Christ-centered Easter Ideas for Families

One of my best friends recently e-mailed me telling me about her visit to a local children’s toy store. Though Easter decorations and activities were everywhere, she could find nothing reflecting the real meaning of Easter — Jesus Christ!

It seems that the same problem can be found on the internet (and pinterest!). There are so many spring and Easter ideas, but few remind us of Jesus or cause us to reflect on His sacrifice and the hope of His resurrection.

Hopefully these resources will spark your creativity and give you some practical ways to keep Easter centered on Christ. 

Family Devotionals

• Clean on the Inside: A Family Devotional for Holy Week — With Bible passages, devotional text, crafts, and activities to help your family respond to Jesus this Easter!

• Trail to the Tree — a devotional book for families written by Ann Voskamp (similar to a Jesse Tree for Advent season but this one is for the Lenten season).

Activities and Crafts

1. •  Resurrection Eggs — Each egg in this one dozen set includes a meaningful object that helps teach the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. A devotional booklet is included to help you tell the story. You can also create your own Resurrection Eggs rather than buying them in a package.

1. • Create an Easter Banner or make a Holy Week Calendar!

1. • Tell the Easter Story with a Playdough Mountain

1. • Get a Sense of the Resurrection — Amanda at Impress Your Kids has some great ideas for helping your young children experience the stories of Holy Week through each of the senses. Such great activities here!

1. • Easter Breakfast Resurrection Rolls — I’ve seen these all over the internet. A simple but tasty reminder! (Click here for another example.)

1. • Make a Grace Garden — a beautiful, creative reminder from Ann. (Check out other variations here and here from Impress Your Kids)

1. • Coin Covered Cross: Paid in Full  from Mom on Timeout — a wonderful reminder that Jesus truly paid it all on the cross.

1. • He died … for me — an easy activity with a powerful reminder

1. • The Jelly Bean Prayer Jar — a prayer jar filled with jelly beans (or skittles!); each color has a special meaning

1. • The Empty Tomb — a cute and easy craft to represent the empty tomb; this post also has some simple finger plays and rhymes for the little ones.

1. • Cross Crafts — lots of different variations on creating a visual reminder of the empty cross

1. • Crown of Thorns Snack

1. • Scripture-centered Easter Basket — The ‘Detailed Oriented Diva” shares lots of great suggestions for items to put into an Easter basket. Each corresponds to a specific verse, and she even has printables of each verse for you to print out!

1. • God’s Wonderful Surprise! — This is a YouTube video of the Resurrection Story from The Jesus Storybook Bible!

Children’s Books for Easter

The Legend of the Easter Egg — (from the publisher):

“Featuring the beloved setting and characters from the best-selling Legend of the Candy Cane, this moving story about Thomas and Lucy takes us deeper into the mystery of Christianity. When his older sister Lucy falls sick, Thomas goes to stay with John and Mary Sonneman at their candy store. But all the candy he could desire does not cure Thomas’s aching heart. Only when Mary Sonneman shares with him the story of Easter does he understand the hope he has — and what he can do for his sister.”

The Very First Easter — While dying Easter eggs, a boy, Christopher, wonders about the true meaning of Easter. His father proceeds  to read the story  from the book of Luke, explaining many of Christopher’s questions along the way. The text is written well, but the illustrations are what really stood out to us. This book is better geared toward elementary students rather than preschoolers.

Benjamin’s Box — This book can be used along with the Resurrection Eggs, but can just as easily be read without participating in the Resurrection Eggs. From the publisher:

“When Jesus comes to Jerusalem, Benjamin decides to follow him and find out who he really is. At first, Benjamin thinks Jesus is a teacher, then a king. At last, he learns the good news—news that every child (and grown-up!) will want to share.”

The Parable of the Lily — This is a favorite of my two year old! Not one night has gone by that we have been able to skip it during bed-time reading! Like the title says, it is a parable, a modern day story told to convey a deeper meaning. In it, the main character, Maggie, learns about grace and forgiveness and what Easter is really all about.

Amon’s Adventure — This is one that I have yet to read, but I have heard so many good things about it and the others in the series (for Advent). My understanding is that this book is a bit longer and geared for older kids.

Other Books:
A Child’s Story of Easter

Love One Another: The Last Days Of Jesus

The Easter Story

The Tale of Three Trees: A Traditional Folktale

Easter Bunny, Are You For Real?

An Easter Gift for Me

Do you have any favorite traditions or activities to keep Easter focused on Christ? What other ideas would YOU add to this list? 

Looking for More Ideas?

Check out Keeping Easter All About Jesus: Ideas for Families !

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