Christians - how do you celebrate Easter?

[tassis]

Feel the need to start some more Easter traditions. Thinking of dragging LOs up the hill for the sunrise service this year, we always egg roll after church, and have the Easter bunny (like that's in the Bible ) hide choc eggs in the garden. Ds usually gets a new book of the Easter story (but we do have rather a lot so may look for sticker book or similar this year).

What do you all do?

We always have a chocolate treasure hunt. Clues are on post its (Always starts "First find your brother/sister then look in the .....) Little mini eggs, foil wrapped chocs with each clue, leads to a decent EAster Egg at the end (actually 2 eggs as they go around together). Have never left chocs outside as animals would get them!

Then we go to church, then lots of family here for dinner.

Nice family day!

I'm likeyou Tassis, wanting to start traditions for the family. Last year we did the following for the first time, and are repeating the same this year.

Good Friday - all age service at Church, then make an Easter Garden in the afternoon, complete with half flower pot tomb, cross, plants etc. With another family who are 'family' to us. Eat hot cross buns!

Easter Saturday, make easter cookies just before bedtime - they are actually a sort of meringue, and each ingredient has some significance to the easter story, and there are redaings to accompany each bit. You put tem in a low oven overnight (sealed with tape like the tomb was sealed), and in the morning the meringues are cooked, but hollow in the middle just like the empty tomb. Also with another family, then adults soend evening together - we are going to do an Easter eve service this year, friend wants to do it, you have several readings, and with each one you blow out another candle, until are left in darkness. Am looking for ward to it!

eat meringues for breakfast, then, Church on Easter Sunday, and an Easter egg hunt later on!

we go to church alot (Thurs eve for Last Supper service, Good Friday morning for Children's Service and I go in afternoon for traditionaly Good Friday liturgy), Easter prpeparation - cooking, making cards and presents etc on Saturday, I go to Easter Vigil service on Saturday evening, Family Service on Sunday morning and then get together with family and hope the weather's good.

We do have Easter Eggs as well of course but they are just from people - not from Easter Bummy or anything - never got my head around that one

We have an Egg Hunt after church at home (this is after the church itself has been ransacked by the Sunday School on a sugar-seeking frenzy, even the vicar got frisked last year), we'll probably do the Walk of Witness on Good Friday, I sing in the choir so I will be out Maundy Thursday, Easter Eve as well as Sunday am. We'll send Easter storybooks to our godchildren.
Sunday School are also doing a really fantastic mime to music for Palm Sunday next week. I saw a rehearsal and it was very moving with even the littlest ones involved.
Oh, and I expect our magnificent Knitted Last Supper will get an airing too

oohhh

we don't have any

must speak to dh about starting some whilst dcs still v little...

We will go to the early morning hilltop service in a local park. Then we will go back to church for breakfast before joining the main Easter Sunday celebration!

We will have a nice Sunday lunch, then go for a Easter Egg hunt in another local park, adn roll our eggs.

I'm trying to find something more overtly Christian to do with the kids on Easter Sunday afternoon. But not sure what yet.

go to church - if i can be arsed and like god that week. ( catholics know what i mean)

as lifes a ball of shite at the mo - i might not bother.

harrissey!!! go to bed, for starters, what are we doing up at this time? and second... yikes, we never did manage to meet up for that coffee. i have been unbelievably busy with work, it's all gone a bit nuts. hoping to be on a more even keel by the end of next week so i'll email you around then. have bought spiffy new car so might even venture to the south side...
hope you and yours are beautifully well.

custy, you okay? i mean clearly not but do you need to talk to someone about it? i'm off to bed v soon, post back and catch me if you want/need to chat.

sorry darling, i've got to go. i hope things start looking up for you soon. [mwah] [because i know you'll hate getting kissed by a hippy pinko liberal like moi]

aitch! I'll email you. But I will be away from next Fri for a week, so maybe into the 2nd week in April.
Was up at silly o'clock last night as we had a huge family service at church yesterday which included believer's baptism for myself and my dh and dedication for my children, so I was (and still am) pretty high!!!! Even this morning can't wipe the smile off my face!

harrisey - sounds like you had a lovely day yesterday

WW - I'd like details of that sticker book please...I may even try to get it on the Easter bookstall at church

C'mon ladies - more traditions please!

See there's a new veggietales Easter DVD, might get ds that...

Thought of another - ds and I make choc nests with shredded wheat...and I throw out the rest of the shredded wheat in about December

Remind me to email you with the title of a book by Michelle Guiness which has fantastic chapters on Passover linking with Last Supper, crucifixion etc. Also has service outline of how to do - sounds fantastic and a real culimination of how the Messiah was the fulfilling of the prophets etc. Could you persuade your dh to do?

Hello HA - how do you celebrate Easter?

Email me re book, I do like MG.

sounds wonderful, harrissey, enjoy your high. see you soon. x

Hi

Most of our Easter trads revolve around food ... (and hunting for non-chocolate Easter eggs for ds2).

We do lamb for lunch on Easter Sunday and, for some random reason, lime cheesecake. And chocolate nests with shredded wheat and Cadbury's mini eggs.

Quite often do the Crathes Easter egg hunt but it's not getting a bit dull and we need to find some other constructive Sunday afternoon activity.

Will be going to as many of the Holy Week services as poss (which knowing our schedules around 7pm will be one!_).

Message withdrawn

Yeah, I was going to suggest the passover linking thing. We tend to have a lamb dinner, and I'm a Charoset junkie anyway.

Making an Easter garden is a nice thing too, I always like tangible things that kids can get involved with - things like making a tissue paper garden with a mound in it for the tomb, and then rolling the cover away from the tomb on Easter Morning.

When I could walk, we liked to go on an early morning easter walk, too, just like the women did. It's really nice to do if you get out just before sunset, but I know that'd be beyond me at the moment bleary eyed new babyness

tassis- hmmm we made massive paper mache easter egg (balloon size!) and painted/decorated them...have also made easter garden with moss/stones/twigs/bits from garden then pipecleaner people and told story that way.

...mostly though last year dh and i munched through dc's chocolate eggs as felt they got too many!

...oh and dh is in to shredded wheat at the moment (yuck!) so feel free to borrow!

thanks WW that looks great

the garden idea is perfect, think we'll do that

i tend to do lamb at Easter too

oh and there's a huge praise celebration near Edinburgh airport that dh and a group from church are going to... sounds fab, but not sure I'll be able to sort a babysitter this year

I'd like t develop some family traditions around Easter too - altho tbh I'm a bit wary as dd is only 4 and already has a morbid fascination with death and asks very detailed questions and sometimes gets a bit freaked out by it so I don't want to upset her... Does anyone else have that with their dcs? (Or are we just weirdos?!?)

Where I live we have a "walk of witness" through the town centre on Good Friday morning which literally hundereds of people gp to, a silent walk led by someone carrying a huge cross. Then at the end of the walk there is a short service in the town centre high street with well-known hymns, and we give out hot cross buns to bemused (but usually grateful!) shoppers. I love this tradition so we'll definitely be doing that.

And on Easter Sunday our church is having a full gospel choir! How cooooooooool is that???!!! (We're not normally that way inclined but Easter sunday is a particularly joyous day!) I am really looking forwar to it. There is also a sunrise service at 6 a.m. on Easter Sunday but (ahem!) I have yet to make it to one of those!