Easter has always been a fun low key holiday at our house but I’ve always felt like something was missing.
The kids have loved our traditions, which you can hardly call traditions because we are pretty inconsistent.
Some years our girls get new Easter dresses, some years they don’t, we attend a community Easter egg hunt some years, some years not.
Some years we hide the Easter baskets, some years they wake up to them.
A big Sunday evening meal happens some years, some years we just eat candy and try to add some form of protein.
Egg decorating almost never happens. I’m not much for doing messy boiled eggs dipped in stinky vinegar hand staining colors.
To be honest, by the time Easter rolls around I need a break!
I’m still recovering from Christmas and our 8 birthdays between January and March.
Keeping Easter Low-Key (and Loving It)
So Easter is what it is from year to year and we like it that way.
One year it was raining cats and dogs all weekend.
The kids were so disappointed but I suddenly had this idea to have them wake up on Saturday to a maze of tangled yarn all over the kitchen and living areas.
Each of them were assigned a color of yarn which led to where their basket was hiding.
They had to go under, around and over furniture and uncross their yarn paths and it was a blast.
The Year Everything Changed
Now that you get my vibe, I can hardly belief it myself, but I have finally established an actual Easter tradition.
Let me set this up.
We are church goers and I forgot to add that we actually have always celebrated the Easter Bunny on Saturday, the day before the official holiday.
This isn’t a faith practice or something we think other Christians should do, but for us it cuts down on stress Sunday morning (it’s hard enough getting everyone ready for church without having to get up at the crack of dawn to set out Easter baskets followed by the inevitable last minute struggle to clean chocolate off a little white shirt and emptying candy out of pockets while they protest going to church).
And putting the Bunny off until after church just makes church a drudgery to get through.
Wanting Something More
So here’s the tradition we’ve added that finally makes me feel like nothing is missing.
Five years ago we were invited by our church’s president, Russell M. Nelson, to think of ways to make Easter a more special Christ centered holiday.
I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
I studied the bible about Holy Week and felt this deep desire to use Easter to honor the gifts Jesus gave me in a meaningful way.
I had three requirements though.
One, it had to be completely stress free for me (Have I learned anything from Christmas?)
Two, it had to be able to travel well (we often vacation over Easter weekend so it had to be something we could do anywhere.
And three, it absolutely had to be something memorable that the kids would enjoy doing.
Our Easter Vigil Tradition
I began to pray that ideas would come into my mind and one did!
We call it our Easter Vigil.
Each night starting with Palm Sunday we gather the kids before bed and turn off every light in the house.
Then we sit around the kitchen table, light one candle, and discuss the sacred events that happened on that particular day of Holy Week.
On the last day, Easter Sunday, we read the Easter story from the bible (I select & highlight verses so it’s not too long).
On this night we each have our own candle.
When we get to the part where Jesus dies, we all blow out our candles.
Then when He is resurrected, we light them all up again.
As you can imagine, this opens discussions about the hope of the resurrection, that HE LIVES, the He is the light, and how His light shines all the more beautiful the darker the world gets.
Imperfect, But Meaningful
This tradition, while new, has filled the Easter void for our family.
We’ve always gone to church on Easter Sunday, where the true meaning of Easter is the focus, but this little tradition literally brings it home.
It brings Him into our home more.
Have we been perfect at it?
Get to know us.
In fact this year, we missed some of the nights due to family and church activities, but I’m not beating myself up over it.
We did our best.
A Moment I’ll Never Forget
A few years ago we actually packed up the candles and did a few nights of our Easter Vigil at an Airbnb.
The kids loved that.
This year a few days before Easter it was getting dark and as we were driving a friend home, my 11 yr old daughter excitedly asked her if she needed to get home so she wouldn’t miss the Easter Vigil.
The friend stared blankly and my daughter said, “You know… the candle thing?”
It warmed my heart that she thought this was something every family does.
Now if I could only simplify Christmas. Sigh…..