With Easter coming up this weekend, I thought it would be fun to discuss Easter traditions. I’ll share mine, and then I would love for you to share yours.
Growing up, my parents always filled our Easter baskets with goodies and hid them somewhere in the house. Our family prefers chocolate over candies, so there was always a chocolate bunny (usually dark chocolate) and a bunch of chocolate eggs.
My mom also made sweet Easter buns with icing, a tradition that was a passed on from her mother. We always went to church on Easter Sunday and then prepared a fancy dinner, usually ham and potatoes.
Mr. Handsome’s family traditions are similar. He says the thing that sticks out in his mind most about his childhood Easter celebrations was the year he hung a chocolate bunny from a tree with fishing line so his younger siblings couldn’t get at it. His brothers and sisters eventually figured out a way to cut it down, but it had already mostly melted.
The photo at the top of this post is from a 2018 TV news segment I did for WBKO in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The topic was Easter baskets on a budget. What a fun Easter memory that was!
As a mom, I plan to focus our Easter celebrations around the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Both Mr. Handsome and I want to make sure that Little Buddy and his possible future siblings know the Easter story. We will also add in a few other traditions, like Easter egg hunts and chocolate bunnies.
What are your Easter traditions, both now and as a child?
Anne
We have been “memorizing” a verse a week during Lent in preparation for Easter. I also want to make sure Easter is a special day about Jesus. I’m interested to see other’s comments because I honestly do not know what to do to make it set apart from a regular Sunday. Maybe I should start a special breakfast- next year though!
My daughter’s third birthday is the day before Easter this year, so I bought $.30 Easter baskets and will have her two friends over to dye eggs and have an egg hunt. 🙂
Ellie
That sounds like a great 3rd birthday party. I agree, though. I’m often at a loss for what to do to make holidays special.
Anne
Turns out celebrating turning 3 overshadows anything Easter. I hope she’s older next time her birthday falls so close to Easter.
My friend and I decided that next year we will get together and have a Seder meal. It looks like there are guides online you can use.
Sarah
We love doing Resurrection Eggs with our littles!
Ellie
Hi Sarah. What are Resurrection Eggs? Is it a craft?
Leina
I used this blog as an inspiration. The blogger has done a great job.
https://wakeandwhimsy.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/diy-resurrection-egg-hunt/
Ellie
What a great idea! Thank you for sharing.
Anonymous
I assume that upside-down picture above is from the year you celebrated Easter in Australia….
Ellie
That’s odd, I don’t see an upside-down picture. Which picture is it?
Anonymous
That picture was definitely the wrong way yesterday. You must have just fixed it.
Ellie
It was showing right side up both on my computer on my smart phone, but I went ahead and re-uploaded it since you and one other person were seeing it upside down. Must have fixed the glitch.
Regina Shea
When we were children my parents always did Easter baskets and my Mama would make a special dinner of ham or roast. My husband and I did Easter baskets for awhile when the girls were little. And then we had an anonymous person leave Easter gift bags on our doorstep. To this day, we don’t know who it was.
Though our daughters are adults we still give them Easter treats. We still focus though on Christ’s death and resurrection. It’s been hard not having sunrise service due to COVID-19 restrictions but maybe just our family can get up early on Sunday and have our own sunrise service. Nothing fancy. Just us singing and my husband can read scripture. We shall see.
Ellie
Wow, Regina, how kind that someone left gifts on your doorstep! And I hope you are able to have your sunrise service. Our church is doing an outdoor service, and it looks like the weather will be decent, so I’m looking forward to that.
B
Growing up my parents fill baskets for us with chocolate, jelly beans,peeps,peanut butter eggs. Hid them around the the house and we had to find them.
J.E.
My parents gave each of us a basket with chocolate eggs and jelly beans. They would hide our big boxed chocolate bunny in the house or outside. Sometimes we would get a new Easter outfit for church. My husband and I gave baskets to our children when they were young. My husband and I are making a Easter meal and delivering a few meals. Happy Easter to All. Hag. M.D.
Anonymous
Happy Birthday!
Anonymous
I’m glad you’re going to keep the Easter egg hunts and chocolate bunnies, so your child can experience some of the fun just like other children he will come in contact with
Gabrielle!
Happy Resurrection Day!! He is RISEN!!
Easter we normally go to church and then go to my grandmas houses! Do a Easter egg hunt for the littles and eat 😂 and hang out! It’s really nice, although this year we are home…sick🤧 No fun to miss Easter but! Ellie and Mr. Handsome it sounds like you guys have a very nice Easter and had one growing up 🌷💐🌻🍭 God Bless! 🙏🏻
Jasmine
The picture was showing upside down for me too 🤔 Looks fine know though 👍🏻 Happy Easter,
Ellie
Happy Easter, Jasmine!
Eileen
Happy Easter everyone.
Est
For a few years of my childhood, we met up on Easter Monday, with another family and would go egg rolling, (seeing whose hard boiled egg rolled furthest without getting smashed). (I think we enjoyed rolling down hill ourselves more than rolling the eggs.)
Leina
As lutheran the celebration of Easter starts with palm sunday (in the memory of Jesus riding to Jerusalem). People waved the palm leaves for Jesus, so in here (I live northern Europe) it’s a tradition to decorate willow branches (we don’t have palmtrees…) and then visit people and wave the branch and say a blessing. Usually children do it. It’s originally orthodox tradition.
We grow a some grass inside and decorate it nicely. Our country is so up north that that we often still snow around the easter. So the grass is a symbol of new life. We also do the easter eggs and treats. My favourite mass is Maundy Thursday’s mass: at the end of mass the everything is taken from the altars and covered with black fabric. Candles are put out. Music stops and the congregation sings acapella a traditional hymn about Jesus’ way from Getsemane to Via Dolorosa (a road of misery/sufffering). Everybody leaves in silence.
A
I near hear of easter eggs hiding them outside of kids. They never had them when I was little. I think it stupid that people do that for kids is better just to give them a basket of with 1 piece of chocolate and some books and a stuffed animal.
Rachel
Dying eggs was a favorite of mine as a child, and now my daughter loves it too and looks forward to it.
Are you from the Bowling Green area, Ellie? We visited there recently. It is lovely.
Ellie
Hi Rachel! I’m not from Bowling Green, but it’s a lovely area. They found my blog a few years ago and invited me on the show.
Rachel
Oh, awesome!