Christ Centered Easter Traditions

Easter is a lot like Christmas: a really big deal both for Christians and non-Christians, full of celebration and sugar, and a time when it’s easy to lose sight of Jesus amidst all the bunnies, chocolate egg hunts, and spring chick decorations.  Adding some Christ centered Easter traditions to your family’s Easter celebrations is a great way to keep your kids, grandkids – and yourself – grounded in the knowledge and love of Christ amidst sugar and celebration overload.

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Christ-Centered Easter Family Traditions and Activities

These Easter activities make great traditions to pass on to your kids.  Pick your favourite Easter activity (or a few of them) and make it a regular family Easter tradition.

• Hunt for resurrection eggs – You can make your own DIY resurrection eggs, or you can buy a pack of resurrection eggs. If you want printable resurrection eggs, that you can either hide in plastic Easter eggs or laminate and use as is, be sure to pick up a set of printable resurrection eggs here. This includes the eggs and a story/sequencing card for the kids to keep track of the Easter story.
• Have an Easter story scavenger hunt – Get the family moving (and reading their Bibles) while hunting for clues from the Easter story around the house.
• “Egg” a friend or neighbour’s house.  Leave a fun Easter surprise (plastic eggs filled with treats and Easter egg decorations) on a friend or neighbour’s front lawn.  This is a super fun Easter tradition that the kids will get excited for year after year.  A great way to spread some love and joy on Easter.
• Have a special sunrise Easter breakfast.  Get the whole family up at dawn (It’ll be worth it – trust me!) and have a special Easter breakfast while watching the sun rise.  This is the perfect setting for telling the Easter story.  John’s account begins with “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance” (John 20:1). What a great opportunity to imagine yourselves back at that first Easter day!
• Maundy Thursday foot washing – Get some paint, a bowl of water and a towel, and a giant piece of paper, and have a kid-friend foot washing ‘worship’ time.  (The Maundy Thursday service at our church is beautiful, deep, and moving.  We like to shake that up a bit by also doing the kid version, which is messy, chaotic fun.  I think that heaven is probably a little bit of both.)
• Good Friday nature walk – Use this free printable nature walk notebook page to take the family on a Good Friday adventure.  It has 6 different Bible verses about Good Friday and a corresponding activity to do on your nature walk.
• Go on an Easter scavenger hunt in nature – Go on a family Easter walk and find symbols in nature that represent the Easter story.
• Make an Easter tree – Teach your kids about the resurrection with this cute Easter tree.  (Just like a Jesse tree at Christmas, only for Easter.)
• Print this Biblical Easter activity page – These make great placemats to keep the kids busy at home or at church, or they can be used to supplement an Easter lesson in Sunday School or the classroom.   Includes puzzles, coloring, and printing practice (for small kids) or a reflection question (for older kids).
• Tell the story of Jesus’ resurrection with Lego – This Lego Empty Tomb activity includes suggestions for telling the Easter story, reflection questions to ask your kids, and a closing prayer. This is perfect for Lego fans!

Christ-Centered Easter Crafts

If your kids love to make things, try out one (or more) of these fun Christ-centered Easter crafts to get your kids tangibly involved in telling the Easter story.

• Make palm crosses – If you get palm fronds at church on Palm Sunday, you can follow this simple tutorial to turn your palm frond into a beautiful palm cross.
• Paint some Easter rocks – This is a cute, Easter version of the painted rock trend.  Use them as decorations or as part of your Easter egg hunt Sunday morning.
• Make an empty tomb centerpiece – This is a great craft to display outside, by the door, or as a centerpiece at the table.
• Paint wooden crosses – A great Easter craft to get the kids to exercise their creative muscles.  And you can wear the crosses afterwards.
• Make pull-apart Bible verse Easter eggs – Another great Easter craft to keep the kids’ focused on Jesus, while still painting eggs.
• Build a Lego resurrection garden – Tell the story of the empty tomb in Lego.  A great activity for high energy kids.
• Make a stained glass cross – The kid version of stained glass: tissue paper and glue.  This will look gorgeous hanging in the window for Easter.
• Colour your own Easter Bible bookmarks – A great activity for kids of all ages, and a great keepsake if you laminate them.
• Printable resurrection set – Colour your own characters and make a resurrection set out of toilet paper rolls (or cardstock) and paper.
• Make a set of Easter story stones – These painted rocks will help your kids engage with the Easter story in a play-based way.  Use them on Easter morning as an egg (rock) hunt or use them as a creative visual aid to tell the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Christ-Centered Easter Treats

These yummy Easter treats are a great way to tell the story of Christ’s death and resurrection, and get the kids tangibly engaged in the story.

• Empty tomb cookies – Turn graham crackers, icing, mini donuts, and mini Oreos into an empty tomb scene.  I think I loved this crafty Easter treat even more than my kids did!
• Easter story snack mix – Tell the Easter story with this snack mix.  Comes with a cute printable explaining the meaning of each snack in the mix.
• Sheep Easter cookies – These Easter cookies are adorable, and the recipe comes with Bible verse gifts tags to print.
• Resurrection rolls – This is a fun treat for Easter morning, made with pastry, a marshmallow, some cinnamon and butter.  Bake the rolls and the marshmallow disappears.  Edible empty tomb.  Yum!
• Rice Crispy empty tomb scene – Make the whole empty tomb scene out of Rice Crispy squares (plus some sprinkles, cookies, licorice, and other candy decorations).
• Dipped pretzel crosses – These are super quick and easy Easter treats to make on Easter morning (or before).
• The jelly bean prayer – Print some cute jelly bean prayer cards and attach them to a jar or a little baggy of jelly beans.
• Easter story cookies – Making these cookies together as a family is a great way to remember the reason why we celebrate Easter.  Read the Bible verses that go along with each step in the recipe and tell the story of Easter.

=> Want to add some great Christ-centered Easter books to your family’s collection?  Check out our list of Christian Easter Books for Kids of All Ages.  Cute board books for toddlers and preschoolers, engaging stories for older kids, and even faith-building books for preteens.