What is Easter and why do we celebrate it? Easter is absolutely my favorite time of year. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas as well, but for me – Easter is the reason for my faith. I want my kids to know the true meaning of Easter, but what I’ve learned is I have to make it fun to keep their attention.
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What is the Real Reason for Easter? – The True Meaning of Easter
What is Easter really about? Do we truly understand the importance of Easter as Christians in this tolerant politically correct society?
The true meaning of the Easter story reveals so much about God’s love for us. See the points below to help understand the truth about Easter!
- Easter is a beautiful testament to God’s love to us that Jesus was born – fulfilling countless prophecies.
- The fact that Jesus lived life as one of us (but without sin) and can relate to our humanity gives me hope daily.
- But none of that mattered unless:
- Jesus died on the cross
- Paid for every sin the world has ever known
- And was raised from the dead on the third day.
The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the real reason we celebrate Easter
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6 NASB)
As with everything else in our culture, we have to be intentional as Disciples of Christ to keep our hearts focused. Easter is one of those holidays that the culture has high-jacked completely as we drift away from our Christian roots. It is so tempting to focus on spring, eggs, bunnies, and candy and lose sight of the reason for this season.
What is the true meaning of Easter?
We must understand the meaning of Good Friday, The truth of Easter Monday and tie the history of Easter into our daily life to be Spiritually relevant to this generation!
For instance, do you see the connection between Passover and Easter?
Below are some Christian Easter tradition ideas for kids, families, and personal and group use.
How to Stay Focused on the Resurrection this Easter Before You Teach
The first set of activities to help us teach the true meaning of Easter has to do with living out the true meaning of Easter. You have to live something out before you can ever hope to teach it or better yet – have it be caught by those around you!
Before we jump into the Christian easter activities we have to talk about The Easter Bunny and Easter Egg Hunts.
Related: What is the Spiritual Meaning of Easter
1. Understand The Easter Bunny and Easter Egg Hunts
Should Christians celebrate Easter Bunny activities?
The Easter origin or the Easter Bunny is a point of much debate.
Is Easter a pagan holiday?
Is the Easter Bunny just a fun symbol of spring or is it about Easter?
There is some fascinating history that might help you understand where this practice came from, to begin with here. The point is, we can not leave the Easter Bunny out of Easter and expect our kids to take us seriously (I’ve tried). They see how culture celebrates and naturally have questions.
My question is: How can we use the Easter Bunny to turn their attention back to the true meaning of Easter?
And as for Easter Egg Hunts…
Instead of asking if an Easter egg hunt is biblical, let’s ask how we can turn an Easter Egg Hunt into an opportunity to share the gospel. When we look deeper at the meaning of easter eggs we see how to apply the original meaning of Easter to our Christian faith!
2. Fasting to Focus my Heart First
To Teach the Easter Meaning we have to get our hearts Focused.
Fasting is a great way to focus your heart! This year for Lent I invite you to join me in a 40-day Study of how to be still and know God more.
We will dig into the Word and see what does the Bible say about Easter, being still, and knowing God more!
Related: 7 Things the Ester Story Teaches us about Marriage
3. Understand Lent Is for All Denominations
Curious what all the fuss about Lent is? The Lenten season is an oft-neglected Christian tradition, but this ancient practice can add richness to our Easter celebrations. Check this out to learn more of the History Behind Lent and see two free Bible study/devotional options.
Other Ways to focus our Hearts on the True Meaning of Easter for kids of all ages…
4. A Family Fast
Fast as a Family through Lent (Catholic or not 😉 ) – check out these 14 Beautiful Ways Your Family Can Celebrate Lent
What should I give up for Lent (or make my family give up?) The act of “giving up” is done not because we need to earn our way to Heaven, but rather as a dedication, a desire to grow more Christ-like, and as thankfulness of the gift of Christ’s death for our sins. Here are some ways to embrace this season and grow as a family in faith and worship! |
5. Use Images to Focus Your Heart
Why not focus on the Resurrection while on Social media with Free sharable Easter Imgs from The Holy Mess? |
6. Check Your Heart
Another way to Focus our Hearts at Easter is to check your heart and be sure you are being real about your own Faith.
