The Unforgettable Christian Easter Tradition (without the Easter Bunny)

Are you stuck on what to do for Easter? When seeking out family Easter traditions, it can be hard to find a Christian Easter tradition that does not revolve around the Easter Bunny and candy.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all pro-bunny as long as there is a way to connect him back to Jesus and the true meaning of Easter. However, how can we as Christians go beyond that and find what to do for Easter activities for families that really help find purpose in the holiday?

When my husband and I were looking for that, we actually found out that something we started a while ago and never thought much about. It turns out it had a huge impact on our kid. So we have decided to expand this year and include him in our Christian Easter tradition. We thought we would include you too.

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Why are family Easter traditions important?

First, it is important to understand why family Easter traditions are important and how a Christian Easter tradition can help your family this holiday. A Christian Easter tradition can only be important if it does three things:

  • It unites the family
  • It highlights the value of family
  • It revolves around the real reason for the holiday

The unforgettable Christian Easter tradition

It started when my husband and I were too broke to ever buy each other gifts. At one point, we were so broke we showed each other the cards we would get each other in the store because the cards were too expensive. (To be fair, lately, I’ve been seeing cards ranging from $5-7 a card!)

We talked about our priorities and our favorite holidays. To our surprise, both of our favorite holiday was Easter.

We took the $20 we would normally spend on cards and something small and decided to do a different thing instead, and that is where a Christian Easter tradition was born.

How it Works

We each took time to think about the person and the last year. What interested my spouse the most? What was he passionate about? After taking some time to think about that, we would look up nonprofits that were connected in some way. We would then each take our $10 and donate it to a place we may have otherwise never even known about.

The first year we did this, he donated money to Kiva. Kiva is a nonprofit that donates money to entrepreneurs across the globe to help them achieve their goals. Many of these entrepreneurs are in third-world countries, and a small donation can go a long way. Since it is a loan and is almost always paid back, it is the gift that keeps on giving. I donated to Compassion International, an organization that sponsors children all over the world and keep them in school.

By taking this $10 each and doing this, we showed each other that we listened and cared for what the other person was passionate about during the year, and we were able to help others through the process. We were able to love just an ounce of how Jesus loved through this Christian Easter tradition.

How to get the kids involved in this Christian Easter tradition?

My husband and I have done this for a couple of years. This was the first year that my son, almost 4, was able to understand what we were doing. We had two options at this point on how to get him involved in this unique Christian Easter tradition: we could either have him help each parent, or he could be part of the gift giving. We chose both. For now, he will help us, and later he will get involved and do it as well.

No matter how you choose to get your child involved though, there are some huge benefits to this. We are noticing these benefits with my son:

  • He gets to see someone buy someone else a thoughtful gift from start to finish
  • He gets to see a unique way that mom and dad show their love for each other
  • He gets to learn how to research different areas in the world that need help, and how he can help

How does this Christian Easter tradition actually explain Easter?

After reading both Love Does and Everybody Always by Bob Goff, I transitioned from rules and regulations of religion to just a crazy simple love of Jesus and his love for us. One of my favorite quotes from “Love Does” is “make your faith simple, but don’t you dare make it easy.”

From there, my husband and I went on to simplify our faith as much as we could, and live out loud for Jesus, no matter how hard it was.

With the $10 each Christian Easter tradition, we were able to teach my son a few things:

Mark 12:41-44

We were able to explain to my three-year-old son about money and blessings. I showed him $10 and explained to him that for our family, this is still a lot of money, but for some families this is nothing.

We also explained in most other parts of the world, this $10 was an incredible amount of money. We then explained the women with two coins and how she gave everything she had and how we are only doing a sliver in comparison.

The Books of the Gospel

We explained to my innocent three-year-old that sometimes, as much as people try, they get Jesus wrong. They get stuck in rules and traditions and forget how to love people like Jesus would. We explained that in the books of the gospel, Jesus helped anyone and didn’t turn people away because they were different, and neither would we.

The Book of Acts

Next, we talked to him about what happened after Jesus went to Heaven, and how people were desperate to get his word out they went telling everyone and healing everyone, and we have the power to do the same.

The Meaning of Easter

There is no better way to explain Jesus’ love for us then doing acts of service for others. We had the honor of teaching our son that loving others like Jesus did is through words and actions, never just words. We explained that to have Jesus as your Lord you only needed to believe, but that faith is powerful and without works, faith is dead (James 2:14-26)

Be sure to also read:

Is your child the right age for this Christian Easter tradition?

I know, on the surface this seems like a lot to tell a three-year-old. Sometimes we seem a bit out there for explaining so much to him. However, I will always recommend explaining this to your child in a way that goes 1-3 years above their age. You will be blown away by what your child actually understands when you explain Jesus to them on a higher level.

As we were planning out our family Easter traditions this year, we got news that my daughter’s godmother passed away, a year and a month to the day after my daughter was born. We had no choice but to explain to my son why we were so sad. My son told me that Jesus died so I didn’t have to be sad- that my friend was now with Jesus.

The innocence of a child is beautiful. He could not understand (and still can’t) how we could be sad if our friend was with Jesus. However, he was able to show his innocence with wisdom well beyond a normal three-year-old. I am so thankful that my husband and I made a choice to not be afraid of what we share with my son. It makes him understand the depth of Easter.

What about you? How can you use this unique Christian Easter tradition in your family?


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