EP 80: Egg Hunts & Other Easter Celebrations

We’re right in the middle of holy week, which makes this a great time to discuss some of our family’s favorite Easter traditions. Yes, we still have egg hunts, but we especially favor activities that keep our focus on the finished work of Christ on the cross.

Egg Hunts & Other Easter Celebrations

FULL TRANSCRIPT FOR EPISODE 80

Hello, Friend.  Welcome to Episode 80 of Loving Life at Home. Easter comes a little late this year, so we are right in the middle of holy week, so I thought this would be a good time to talk about Easter traditions, and specifically how to celebrate Resurrection Sunday with our families in a way that makes great memories for our children without detracting from the real reason we celebrate, which is the fact that Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

We’ve tried lots of things through the years with our kids and grandkids, so I’ll try to just hit the highlights.

1. Egg Hunts

search for it like hidden treasure… Jesus Himself said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13:44)

• Resurrection Eggs – first 12 then 18 then 24 – free printable version on our family website, I’ll link in the shownotes
• Scripture Eggs – a word or two from beloved Bible verses on each egg. Different color for each verse. kids find them and arrange them to spell out the verse…
  • “God loved us and sent His Son.” -1 John 4:10
  • “He has risen, just as He said.” – Matthew 28:6
  • John 3:16
  • Romans 5:8
• Empty Eggs – like the empty tomb (trade for candy or other treats). that way chocolate doesn’t melt in Texas sun. Eggs don’t get sticky and we can reuse the same eggs year after year— speaking of reusable, have you seen those little quilted eggs? They’re so cute! – but I haven’t gotten around to stitching any of those – yet! – so we’re still using plastic.
• Chasing Eggs – I saw a cute idea on Instagram last week where, instead of hiding the eggs, the dads and granddads in the family just clipped or taped the empty eggs onto the backs of their shirts, and all the kids had to chase them around the yard trying to get hold of the eggs. That looked like something our kids – and their fathers – would absolutely love, so we may try a version of that this year.
• Glow-in-the-Dark Eggs – tiny finger lights. Jesus is the Light of the World. fun to hunt after dark. Although, we’ve already switched to daylight savings time, so doesn’t get dark until way past my bedtime…
• Spelling Eggs – adults – one letter in each egg. cash, gift card, chocolate, tea, note cards, lego set, etc – c on cash or card or chocolate… first one to add the final letter to the name of any particular gift gets to keep it. not a specific tie in to Christ’s resurrection, although I suppose you could give themed prizes, like a devotional or a bible book mark or a cross necklace, that sort of thing.

2. Easter Crafts

• empty tomb craft – paint the bottom of a paper plate gray, cut it in half, glue or staple the two halves together, and cut an opening on one side – looks like a tomb. Then glue or draw the stone which was rolled away, and the angel who says he is risen, and Jesus, alive, with outstretched, nail-scarred hands… I have a free printable on my family website for this one, too, which I’ll link in the show notes.

• I’ve also seen an empty tomb garden that I’d like to try this year, where you turn a small terra cotta pot sideways and bury half of it in a larger terra cotta pot, set a big river rock beside the mouth of the smaller pot and cover the top with moss, which makes it look like an empty tomb. You can then add three crosses in the background and plant succulents or annuals to resemble a garden surrounding the tomb. They look really pretty when done well.coloring pages with Easter verses. lots of these available on our family website. I’ll link them in the show notes

• crosses made with a variety of materials: We’ve wired large nails together in the shape of a cross, or made broken china mosaic crosses, or glued pompoms to a cross cut out of card stock, or made “stained glass” looking crosses by ironing crayon shavings between two pieces of waxed paper. I’m sure you could find lots of other ideas for cross crafts on Pinterest if none of these appeal to you

3. Read the Easter story

By this time, we’ve already relayed the story of Christ’s resurrection in great detail while using the Resurrection eggs, but I have a couple of picture books that hit the highlights, as well, so I’ll normally read one of those to the younger kids and grandkids before. I picked the one I have – The Easter Story by Carol Heyer – because of the beautiful illustrations. But I don’t think that one’s in print any more. Of course, you can also just read the Biblical account straight out of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John.

4. Special Foods

We usually make either resurrection rolls or empty tomb cookies. The latter are esentially meringues beat the eggs, add vinegar, crushed pecans, place it in the tomb (warm oven), seal it with tape, leave until Easter morning…

5. Good Questions

• Passion Week Quiz – Who said what?Resurrection Day word scramble or word find

• Conversation starters specifically for Easter – all three of those resources are available as free downloads on my family website, so follow the link in the show notes if you’re interested in giving any a try

6. More Fun

• acting out the easter story – for little ones, Dad’s XL T-shirts hang down like tunics – a little rope or swath of fabric around the waist or draped over their heads and they could pass for 1^st century Christians. Walk them through the story and feed them their lines. We did this with neighbor children at easter parties I hosted when my oldest kids were little. But now I have a lot of little grandkids who’d probably enjoy it as well, so I may need to drag out my fabric remnants again this weekend for them.

• Easter or Spring – brown paper bag full of items like a small stuffed bunny, a chick, an egg, a Bible, a cross, a crown of thorns, a basket, a piece of candy, an angel – and as I pull each thing out of the bag, the kids tell me whether the item is related to the real meaning of easter or just to springtime in general

• Music videos for Easter: Let them Know, All about God’s Grace, and Never Enough – I’ll put those links in today’s show notes, too, in case you’re interested, along with a link to one last free printable I have called

• The Jelly Bean Gospel. When my oldest kids were little, they had a Sunday school teacher who gave them a bag of jelly beans one year with a little poem called “the Jelly Bean Prayer” that associated the different colors of beans with different symbols of Easter. I loved the concept, but felt that that original poem was missing something, because it mentioned Jesus died, but didn’t say anything about his rising again – or about what motiviated him to pay for our sins in the first place. So I wrote a new version of the poem that incorporated the whole story, and that’s the one I give to my kids and grandkids and neighbors and students around Easter time each year. It reads like this:

Red is the blood that Jesus shed,
White’s the perfect life He led,
Black is for my heart of sin,
Green, new life I’ve found in Him,
Pink, for flowers near His grave,
Blue’s the world He came to save,
Purple, temple veil, now torn,
Orange, the sky on Easter morn,
Yellow is my happy grin
To know that Jesus rose again!

I hope that you’ll enjoy this treat
Of jelly beans, so small and sweet.
The news they share is short, but true:
Jesus died, ‘cause He loves YOU.
So empty the bag, and when you do,
Remember His tomb is empty, too!