Easter is a highly commercialized holiday. Stores fill entire aisles with cards and pastel-colored candy a month before the holiday and some kids even write wish lists to the Easter Bunny. With all the hype, it can be hard to remember the religious reason for Easter — the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

LDS parents’ views on how to incorporate the Savior into other fun Easter traditions vary. Parents want their children to learn the true meaning of Easter while giving them fun memories such as the Easter Bunny and coloring eggs.

Barbara Jo Taylor, a mother from Sacramento, said she believes the secular celebrations and the focus on Christ should be observed separately. She said their family participates in the fun Easter activities on Saturday and focuses on the religious aspect of Easter on Sunday.

“Kids need to learn that Easter is about Jesus because Easter has been commercialized so much,” Taylor said. Taylor’s daughter, Allie Jo, 10, said her favorite part about Easter is opening up the Easter baskets. Allie Jo also enjoys singing primary songs on Easter for sacrament meeting.

Tambasco siblings, Kate, 10, and Nick, 8, have a family home evening of sorts on Sunday, Kate said.

They talk about Easter together and tell each other what they are thankful for.

Nick’s favorite part about Easter is searching for their Easter baskets. He said last year one of the baskets was hidden in a closet.

Ron Tambasco, Nick’s father, said they usually put Book of Mormon action figures in Nick’s Easter basket. One year, it was a figure from Helaman’s 2,000 stripling warriors, one of Nick’s favorite stories.

Alexis Petersen, 7, and her brother Connor, 4, from Saratoga Springs both love hunting for eggs.

“I love the Easter Bunny,” Connor said. “I like to make eggs and the egg hunt.”

“I like when we color paint on the eggs,” Alexis said. “I like to do glitter ones. It’s really fun.”

Alexis said she also likes to learn about Jesus.

To incorporate the Savior into one of the children’s favorite parts of Easter, their parents, Sarah and Aaron Petersen, hide treasures other than candy in the plastic eggs.

“One of the things we do is put pass-along cards with pictures of the Savior on them in the eggs. It reminds them of the real meaning of Easter,” Sarah Petersen said.

Additionally, on Sunday, the Petersens watch “The Easter Story,” an animated movie.

BYU religion professor Steven Harper and his wife, Jennifer, have five children ranging in age from 3-14.

Although the Harpers celebrate with baskets and goodies, “Overwhelmingly, at our house, Easter is a religious thing,” Harper said.

Jennifer Harper painted a depiction of the last week of the Savior’s life. Each week before Easter, she and her family read scriptures corresponding to a part of the painting.

Another way to make Easter fun for children, yet teach them the principle of the Resurrection, is to make cookies with each ingredient representing the Atonement.

Kevin Marr’s family did this when he was younger. Marr, a junior from Dallas studying mechanical engineering, said the cookies were hollow in the middle, which represented the empty tomb and the Resurrection.

Similar cookie recipes can be found online at annieshomepage.com.

As a child, Marr’s favorite part about Easter was the Easter Bunny and opening his basket.

There are ways to tie the Savior in to the fun parts of Easter. It just takes some creativity.

“I think [Easter] should be Christ centered,” Marr said. “I think it’s almost selfish to have a holiday that originated with Christ celebrated without him.”



Copyright Brigham Young University 7 Apr 2009