Easter Baskets and Blessing Baskets

So many people have been asking me what we are planning to do about "The Bunny" this year. I love how they put it... "The Bunny". It kinda makes me laugh. Up until this year I haven't really addressed it at all. It's easier than Santa in a lot of ways. While Easter is commercialized.... "The Bunny" isn't as prevalent as Santa is. Also, Hannah has been so young until now that it was hard to really explain the death and Resurrection to her anyway. (Quite honestly it still is...)

Anyway, we have decided not to do "The Bunny". It is difficult enough to make it clear what Easter is about with eggs, dresses, and baskets. Don't get me wrong... I am not opposed to the eggs and chocolates. I even embrace bunnies... just not "The Bunny." I want it to be clear to my kids what Easter is all about. "The Lamb" not "The Bunny".

So what are we planning to do instead you might ask? Well I'm so glad you did! We are going to start the tradition of sinning stones and blessing baskets. The days leading up to Easter we are going through the story of the passion using Resurrection eggs like these:

If you've never seen these before they are AWESOME! These eggs have a symbol for each day that coincides with the passion. (Hannah is loving them.) We are using them similar to an advent calendar to count down the days until Good Friday. They have a bible verse to go with each egg so that you can focus on what the true story of Easter is about.

Then on Good Friday we are going to collect rocks and paint them black. (You can cut out black circles as paper if you want but Hannah is really into collecting rocks these days ..... and paint is always fun!) We will then draw unhappy faces on them and put them in our baskets. We will explain that these are our sins. That Jesus died for us because of our sins. As the children get older we will work on naming our sins and using it as a form of confession before God.

Then on Easter Sunday the baskets will be empty (just like the tomb!) and instead will be filled with all the blessings (candy and treats) brought about by the blood of Christ.

I am really excited about starting this traditions with our family! Won't you join in our fun!