Easter Sunday is the central celebration of our faith yet I struggle more and more because it seems to me that what begins with triumphant shouts of Christ is Risen Alleluiah, and a beautiful flowering of the cross ends with an easter egg hunt.

“It’s great to see the kids so enthusiastic”, people tell me, but is it really?  Is an enthusiastic sugar high really a substitute for celebrating the resurrection of Christ?  Have we bought into the secular culture so much that we can no longer tell the difference?

Others struggle too. The values emphasized in the easter egg hunt are counter to kingdom values – greed, individualism and competitiveness drive kids to find more candy not to share but for themselves.  And what about the symbolism, not to mention the amount of plastic that is strewn around that will just end up in the landfill.

Easter Bunny – Has It Transformed Us?

The Easter Bunny is a rabbit-spirit. Long ago, he was called the “Easter Hare”, hares and rabbits have frequent multiple births so they became a symbol of fertility. The custom of an Easter egg hunt began because children believed that hares laid eggs in the grass. The Romans believed that “All life comes from an egg.” Christians consider eggs to be “the seed of life” and so they are symbolic of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why we colour and decorate eggs is not certain but in ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome and Persia eggs were dyed for spring festivals as a sign of fertility.

Now I am all for taking the symbols of the culture and transforming them into the symbols of our faith, but I wonder have we transformed this symbol or has it transformed us?  Are our values and our joy in the resurrection of Christ subverted by the secular culture that is all into greed, consumption and competitiveness?  Do we miss out on the life that the season is meant to renew in us because we are caught up in another world view?

Having said all that I think that Holy Week and Easter Sunday in particular should be a wonderful celebration of life and faith for adults and kids. Here are some resources you might like to check out.

I add new resources to my Pinterest boards Lent and Easter with Kids  and Prayer Stations with Kids on a regular basis so you might also like to check this out.

Looking for crafts 

• This LEGO resurrection garden is a creative approach to the Easter story. I would prefer a real garden but it is a Strat.
• This article has some great ideas on how to create Prayer stations for Kids and they are printable.
• One of the most creative ideas for Easter week is what South Wilford Church of England Primary School in Nottingham did for Maundy Thursday. They called it Washday and had kids wash and clean both the school and their village.
• And from youthpastor.com a great suggestion for Holy week stations based on The Lord’s Prayer.
• And here is another set of Stations of the Cross for Kids that is worth looking at.
• This tin foil cross craft is also a creative project that I think would appeal to kids and adults alike.
• Faith at home has some good suggestions on activities to participate in with children.
• Christian Montessori has a very good collection of cross related activities – great for storytelling and meditation.
• I also like the originality of this Holy Week in Handprints from Catholic Icing.
• And Catholic Kids has a variety of colouring pages available for children of all ages.
• Catholic Mom has helpful books and Stations of the Cross for Kids.
• Great ideas for at home celebrating from The Purposeful Mom.
• And a Messianic Passover Seder for Families with Children.
• And here are simple directions for making palm crosses.
• Check out these Seven Ideas for Holy Week at Home by Christine V. Hides.
• Resurrection Day Mini Puzzle Unit is a free download of 10 pages for pre-K to 5th grade kids.
• Or, you might like to consider making Resurrection eggs – to me a better idea than Easter eggs. You could decorate them too.
• In France, the bells, not the Easter bunny, bring the eggs: French Easter Bell craft because the bells stop ringing on Maundy Thursday and don’t ring again until the joyous sound of Easter Sunday.

Want to do some Easter gardening?

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• Make this Easter grace garden with your kids.
• Or this simpler Easter Resurrection Garden 
• Or perhaps this mini resurrection garden – which I love because it is a growing garden.

As you know contemplative gardens are my passion, but by Easter I am working out in the garden too much to make my own resurrection garden, though I do love to plant basil (holy basil of course) at Easter as a special symbol of the season.

Looking for recipes:

• Think of making Crown of Thorn bread or consider it as part of your whole Lenten experience
• or the traditional English treat for Good Friday Hot cross buns, which I grew  up with and still like to make every year.
• And I love these creative Easter story cookies inviting kids into a sensual experience of cooking.

Looking for videos:

Share this with your kids. I love this series of videos though the accents may be a little hard for some to follow.

Or if your kids are LEGO enthusiasts this is the video for you;

Or this one:

Please check out our complete list of Godspace resources for Lent through Holy Week