs by clicking here.

These are all great tools for sharing the gospel with your own children, the children in the neighborhood or the children in Sunday School class.

One other tradition I typically face is stress. 🙁  Booooo – right?
Stress and holidays seem to go hand in hand for us mamas.  We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to do it all perfectly. There’s a laundry list of things we have to do to pull off great memories and a meaningful day for our kids and the pressure can warp mommies mood!

Let me forewarn you – Satan HATES Easter and us celebrating Jesus Christ rising from the dead! He would LOVE to ruin your holiday. There are many spiritual battles that we may face during this holiday and we need to be aware and stand firm (Ephesians 6)!

So here’s a few practical things to remember:

1. It’s the tradition of being together year after year that builds security and love within the family. NOT how big the basket is or how perfectly the eggs are dyed.

2. Be on guard against marital strife. Inevitably your husband is not going to help enough or is going to do it his way not yours. Bite your tongue (till it bleeds mamas!)- be gentle with your words toward your husband – avoid having an Easter blow up – that ruins it for everyone. If there’s something that is just way out of line – pull him aside privately or save it until bedtime to discuss (unless of course someone is in danger!).

3. Before you go to bed Saturday night, be sure everyone’s clothes and shoes and bows and accessories are out and ready to go in the morning. Put out the breakfast plates and cups so breakfast is efficient – you’ll be in a hurry to church and might want a picture before you leave (be sure your camera batteries are charged). These extra few minutes can make the difference between being frazzled and pleasant.

4. Get enough sleep Saturday night – do not stay up late watching television or browsing blogs and facebook. Be disciplined about your bedtime.

5. Wake up before everyone else and get your quiet time in and shower. I know that might mean waking at 5am but trust me – if you are a step ahead of your family the day will go much more smoothly than if you are a step behind.

6. Pray and ask God to give your family peace and joy. Someone could wake up sick, get chocolate down the front of their pretty dress, the Ham might not turn out right or your mother-in-law might just say something annoying…again.

Remember – there is a spiritual battle we are in – pray continually that God will help you to respond lovingly and patiently and peacefully!

I am saying a prayer for all who read this post – that God would bless your Easter! Stand firm mamas!!!
Ps. 34:3 “O magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together.”

**Chime In: Do you have a fun Easter tradition?  Feel free to share your ideas in the comment section too!

Walk with the King,

14 Comments

  1. I love this post! I remember going with my grandmother to the mall every year to pick out a beautiful Easter dress, getting a “Reese’s” from one of our Sunday school teacher, and egg hunts in my grandmothers yard. But most importantly, my wonderful grandmother was the #1 person in my life to introduce and teach me about Jesus Christ my Savior. She gave me a lifetime of sweet memories before she went to the Lord at 65 after an insanely short battle with cancer. But the one thing I cherish most about her was her devotion to the Lord and her devotion to sharing the Lord with my brother. I honestly don’t want to know how my life would have turned out had she not been a follower of Jesus fulfilling her call to share Him. This post makes me think of how your children will one day be grown and have that same eternal gratefulness for their mother’s godly faithfulness to Jesus and sharing Him. That’s the best gift we as humans can give another human. The good news.

  2. We do our Easter baskets the night before. Then our church always has an Easter Breakfast before service and then we go to his parents for the Easter dinner. The grandparents color eggs with the kids while me and the hubby swing on the porch swing/take pictures. Somehow this happens every year without any of us purposely making it a routine. I LOVE Easter, what it represents and spending special time with family.

  3. You are such an inspiration sweet Courtney. Your family is so blessed by you. I love all the family pictures. Beautiful family. Many blessings to you and your family.

  4. What a great post! I love all the ideas and I will definitely try to do the baking ideas for the kids. I think they would love that. And I’m a Sunday school teacher so I’m going to try to find the resurrection eggs for them. But I especially love the tips for a calm Easter. It seems like the devil always tries to ruin Sunday mornings, it makes sense that he would work overtime on Easter! I love all your ideas for not letting that happen! You’re a blessing! 🙂

    1. Hi Kate – my children always get Easter baskets on Easter morning and we do an Easter egg hunt…but we don’t really talk about the Easter bunny – we focus on the resurrection of Christ. When the kids were little I read them stories that had Easter Bunnies in it and I told them it was make believe. 😉

  5. I love the matching outfits! So cute! I am so thankful for your reminders to stand firm during this time. That is so true–my family has already been experiencing a lot of battles and it is so easy to forget that we have a very real enemy who is working against us. I especially need to remember to go to bed early! That one is hard for me. I love your meaningful activities, and my favorite tradition, is one we started new last year, is the Christian Passover meal. It made quite an impression on my kids too bc they keep asking, “When are we doing the Passover?” Thanks for your ministry!

  6. I have read your blog for over a year and this post is by far the one that has helped me in practical life the most. Thank you! God bless you! I’m now excited for Easter too!

  7. For years, our family traveled 4 hours on Good Friday to compete in SELTC (SouthEastern Leadership Training for Christ. http://seltc2013.wix.com//seltc ) we spent Friday and Saturday competing in song leading, public speaking, chorus, drama, signing for the deaf, Spanish interpretation, song writing, art, scrapbooking, photography, Bible reading challenge, daily devotional challenge, teaching challenge, and more. Then, Easter Sunday, we would drive home. We found Easter egg hunts to be challenging in a hotel room, so the Easter Bunny would leave the kids prizes at the foot of their beds.

  8. I really like your ideas.

    We have a growing collection of Christian Easter picture books and cartoons that are only out in the weeks before Easter. Usually my kids get a children’s Bible in their Easter baskets. This year they are getting Christian DVDs and an Adventure in Odyssey CD. Though they both know the Easter Bunny isn’t real we do hide plastic eggs before they wake up just for fun. They are filled with small toys, money, and some candy. I try to find toys they will actually play with not just things that will get thrown away.

    I teach the younger kids’ Sunday School class, this year I have Beginner Bible Easter books and stuffed animals for the kids.

    We don’t live near family so we usually have a special meal on the good plates. Sometimes we invite friends over too.

    1. I forgot to include watching Via Dolorosa sung by Sandi Patti with scenes from Passion of the Christ on YOUTUBE. This year we are going to try to watch the movie, but it may be too intense for the kids- we’ll see.

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