Month: April 2017

Looking for some Easter traditions you could start for your family, or activities to do with your children?  Here you are, just in time!

(These are mainly aimed at small children, and people who like simple, easy-to-execute, inexpensive fun.  Because that’s what I know!)

If you’re curious about why “Take your kids to meet the Easter bunny” isn’t on this list, you’ve got some more reading to do!

Photo Ideas (If your kids are game!)

1. Bunny ears headband.
2. Newborn sleeping in a large Easter basket
3. Children surrounded by plastic Easter eggs
4. Oversized Easter stuffed animals or other oversized seasonal props
5. Kids hunting for eggs outside
6. Kids holding or sniffing flowers

Cooking & Baking

1. Rice Krispie bars, cut into seasonal shapes.  Maybe even break out the seasonal sprinkles.
2. Meringues.  These are actually traditional – the empty air pocket inside is reminiscent of Christ’s empty tomb. (My husband makes them from his grandmother’s recipe every year.  Since they sit in the oven overnight, he makes them Saturday evening and they’re “empty” Easter Sunday morning!)
3. Toss some pretzel sticks in some melted chocolate and make little nests (to put candy eggs or jellybeans in.)

Outings

1. Egg hunt!  Most communities have one, many put on by parks departments or local churches.  If you don’t have one, gather the neighbor kids or cousins and have your own!  (Simply, of course… toss some candy in some plastic eggs.  Send a teen to scatter them around the yard.  BYOB (Bring Your Own Basket).  Done!)
2. Flower hunt.  Check out a local botanical garden, park with flower beds, or your own yard for the first blooms of the season.  (This is great for pictures, too!)
3. Easter Vigil random acts of kindness.  (The Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is sometimes called Easter Vigil.)  Leaving a cut flower under the windshield wipers of some cars, leaving some treats on a neighbor’s doorstep, tagging a friend’s sidewalk with an Easter greeting.  It’s warm in the evenings, and what a lovely surprise to add to the beauty of Easter morning.
4. Animal petting.  Some communities run a petting zoo, or an exhibition of prize-winning rabbits and ducks, or a baby animals meet ‘n’ greet.  Or, again, find a friend who farms or raises small animals and take your kids to pet them.  (More cute photo ops here!)

Old fashioned traditions

Don’t forget about the traditions of the past generations – perhaps a new dressy outfit for Easter.   Reading Peter Rabbit or another spring/rabbit book together.   (I’m a big proponent of reading to/with children!)  A specific special treat in the hidden Easter basket.  (My grandparents always gave us fancy decorated fudgy eggs from the local bakery!  Yum!)  Religious services during the week.  Gathering with family for a special brunch on Easter morning.

These things have a longer impact (even the clothes – you can wear those for birthdays and church and weddings all summer!) and some deeper meaning than a stuffed rabbit.  They are about relationships, family culture, neighborhood friendships,  a sense of wonder and anticipation to the most important holiday of the year.  And are possibly much more enjoyable and low stress than waiting in a line with a child who might just scream for a photo with a stranger.

Whatever you do in your home – have a blessed Holy Week preparation.  Love on your kiddos.  Impress upon them the eternal importance of what we’re celebrating.  How that looks in practice is up to you.

If you have simple Easter traditions of your own, feel free to leave them in the comments!  I’m sure there are great ideas I didn’t think of.

I’m becoming convinced many parents should stop.

 (For those of you outside the US, it is a common tradition to take small children to a mall or other public place to have their picture taken with someone dressed up as the Easter bunny.)

If the child you are taking ASKS to meet the Easter bunny – if they feel about the Easter bunny like they’d feel about meeting a favorite cartoon character – then wonderful!  I’m glad that’s easily accessible for your child, and I love seeing photos of happy kids on social media.

This is about the rest of our kids.

Every year it begins around this time.

What

The photos of hysterical babies and toddlers “meeting the Easter bunny.”  And people laugh and talk about how cute the crying child is, and how silly it is to be afraid of the Easter bunny.  And then they take the child the next year, and the child still cries.

I actually saw this unfold on my own Facebook newsfeed just the other day.  An acquaintance of mind posted a photo of her little guy, dressed in his fancy Easter clothes, with a big grin on his face, and a caption like, “I promise I won’t cry this year, mom!”  And a few hours later, a photo where, lo and behold, he was freaking out trying to get away from the Easter bunny.

Why Not

This is, I feel, the height of selfishness, of parents trying to live through their children, of not listening to our children’s hearts.

We are not taking a child to meet a relative or anyone actually life-changing.  It’s just a indeterminate person dressed… disguised in a giant bunny costume with huge unblinking eyes, urging children nonverbally to come sit on his lap amid a bunch of colorful decorations and cameras.

Could that sound a little disturbing to you?

Imagine.  For a child who doesn’t actively love the Easter bunny of his/her own volition,  those are real tears. They’re terrified.  Or at the very least they are not enjoying the activity.

And this activity doesn’t really serve an important purpose. What is motivating us to take a small child to meet the Ester bunny?

For a picture.

Because it’s “a cute thing to do.”

Because it’s a societal norm.

Because “I went as a child,” or “I never got to go as a child.”

It’s not eliciting a sense of childlike wonder for the kids who are scared and crying.

it’s not a fun holiday tradition if your child tries to get away from it every year.

It’s for you, really.  And doing something for your own reasons, when it scares your child… I hope that sounds like a poor idea.

What If

If you want to take them and try it, by all means!  But I really don’t ever feel comfortable seeing a photo of a child crying in the arms of the Easter bunny, because if they were uncomfortable I would hope their parent would have held them, protected them, carried them away, done something else.  Not deposited them in the arms of a stranger and backed away to get out of the photo op.  Then to post the photo for their friends and family to see.  To me, that says, “Look at how uncomfortable/frightened my young child is!  Isn’t it cute? And I’m not even there by them to ease their fears.  I just wanted the photo to look cute!”

I don’t think we would do that in other situations.

I don’t believe the people who dress up as the Easter bunny are inherently scary.  I don’t claim to know everything about your family dynamics. I went to see Santa when I was a child.  My parents were good parents.  You are good parents!  Part of parenting is giving our kids opportunities to experience fun things, to create traditions, to document special days.

 

But I’m not taking my boys to meet the Easter bunny.  Because  I know they would be scared, and I don’t scare my children on purpose.

And I certainly would hope  someone wouldn’t do it two years in a row.

It’s not worth the picture.  It’s not about us.  Nothing is about us anymore.

What Now?

Looking for some alternate ideas for Easter traditions?  Check this post!