Hi Guys! Today we’re going to talk about preparing yourself and your family for Easter. Have you ever paid much attention to the fact that we hardly give Easter any lead-up time at all? I remember taking my kids to church Easter Sunday when they were small(er) and I had done absolutely nothing to prepare them for the day. They had no idea of any of the answers in Sunday school, they didn’t know why they had to dress up fancier than most Sundays…I was kicking myself!

To Christians (myself being one) Easter is arguably the most important holiday. Yes, we celebrate Jesus’ birth at Christmas time, but it’s not just Him coming to Earth that’s important. If he hadn’t died and rose from the dead there would be NOTHING to celebrate! So over the past couple of years I’ve tried to do more to prepare myself and my family for Easter. Here are some ways that we can prepare for Easter:

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How to Prepare for Easter

1.Make Jesus Trees

The first thing my family does is hang up our Jesus Trees. We bought them from Catholic Sprouts, and try to one devotional every morning. They take less than 5 minutes to complete, which is awesome if you have young children, or just a bit of time. I cut the circles out as squares to give the kids a bit of a border to colour over (so it doesn’t end up all over the table) and then we cut them into their proper circles after their coloured and glue them to the tree. Each child has their own tree. After reading the Bible story we talk about why the picture was chosen; what it has to do with the story.

The other nice thing about these Jesus Trees is that, because they’re so short, if you miss a day it’s no big deal. We were away all last week on holiday, and we’re already almost caught up. Whenever we finish one the kids always say, “Can we do another one?”

2. Give Up Something for Lent

Last year we didn’t do this. We observed Lent by using the Jesus Tree and thinking about Easter more. This year we’ve all given up something for Lent. A Catholic friend of mine described Lent as giving up something that’s taking Jesus’ place in your life. For her, when she was frustrated she would eat sweets. So she gave up sweets for Lent, but then when she craved sweets, or had a bad day, this reminded her that Jesus is supposed to fill that spot. She would go and read her Bible and pray instead of having a snack.

At first my daughters wanted to give up my son for Lent, and my son wanted to give up “skol,” translation: school (obviously you still need school, kid). But, in the end, my son gave up complaining, my oldest daughter gave up freaking out and my 3-year-old daughter gave up “bad choices”- her own idea! I have given up social media, i.e. Facebook and Instagram. I’m quite enjoying the peace and quiet. I don’t miss it at all, although I fear my blog will suffer without me posting things. But I’ve given that fear to God, knowing that, if he wants my blog to flourish, He doesn’t need me to be actively on Facebook and Instagram to do it 🙏🏻.

3. Decorate

Just like we decorate and prepare the house for Christmas we should decorate and prepare the house for Easter. This is a new-ish idea for me, so I admit I don’t have a million great ideas here. Go to the comments and let me know your great ideas RIGHT NOW! Then come back and finish reading!

My son and I have a couple of ceramic eggs that we painted that we use as decorations, and I bought an ornamental cross at Dollar Tree that we put out. We also put a cheerful helium balloon on each child’s chair for them to find on Easter morning.

I’m thinking of having fresh flowers on the table for the weeks leading up to Easter to signify the new life that we have in Christ Jesus. But that’s really all the ideas I’ve got. I need your help! (although see #12 for one last idea)

*Since writing this post I’ve had many more ideas! Check out this post, “Decorations for Easter” to see them! We’ve also starting setting aside a Sunday afternoon about a month before Easter to have a tea party and decorate. This definitely helps put us in the Easter mood, and start anticipating the season!

4. Make Easter Bonnets

To help my kids anticipate going to church on Easter morning we made something special that they only wear to church on Easter Sunday: Easter Bonnets. You can check out the full tutorial by clicking here.

5. Celebrate Passover

Last year we celebrated Passover for the first time. It was so wonderful! This year we’re celebrating Passover with both my husband’s and my family. We celebrate it on Good Friday late afternoon/evening to make it traditional for us. I can hardly wait for Passover this year! For more details and explanations click here: How to Host a Christian Passover.

6. Join an Easter Choir

This is also a new one for me. So, for the last few Christmases I’ve conducted my church’s choir. I always feel too busy this time of year to do an Easter choir. But, in hindsight, this seems ridiculous. Christmas is hands-down the busiest time of the year, yet I go out of my way to fit Christmas choir into my schedule because it’s so important to me. Shouldn’t the same be said of Easter choir? So, I was sitting in church this past weekend, and felt convicted. So, that afternoon, my church rallied and began preparing for an Easter choir, and had our first rehearsal last night (which went amazingly well, by the way!).

7. Use Resurrection Eggs

Resurrection eggs are 12 plastic eggs in which is a small item that helps to tell the Easter story (a palm branch, three nails, etc.). For a tutorial on how to make your own set visit the post by Brittany at Equipping Godly Women. We use our Resurrection Eggs for our Easter egg hunt, mixed in with our chocolate eggs. Before we divide up the candy spoils we go through what each Resurrection Egg represents in the Easter story. Note: In some sets the last egg is empty, representing the empty tomb. I think opening an empty egg is a bit disappointing for kids, so for our last egg we always put in candy that they can eat right away (a small egg each, for example), to symbolize the joy we have that Christ rose from the dead. You can also do this activity in the 12 days leading up to Easter. Every morning hide one egg for the kids to find. Discuss what that egg has to do with the Easter Story.

8. Read Easter Stories to Your Children

There are so many great Easter storybooks out there. Why not read one to your children every day leading up to Easter. Check out your church library, and even your local public library for ideas!

9. Use a Lenten Devotional by Yourself or with your Spouse

This year my husband and I are reading “From the Grave,” a Lenten devotional with excerpts from A. W. Tozer. Another one that looks awesome is, “Preparing for Easter” with readings from C. S. Lewis. We read one together each night before we go to bed.

10. Hand Our Easter Cards

Do you give out Christmas cards? (…and only one of you said yes 🤦‍♀️) If you were in the minority who answered yes to that question, you should send out Easter Cards! Maybe not the personalized ones with your beautiful family on them, and definitely not bunnies (I saw a sign that said, “Silly bunnies, Easter is for Jesus 😂). Maybe something with flowers, or the empty tomb would be more in keeping with this post; something that makes people want to REJOICE!!! To make the cards in the picture above click here.

11. Give Out Easter Treats to Neighbours

Hot cross buns are the first Easter treat to pop into my mind, but if you check on Pinterest there are so. many. ideas! Bringing Easter treats to your neighbours will help show them (and your kids) how important a holiday this is. This is a perfect opportunity to spread the good news!

12. Make an Easter Sign

If you’re a maker like me then you may love this:

I made this stencil on Cricut Design Space, and am going to make it into a sign, hopefully this weekend. Follow me on Instagram to see how that project turns out (I’m still posting things on Instagram without looking at my feed or stats or anything…does that count as going on social media?🤔).

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Will you push yourself to do some of these things? I know that life is so busy all the time, but we need to spend the time on the things that matter. We force ourselves to shop, cook, decorate, rehearse, etc, at Christmas, let’s try to put just a bit of that energy and anticipation into Easter! Please let me know any of your ideas! I’d love to hear what you do to prepare for Easter!