Easter Traditions

I love Easter! It is my most favorite holiday. I think mainly because of the meaning for us as Christians. No other religion can say that their God rose again from the dead, and is coming back for His people! Halleluia!

Although this is my personal favorite holiday, my children prefer Christmas. We actually have more traditions as a family at Xmas time but I do have a couple of traditions at Easter that I would like to share with you.

• Decorating for Spring/Easter. This begins just after Valentine's Day. I actually prefer Easter to be in April as it is still "late winter" here in the capital region of NYS when Easter is in March. The sun is out but it is not a warm sun. We decorate by putting away all the winter stuff and cleaning and putting out the early spring stuff. Things like:

1. Pussywillows and forsythia (silk) in a tall milkcan for my porch. It looks so pretty sitting on the front stoop under our Easter flag.
2. Wooden signs that say "welcome spring" or have spring flowers on them. I have 2 in my living room/entry way and one in my dining room. They are so cheerful for the months of March and April.
3. A small egg-shaped bowl filled with pastel colored (plastic) Easter Eggs that are speckled. I paid a hefty price for them at a specialty store because I don't like the kind that are mass marketed like those plastic ones people fill with candy that are so prevalent in every discount store. Mine look real but are pastel colored to match my living room colors of dusty rose, sage green, pale peach, and light sky blue.
4. A wicker Easter basket filled with wooden speckled eggs for our dining room table centerpiece. This stays up until May 1st. Again, I paid more for these eggs but they are gorgeous! They are cream, sage green, colonial blue.
5. Spring scented candles like honeysuckle, lilac, and clean linen are in my living room, kitchen, and family room. I simply put away the cinnamon, balsalm and pumpkin ones for autumn if there is any wax left. I store them in a top kitchen cupboard with other Autumn/Xmas items.
6. Spring welcome mats for the kitchen door and front door.
7. Basket of Spring/Easter themed books for our "reading outloud" book bin in our family room.
8. Fresh, new curtains for the kitchen window.
   

• Baking Chocolate Crosses: this is a fairly new tradition. I received the recipe for Chocolate Shortbread Cookies from my sister Joy. They are awesome and look great in the shape of crosses. Of course they don't last long in our cookie container! We bake them together the day before Easter unless we are going away for Spring Break. (this year Easter is early so we are not going away as we have school on Monday....last year I made the cookies for Palm Sunday weekend). I will be posting the recipe on Tuesday for anyone who wants to copy it.

• Easter Baskets: this is my favorite part because my love language is gifts and I love to give tiny gifts for my daughters. My husband and I used to exchange new Christian books but we have decided to take the focus off gifts and concentrate more on the Scriptures, etc. We have never taught our children that there is an "Easter bunny" who leaves baskets for the same reason we've never told them there is a "Santa Claus". (we don't like to lie to our children). So...we started the Easter basket tradition when they turned 1 and have talked about "new life" happening in the spring via picture books about baby animals being born in spring, birds eggs, the "born again" message found in John 3. We tend to fill their baskets with small items such as peeps, a chocolate bunny, a new Bible or Christian fiction, new novel for whatever collection they are into at the time, new earrings or necklace, sometimes a small stuffed animal like a duck, bird, bunny. This year the 9 yr. old is getting a Webkinz as they are all the rage.
  

• The Easter Story: we read all the parts of the Easter Story from the Gospels during Holy Week. The nite before Easter, we read the Resurrection Story. We remind them about why Jesus was crucified, what it all means, etc. We remind them that getting baskets is not the real meaning but it represents for us "new life" by giving some new items.

• Attending Easter Service: this is huge tradition for us. We love our Easter Service. We get dressed up in new clothes usually and then go out to eat with my sister Joy, who is a single mom, and our nephew Luke. Joy usually chooses the restaurant and makes the reservation. We used to go to the same one but this year we are trying a new place in Lake George! Sometimes, the years have we have vacation plans, I cook a big ham dinner and then we spend the rest of the day packing the car, etc.
  

Those are our main traditions. What are some of yours??