The Heart Inside Tradition + Easter Activities

As soon as Christmas has come and gone the next holiday that really gets into my heart is Easter. Sure, there is Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day sprinkled in between that I like to make fun for the kids too, but Easter is the next big one. The one full of extra fun, tradition and heart.  I get excited at the idea of filling their Easter baskets with fun Spring things and little splurges (achem – like the Peekawhoo bunnies I splurged on for the kids this year.) I think about the fun things to stick in the kids’ eggs like Annie Bunnies, graham crackers and fruit snacks because is there ever a better excuse to make sure the kids have all the bunny things? I think not. I think about the fun Spring items to stick in their baskets like bubbles and sidewalk chalk, and fun snacks to fill their baskets. I want so much for my children to look back on their childhood and remember the traditions that came along with holidays. I want them to remember a childhood filled with fun, love, and things they looked forward too. 

Yet, as much as I want all of those things – I want my children to also know about the heart behind these holidays. I want my kids to find the Easter bunny and Easter egg hunts as an added fun bonus. I want them to know the really meaning behind Easter, just like Christmas- it’s all about Jesus. Easter exists because of Jesus, plain and simple. I want my children to have a heart for Jesus, knowing at their core that’s it’s all because of Him. Even though the other stuff is fun and their childhood memories will be filled with fond holiday traditions and fun things we did – it would be an injustice to them if we didn’t really get to the heart and core of it being about Jesus. 

You better bet we’ll be dying the eggs every year, the kids will get to go on egg hunts and their baskets will be filled each year with fun items but we’ll be teaching them year after year why Easter exists. We’ll make it fun like we do with all of our learning things, and they’ll know that Jesus came and died then rose again for us.

A couple of years ago we made contact paper crosses with A as our activity because she was so young. This year though, we dug a bit deeper. My mom send me these Resurrection Egg cutouts from her church newsletter and I really like them. I looked around at the other options but really these are our favorite because they do tell the story of Easter in an easier light than the thorns and nails that came with crucifixion. Sure, they are important parts of the story but for a three year old, I wanted a gentler approach to the mightiness of the story – Jesus came, He died on the cross and three days later he rose again. 

So, this last weekend we got out 11 plastic eggs and hid them around the house. We came together at the end and sat at the table. We talked about each photo and what it represented telling her the Easter story. Later on in the day I decided to just ask her about what we had learned.

“What did Jesus ride on in the parade?” “A donkey”.  

I asked her all of the other things that had to do with the pictures we learned about before without her seeing the pictures. Then as she’s known those things, we’ve added in more details that we shared but she didn’t see photos of (how many days he was in the tomb, what they shouted while waiving the palm leaves, etc.)

Each day I’ve asked her all the things and she tells me what she remembers and I reminder of the things she forgot but she always remember the last part: Jesus died on the cross, they rolled a large stone in front of the tomb, three days later he rose again, an angel came and rolled it away so the tomb was empty – all because Jesus loves us.

Few things make this mama heart of mine prouder seeing her understand the story of Jesus and His love for us. I couldn’t find the same Resurrection eggs so I compiled the activity as a printable for you. Print the PDF for The Resurrection Eggs (graphics are were compiled together by Flatirons Church, as far as I can tell – I can’t take credit just want to share the activity that we found fun and useful).

Last year A learned the “Jesus Loves Me” song and it’s hands down one of her favorites to sing. So when I came across this Easter song that goes along to the tune of Jesus Loves Me I was determined to learn it and teach it to A. We’re a couple days in and she’s already singing the chorus and sometimes she blends both songs together. There is nothing sweeter than her little three year old voice singing any song and there’s just some extra sweetness that comes with her singing these. I made this printable too if you are interested. Simply click the image and save or use the link below. 

 Print the Yes, He is Risen song and lyrics with this quick printable.

So, we’ll be over here embarking on all the fun Easter traditions that we’ve all done as kids and enjoying the rest of our week and making sure Jesus is the heart of the holiday. Last night we read the whole Easter story in her Jesus Storybook Bible* and she was captivated by the whole thing. Sunday we will be making Resurrection rolls on Sunday with A (bread dough stuffed with a cinnamon sugar coated marshmallow. The marshmallow melts (disappears) to demonstrate the tomb being empty), and we’ll open our Easter baskets – I’m so excited for them to get their new bunnies I bought, some fun treats and B is getting his first Jesus Storybook Bible, and of course we’ll have an egg hunt around here – most likely inside because snow is in our forecast this year.  

I’m so thrilled that I get to be the mama of our sweet babes sharing the reason for this season and also for the fun traditions and memory making all mixed together into a childhood foundation that I can only hope and pray sets them forward into a wonderful lifetime.

What will you be doing for Easter? Do you have fun traditions that you are a part of? What do you put in your kid’s Easter baskets? Tell me in the comments!

Note: We are all welcome to opinions and beliefs, if you don’t agree with our same beliefs that’s okay – just please keep it kind below.

Print the PDF for The Resurrection Eggs. Print the Yes, He is Risen song and lyrics.