How to teach your children the TRUE meaning of Easter & STILL have fun!

As parents we are all guilty of feeling overwhelmed between thoughts of teaching our children about the Atonement of Christ and balancing that with the excitement of the arrival of the Easter Bunny this time of year. Where do we draw the line? How do we get our children to realize that Easter isn’t just about the candy and toys and egg hunts?

Just a little background. I come from a LARGE family. Yeah hard to believe a Mormon from a large family, nearly UNHEARD of! Well let’s just say my parents had 6 kids before they divorced when I was nine years old Then each remarried. My Mom had one more with her 2^nd husband and he had a son from his 1^st marriage. My Dad remarried and had 2 more with his 2^nd wife and she had 2 from her first marriage. So if you can do the math all in all there is 12 of us including me. The most that lived under one roof was 7 children however. Well let’s just say my Mom had figured out after awhile there had to be a better way to teach her children about Easter and still have fun.

Here are some tips I got from my Mom while growing up:

1. Easter is about the Resurrection and Atonement of Jesus Christ. It’s not about the Easter Bunny and all his glory. She made sure to remind us of that if we got too focused on the candy that would soon be coming our way.
2. She would sometimes have the Easter Bunny arrive Saturday morning instead of Sunday for a two fold purpose:

a. It helped us to separate in our heads that the arrival of the Easter Bunny was in no way related to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

b. Since we usually attended church on Sundays it prevented us from being too wired on candy and better able to sit through service and get something out of it for that matter.

1. There were occasional Easter Sundays that we stayed in our Sunday best dress all day to help keep us in the attitude of remembering our Savior.
2. Music always played a big part of my childhood. We sang together a lot. When you grow up in a small town and can’t afford to do much of anything you find ways to occupy your time. So we sang and we focused on the Savior and found ways to worship him through music. It helped bring peace into our home. In fact I used to annoy my family whenever my siblings started to argue, I would play & sing loudly the hymn “Where can I turn for peace” on the piano. It irritated them but they stopped fighting!

Other ideas you may want to try, is placing pictures of Christ in your home before and right after Easter. Personally I keep them up all year to remind us that we want to always be like him and act like we would if he was in our presence always. My favorite artist rendering of Christ is by Greg Olson. He captures such an amazing softness and peace that just feels so inviting when you gaze at his artwork. I included some of my favorite on this hub. Check out his website you will be amazed at what he can do with a brush. I hope to someday collect his artwork throughout my home. You don't have to buy an expensive oil painting to display, you can get inexpensive prints at most any Christian book store, I even place them on my fridge.

All in all just remember that kids will be kids, and of course they will be more worked up about the candy rush that will soon ensue. However don’t lose heart. I know my Mom did her best to teach us the gospel and I remember the spirit in which it was taught more than those nasty “peeps” I got in my Easter basket!

Good luck and HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!