Heather believes the message of Easter to the very core of her being, but sometimes life is hard. It weighs on her and she let’s the stress of it pollute her soul. To be honest, she feels a little whitewashed… maybe you can relate. Read about that here. |
7. Focus on Jesus
Another great way to focus on Jesus in my personal life is to be in the Word.
I have created a 40 day reading and Journaling Guide through Anxiety – which becomes an issue for me this time of year as well – #DisfunctionalFamilyLife 🙁 These verses really help me stay focused on Jesus while struggling with Anxiety! They are yours FREEbelow.
8. Focus on Bible Verses about the Resurrection
Staying in the Word and studying the resurrection is another way to focus our heart. When studying this you can find creative ways to teach the resurrection!
What does the Bible say about Easter?
Check out this 40-day resurrection devotional (Easter Scripture) in Sarah Geringer’s library. She shares about it here as she tells us how to Build a Resurrection Garden |
9. Focus on Praying the Promises of the Cross
40-day Praying the Promises of the Cross prayer Challenge.40-day Praying the Promises of the Cross prayer Challenge. During the challenge, we’ll pray just ONE promise a day for 40 days. This challenge is designed to help you…
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10. Check That You Stay Christ-Centered
Life comes at us hard. We tend to get so busy doing all the things that we let our heart drift. Learning how to be still with the Lord each day can help you recenter your heart and stay Christ-Centered!
This is a FREE devotional series to help you learn to be still and know God more ~> 40 Day Fast Guide: Be Still and Know God More
Easy Activities to Teach the True Meaning of Easter to kids
Once you begin to truly internalize and live out the true meaning of Easter you are ready to begin teaching kids about Easter. Any of these would make great Easter Sunday School activities. They are great Christian Easter activities for kids of all ages!
11. Activity Ideas to teach Easter as a Family or Sunday School / Homeschool
Our family’s favorite Easter activities for kids is Easter Activity Workbook from AbcJesusLovesMe.com that can be done in 7 days or a few weeks to focus us on the Cross. It is perfect for kids old enough to color all the way up to Tweens – who love to teach the lessons at that point! |
12. Make Easter Activities Fun for Kids
Jelly Beans are a candy that we love (and it comes Vegan!!!). How creative is this idea to use Jelly Beans to teach Prayer and focus on Jesus!!!!!!!!!
FaithAlongTheWay has some other Fabulous Christian Easter Activity ideas I know you will love! |
13. Include the Neighbors
Help the kids in your neighborhood learn the true meaning of Easter with an egg hunt!
Easter is one time families are open to the gospel. Have you ever considered hosting an Easter egg hunt for your kids and the neighbors’ kids and focusing on Jesus?
We do this every year as a way to share the gospel and get to know our neighbors! We use the Resurrection eggs to make the Easter story for children easier.
It doesn’t matter about the Easter goddess of fertility. We don’t have to answer questions like, “Where did Easter eggs come from” to use the cultural tradition to teach about Jesus!
14. Engage Older Kids
Activities to Teach The Real Meaning of Easter to Older Kids
Writing scripture is helpful for cementing it into our hearts and minds. Writing the story of Easter in the Bible will do just that for anyone who takes it on!
This Easter Story Writing guide is perfect for Elementary age kids. Writing through scripture is an amazing way to internalize it and focus our hearts. Plus she adds in the pieces from the Resurrection eggs. What a fun way to let the older children teach the younger what is the real meaning of easter! |
15. An Easter Tree
An Easter Tree is a fun new idea – find out all about it here
16. Activities teaching Preschoolers about Easter
Why is Easter important to Christians? And why do we take such care to teach it to our children? We must give them a firm foundation if we ever hope to see them live out true faith in their daily life!
