Faith & FamilyEaster Traditions for Kids April 13, 2019 Spring is here, flowers are blooming and Easter is on its’ way! I’ve been so excited to share a few ideas for how we’re celebrating Easter with y’all. Since before we even had kids, I was so excited to make holidays and seasons fun, but more importantly, make the spiritual symbolism of holidays and the seasons come to life. And while we’re still building our traditions, there are a few things we’re doing this Easter that I am so excited about! I’d planned to get this post up earlier this month, but with our trip out west, it’s just now happening. I always have big intention for the holidays with my kids and so often, life gets in the way and I wait until later than I’d planned to get started. I used to say, “Oh well, there’s always next year,” and not really do anything. But I’ve realized lately that there’s always time to turn it around. And a week of activities for kids can be so magical. So in case any of you are like me and are just getting going on Easter prep, here are a few ideas for how we’re celebrating. The Parable Treasury Parable Treasury My mom gave me this book a few years ago and it has become our absolute favorite for celebrating the seasons and holidays! It has four beautiful stories set in the four seasons of spring (Easter), summer, fall, and Christmas. It follows a farmer’s family through the seasons of what they grow and each story has beautiful Biblical symbolism. The Parable of the Lilly is the most beautiful symbolic story of the Easter story. I cry each time I read it to the kids! This book stays out year-round in a basket by our couch of our very favorites and we read that season’s story often. We’re all loving this Easter version. Resurrection Eggs Resurrection Eggs 12-Piece Easter Egg Set with Religious Figurines Inside I’ve had my eye on these for several years and have been so excited for my kids to get old enough to enjoy them! We’ve pulled them out this year and are going to talk through them each day this week as we look forward to Easter! Each of the twelve eggs has a small symbol in it that tells the Easter story. We also are using this book that goes with the set of eggs to help us understand the symbolism of the story: Benjamin’s Box: The Story of the Resurrection Eggs Easter Breakfast & Empty Tomb Rolls I heard about these empty tomb rolls last year and am so excited to add them to our Easter breakfast this year! Yummy, simple, and such fun symbolism! I plan to get the kids to help me make them and talk about the Easter story while we’re baking and then, see the result! Easter Baskets And now for Easter Baskets…do y’all do them? I know families who embrace the tradition and some who don’t and instead focus solely on the spiritual significance of Easter. For us, we’ve decided to do both and to use the Easter basket as a way to enhance the meaning of what we’re celebrating. My general formula for Easter Baskets has become to do a few small toys and a few edible treats. Here’s what will fill our little ones baskets come Easter morning: The Story of the Root Children | Wooden Baby Chick | Bunny Pocket Baby | Patagonia Kids Hat | Green Toys Dump Truck | The Flowers’ Festival The Sun Egg | Wooden Baby Chick | Bunny Pocket Baby | Patagonia Trucker Hat | Green Toys Dump Truck | Pelle’s New Suit I have so much fun finding special little things for our kids and making a boy/girl versions is my new favorite thing! Here are a few thoughts behind how I gift: Books: Books are always a part of our gifting. I love a beautifully illustrated and written book and they’re always fun to give! I purchased two collections of mini-books (perfect size for stockings and Easter Baskets) from one of my favorite kids’ authors at Christmas and divided those books between their stockings and Easter baskets. Two authors I’ve come to love (Elsa Beskow and Sibylle Von Offers) have the most lovely nature and season focused children’s books. Here are the sets I purchased that I’m dividing up for occasions: I love picking seasonal books and the ones above that I saved for the Easter Baskets feel so springy! Wear: For Christmas, we follow the want, need, wear, read formula for gifting and it’s funny, I find myself naturally doing that for other occasions! The kids are obsessed with hats and we wanted to get them one for spring and summer when they’d be outside a lot more. I got these two hats on sale on Black Friday for their Christmas stockings, but then decided to hold them since they’d be wearing warmer winter hats then. And I’m so glad I did! Want: This category is always some sort of toy and the dump trucks were a last minute addition. They’ve been wanting to carry out their inside trucks to play outside now that it’s warmer and they track in so much dirt and grit! We decided to stray from our usual wooden toy and a few heavy-duty plastic toys to leave outside for play. These dump trucks are made by Green Toys and I love that they’re heavy-duty, USA made, and made from recycled plastic. And they’re affordable! This is becoming a favorite brand of mine. Tiny Treats in Eggs: One of my favorite things for an Easter Basket is having a few eggs with treats inside. That’s usually chocolate, but this year, I found these little hand-held treats and fell in love! To me, eggs with treasures inside can be such beautiful symbolism for the treasure of the empty tomb. We’ve started a collection of Ostheimer wooden animals for the kids. Each ocassion, they get one of these and over time, they’ll have an heirloom collection of beautiful wooden animals, but that play really hard! And these pocket bunny babies are the sweetest tiniest things! They both love little handheld treasures like this. And of course, there’ll be a chocolate bunny in the mix too! How do y’all celebrate Easter? I’d love to hear any traditions you have! It’s so fun hearing how others celebrate as we’re building our own beloved traditions.