10 Family Activities Enriching the Easter Season

I’m delighted to have award-winning writer, Sally Cressman as my guest today. She’s sharing 10 activities for us to do with our families in the six weeks before Easter–the Lenten season. If you want to learn more about what Lent is, you can check out this article at Focus on the Family.

Sally Cressman has written for Focus on the Family, Clubhouse magazine, LifeWay, the Moms in Prayer blog, and the Nashville Christian Family magazine. She raised three children and served in children’s ministry for over thirty years. Welcome, Sally!

10 Family Activities Enriching Easter during the Lenten Season

by Sally Cressman

You may not think of Easter as a season like Christmas and Advent, but what if we unearthed Easter through this Lenten season instead of thinking of it as a one-day celebration? I know, I know. As moms, we don’t need one more thing to do. But could we laser-focus one day a week for six weeks on Jesus’s death and resurrection? This holy event deserves a little more understanding and dedication than one day.

Your kids’ age will depend on what you share about Jesus’s death. For young ones, say, “He died for our sins, or He died for all the bad things we’ve done.” If you have elementary kids, you can tell them Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins so we could have a relationship with our holy God. You can add more nuance and detail to the Holy Week events each year or as questions arise. Even at my age, my understanding of Jesus’s death and resurrection continues to deepen.

Below are ten activities to foster rich conversations and enrich Easter this season.

• Plan family time for each Sunday in the Lenten season. Ash Wednesday starts on Valentine’s Day (February 14), so you’ll need to convey attention and intention. Decide as a family when you will gather so everyone can keep the calendar clear. Consider observing “no-screen” Sundays during these six weeks. (I hear the groans already.) Discuss some activities or projects you could do together that enrich the events of Easter. Prepare some fun and thought-provoking conversation starter questions ready for dinner time.

• Play outside. The outdoors provides ample opportunities to talk about God. My church calls these discussions Gospel conversations. Observe the world God created and point out things that cause you to wonder and marvel at God, “Look what God made. He created that pileated woodpecker.”

• Go on a scavenger hunt and take pictures of all the things that are alive. Remind your kids that Jesus is alive.

• Serve as a family. We usually think about Christmas as a time of baking and giving, but Easter is also a perfect time to serve your neighborhood as Jesus served. Make homemade Easter cards and include a “gift card” for free mowing, raking, or cleaning. Enlist the kids to hand them out to a neighbor.

• Host a neighborhood Easter egg hunt. A friend fills the eggs with Bible verses and candy, then reads a book on the Easter story. This is a lot more work, but it’s a non-threatening way to witness to Jesus’s life and share the truth of Easter with others.

• Act out the events from Holy Week. Make palm branches from green construction paper and parade around the house shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Wash each other’s feet and pray for that family member. Do your kids like performing? Host a newscast with “eyewitnesses” to Jesus’s death and resurrection. Ask questions to make sure kids understand the purpose and meaning behind each activity you choose.

• Make resurrection rolls and talk about the significance of the empty tomb.

• Have everyone write down one sin they want to stop doing. Throw all the papers in a fire, then pray for deliverance from these sins.

• Worship together. As spring approaches, calendars fill with sports, concerts, and other activities. Guard your Sunday mornings for family worship. Introduce preschoolers to a worship service if they’ve not been to one before, but be prepared with coloring sheets and other quiet activities. If you find yourself out of town, visit a church there. If that’s not possible, host your own service or devotional time. When our kids see us worshipping, we show them that worship and our relationship with Jesus Christ are vital to us.

• Rejoice together. Easter is a time of rejoicing. Create a Spotify list of Christian music and dance. Or sing Handel’s Messiah while one of you directs the “choir.” Sing the doxology before each Sunday meal. Remind your kids that Jesus is alive and we serve a living God. Now, that’s something to rejoice over.

An award-winning writer, Sally Cressman’s debut picture book, The Dance of Easter, releases March 5. She writes about faith, family, and home on her blog, www.sallycressman.com, and is giving away FREE Easter family devotions. Sally and her husband of thirty-four years enjoy a relaxing rhythm in their home south of Nashville. She’d love to connect with you at @sacressman.

Thank you, Sally, for all those activity ideas to help our families celebrate the hope and joy we have through the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I look forward to reviewing your picture book, The Dance of Easter, in March!

Friends, if you’d like a recipe for the “Resurrection Rolls” and the scriptures that accompany it, you will find one on my Easter & Spring Pinterest Board. Do you have other activity ideas to add to Sally Cressman’s list?