I love any activities that get the kids hands-on! This is a fun way to teach the Easter story for preschoolers using a calendar and all the events of Easter with Felt! My children love felt activities! It helps to have Easter explained to a child in a hands-on way. |
17. Activities to Teach The True Meaning of Easter to Toddlers
We started talking about Easter as soon as we had kids. I literally googled Easter talk for toddlers to find ways to start. The idea of what to say about the hard parts can feel intimidating (especially explaining Easter to 8-year-olds or younger). There are loads of books that make the Easter story for kids on their level.
18. Books About Easter
My Favorite Christian Children’s Books about Easter take the guesswork out of how to tell the Easter Story to kids are below
Here are 34 more Christian books about Easter that our family love – to help you focus on the True meaning!
19. Talk about Easter Often
It’s important that we not only teach about Easter in the spring but that this be an ongoing conversation! This post is full of ideas for talking it through early on!
20. Make Easter Part of School
Focusing on the true meaning of Easter in your Sunday School class is important but have you considered incorporating it into your homeschool curriculum?
We incorporate a Bible time into Homeschool and I often pull Sunday School Ideas from this site! Bonus – kids learn so much better when their hands are busy in a craft. So crafting while we talk through each event in Jesus’ Life is a win-win!
Which of these Activities to Teach the True Meaning of Easter will You Try?
The importance of Easter can not be overemphasized. We must internalize the true meaning of Easter personally before we can teach! But once you understand the real reason for Easter and it is heart deep everything changes.
Which ideas will you try? Do you do something else? Drop me a comment so we can try it too!
in HIM,
Tiffany of Hope Joy in Christ inspires Christian Women to grow in faith, live out Biblical Marriage Principles and raise Godly Children. Join the Wives Only Facebook Group here or keep up with her through Pinterest.
If you enjoyed this you would also like these Posts:
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- Be a Biblical wife to an Ungodly Husband
- 40-Days to Be Still and Know God more
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Great activities!! There’s always such a focus on the bunny and candy, nice to have options to focus on the reason for it all!
My thoughts exactly…
There are some lovely ideas here, thanks for highlighting them – think we may try the felt scene if I can source the right colours. I’m so excited about Easter already 🙂
I got a pack of multi color felt from Walmart for $5.
Not having been raised celebrating Easter, I don’t really know much about it besides what is commercialized.
My husband is new to Christianity so I can relate to what you mean. Easter is a time to celebrate for Christians. The foundation of our faith is that Jesus died for our sins and was raised from the dead 3 days later. If He had not defeated death we would have no reason for our faith. So we celebrate that – have feasts, parties, gifts… In our house is tends to be bigger than Christmas.
Such wonderful ideas, Tiffany. I love Easter too. The wonder of it all and the reality of Jesus coming alive again is so powerful.
It is and we are always looking for ways to bring it to life for our kids.
It’s so easy to lose sight of the true roots and meaning of Easter, but these activities are a great way to reconnect!
It really is Helen. I can’t wait to dig into them in the next week or so.
What a wonderful way to get ready for Easter. Thank you for all of these tips, can’t wait to use some of those for the upcoming holiday.
I can hardly wait myself Sharon!
My kids would be all about the jellybean prayer. It’s going to be interesting this year because the family we have around celebrates with easter eggs and candy and not so much talk about Jesus. I’m used to all the talk being about Jesus and no easter eggs or easter bunnies. And to be honest, that’s what I want for my kids. BUT This could serve as a happy medium though.
Lots of prayers your way because it is sooo hard to do Easter different than those around us. Even when you think they understand and get it… there is miscommunication, hurt feelings, and confusion. We deal with it every year from friends, neighbors and now even our kids who wish the Easter Bunny visited them. Celebrating a religious holiday different than the mainstream culture requires thick skin and perseverance.
These are great ideas and I love the idea of the jellybean prayer. We don’t have any young children in our family, but there is a ton in our neighborhood you have given me a great idea!
The Jellybean Prayer is one of our favs as well.
Thanks for including my Easter craft post in your list! Glad you find ideas that you can use at BibleBaton. 🙂
There are so many great resources for Easter! It was fun finding them all and I loved yours, Sarah!