A Christ Centered Easter

I love Christmas, with all it's whimsy and joy and gift giving. I love Thanksgiving, with the delicious feast and the cool weather.  I love the kids' birthdays and the fourth of July.  But my favorite holiday is Easter.   Some people think that's a little strange considering that Easter is usually marked by bunnies and baskets and candies.  Some people feel like it has no real significance in their family.  That's pretty much how I used to feel.

Of course I knew about the meaning of Easter but what we were doing as a family to acknowledge the sacred and significant gift of the atonement and ressurection of Jesus Christ?  It just seemed like what we were doing was so trivial considering the grandeur of what we were supposed to be remembering.  So, we decided to change our Easter into something with some meaning.  And now, we spend our Easter week learning about Jesus and walking ourselves through the last week of his life.  And unlike Christmas, Easter is so relaxing for us.  There is no pressure to buy gifts or overschedule yourself with events. It doesn't cost too much money, and we aren't exhausted when it's over.  But we are refocused and drawn together as a family. So, with all of that in mind I thought I would share some of what we do for Easter and hope that you can enjoy it too.
  I got a good part of what we do from this book:

A Christ-Centered Easter: Day-By-Day Activities to Celebrate Easter Week
I definately reccomend it!  It totally inspired me and made me look at Easter in a whole new way.  We start on Palm Sunday and here is what we generally do.  You can click on each day for details.

Palm Sunday: Make palm leaves, learn about the significance of Palm Sunday and then do a mini reenactment of what happened on that day with the palm leaves.

Monday:We have a fun family night full of activities that teach us about the miracles that Jesus performed. 






Tuesday: There are lots of ideas in the book for Tuesday and Wednesday but for us these days are very low key.  We try to read some of Christ's teachings or maybe talk about parables and then make up our own parables (which has been fun on the years that we chose to do it)

Wednesday: see Tuesday :)

Thursday:

The last supper...one of my favorites (can I have a few favorites?)  Our family has really had some great moments together during our last supper meals.  It's something we all look forward to.

Click HERE to view plans for the Last Supper

Friday: Read about the trial and crucifiction of Jesus.  Let the kids feel the sharpness of a nail on their hand and taste vinegar and talk about how Jesus must have felt to be treated that way by people that he loved and had given so much for.  We conclude this night a little sad thinking about how Jesus was gone.

Saturday: One of my other favorites.  (I can have a few remember?) EMPTY TOMB ROLLS.  My kids love this.  We make the rolls before we go to bed and in the morning we have a great surprise for breakfast!  You have to do this one.

Sunday: Hunt for the True Meaning of Easter.  The kids wake up to a letter from the Easter Bunny explaining that they will go on a hunt to find the true meaning of Easter.  At the end of their hunt will be their Easter baskets.