Easter: Meaning vs. Marshmallow
It’s Easter week, the utmost important holiday to our Christian faith. As much as I love the Starburst Jellybeans, I think we are guilty of commercializing Easter in a way that takes away from the message of the cross and the empty tomb. I would love for our boys to see the Meaning vs. the Marshmallow at an early age.
Here are a few links I’ve found that I would love to incorporate into our family Easter traditions.
~ No Time for Flash Cards has a fun “Marshmallow Easter Egg” that looks simple enough for this not so crafty mama.
~ (in)courage has “Five Meaningful Ways to Celebrate Easter” that reflect on the true meaning of Easter.
~ We Are That Family has a great “Making Easter Story Eggs” idea that I would love to recreate.
~ Need a Perfect Easter Gift? I can’t recommend the Jesus Storybook Bible Deluxe Edition enough!
~ I’ve heard of the Resurrection Rolls, but I’ve never seen the cookie version until Sugar & Spice and Frugal Advice posted her Easter Story Cookies recipe.
Somewhere there’s a balance between the meaningless fun and faith based ways to celebrate. We’re still working on what that looks like for our family.
We’d love to hear what Easter looks like in YOUR family! How do you celebrate? How do you keep it meaningful? (Feel free to share your links in the comment section if you’ve blogged a tradition, recipe, or activity.)
I'm SO with you! We've started doing a Spring Party to separate the two celebrations:
http://impressyourkids.org/2010/03/23/easter-spring-party/
And here are 2 new books we found this year that I LOVE:
http://impressyourkids.org/2010/03/26/easter-resurrection-books-for-kids/
{sorry to be a commercial…but you DID ask…}
🙂
Thanks for the reminder! What are resurrection rolls? I've seen cookies but not the rolls. And what's the "deluxe" part of the Jesus Storybook Bible – looks like maybe CD's? We love it too! (just have the book).
we do the resurrection eggs (I hide them and then we read the corresponding bible verses and chat about who and why it happened the way it did) the whole week leading up to Easter.
We usually attend church Good Friday, Sunday we attend church — and then we eat dinner with my folks.
My two boys do get an Easter basket in the morning – but it's with a small gift as in books or a special new t-shirt. I'm trying to ween us off the chocolate.
I posted about our traditions…
Doing lenten lights per Noel Pipers book
Make a tomb out of homemade playdough
Doing "blessing baskets" where on Friday we will put rocks representing our sins in them. cover with a red cloth, then they will be GONE Saturday. Sunday the baskets will be filled with goodies.
Jelly Bean Prayer
Doing Resurrection eggs.
We are doing the Empty tomb Crescent rolls (the ones with the marshmallow?) The empty tomb cookies didn't turn out too well for us…and it was hard to see how the tomb was empty. And I don't like meringue that much… The rolls…I like how the marshmallow is there, and then it's definitely NOT there. But I love the verses with the cookies.
I am just going to link to my Holiday label — because i have posted so much this week
http://www.littlellamas.com/category/Holidays
So if you check it out–scan down a little to read all the posts!
These are all great ideas! I've been looking for some ideas to start our own taditions. I'll definitely be taking note of all of these.
Thanks so much for the link!
We are going to leave freshly dyed ( Saturday night) eggs out for the Easter bunny to hide, then hunt for them and make egg salad sandwiches for breakfast before church.
OH, I second the starburst jellybean addiction..love them.
We just had a gentlemen from Jews for Jesus come to our church last week and he took us through the Jewish tradition of the Sedar Feast. It is packed with traditions I think would be great for my kids. And, it is amazing how many of their traditions point to Jesus being the Messiah( even though thats not what they believe!) Since, if we really think about it, we have a Jewish backgroud ( all of us!) I think it's perfectly appropriate to celebrate with some of their traditons. You can find out about it at jewsforjesus.com ( i think:)
Also, I purchased a book when my oldest was quite little called " the best thing about Easter) It is such a GREAT book! It talks about all the things we do at Easter time, hunting eggs, candy, ect.. but each of those things are not the best thin about Easter..then it shares it a simple way Christ dying and how he rose again and how much he loves us…I cannot recommend it enough! My kids love it and they all chant together on every time it says, " that's not the best thing about Easter!: It's adorable..and my 3rd grader still loves it too. WOW. I just wrote you a story! Have a happy Easter celebrating Christ's love for you!