Do you celebrate Easter for the kids?? - ((slight reference to religion))

C&K*s Mommie wrote: It is quite early to be wondering about this I know. Do you celebrate in the way of buying gift baskets, hunting eggs, eating all the good candy, decorating your windows with clings, and yards, etc...?

The reason that I ask is that the girls and I went out for errands this AM, and we went for our Saturday morning dollar store 'surprises'. As soon as we went in they made a beeline for the Easter goodies. With (2) surprises a piece, they wanted the easter eggs ("toaster eggs" as Christian called them ) to be one of them, and they were not coming off of them! This got me to thinking that I need to buy baskets, and gifts for our freinds, family & neighbors. AGGHH! I thought!!

Then I remembered that I made a pact to myself last year that I would not get into that anymore, even for the kids. We would not celebrate Easter (as much fun as it really is for them) by strictly buying more gifts, candy, and hunting eggs without including the story of the Passover, and the Biblical side of it. I did not want to exclude the true reason for Easter by celebrating only the commercial side of it.

Anyone else feel like this??

ediep replied: we are Catholic so Easter is a big one for us! we celebrate by going to church and spending the day with our families and we have an egg hunt, basket...the whole 9 yards.

so to answer your question...I, personally, feel that if we are going to celebrate Easter at all it has to include the celebration of the resurrection

kimberley replied: i do! it really bothers me that yet another religious holiday is overly commercialized. most kids have no clue the real reason we celebrate easter . thankfully my kids do and attend mass and learn at school also all through lent. they also know if they don't give something up for lent, the easter bunny won't come. i really didn't want to subscribe to the bunny side of it but it was unavoidable. so we do an egg hunt after mass but i dont do baskets nor do i buy for neighbors or relatives except maybe a card to my grandmother.

punkeemunkee'smom replied: WE DO!!! I LOVE Easter! Baskets,Bunny and ALL!

I think as a Christian Easter is the day that really is the most important part of my faith.That resurection of Jesus! That being said I am not one that gets upset by the commerialism of it. Easter to me is a celebration of NEW LIFE and the HOPE that spring and all that it encompasses brings! It feels like a fresh start every year...

luvmykids replied:
Ditto. The only part of commercialism that bothers me is that people think that's ALL there is to Easter, just another reason to buy candy and stuff. But we don't make the Easter Bunny the main event and as the kids get older we'll phase him out.

CAMSMOM1 replied: Nicole
I understand where you are coming from. I too, see it as a problem in our society, and as Christians, that we are losing sight of the importance of Easter, and the meaning behind it. Just like Christmas, everyone puts the importance on the tree, the presents, and Santa Clause. At our school, we can't even call it "Christmas Break" because it offends otheres. We have to call it, "Winter Break." I have a big problem with that. The reason we have Easter and Christmas is because of Christ. It isn't because of Santa or the Easter bunny. It's not because of Winter or Spring....it's because of Jesus's Birth & Ressurection. That is the "Reason for the Season".
As a Christian, I do feel that Christmas and Easter should and will be celebrated in our home. We can still have a Christmas tree in our home with presents for Christmas, but we will put Christ at the center of it. We can still have an easter egg hunt, but we will be attending church, and studying the passover and the crucifixtion. As long as we instill into our children's lives, the importance of these holidays, and we come together as a family to worship the Lord, then they will be putting the Lord first in their hearts. And an easter egg...will be just an egg to them. KWIM?
Why not buy them easter presents and put them in a basket? We should celebrate. It asks us to take joy in the Lord and give thanks. As long as our Children know who we are celebrating and the reason behind it.
"Raise up your children in the way they should go, and when they are older, they will not depart from it."
Ann

CAMSMOM1 replied: I had another suggesstion. Why don't you put Bible Scriptures on the easter eggs? You can make the a Christian egg, KWIM? And put some candy in their baskets and fun stuff, but put a children's book about Easter in there, a Veggie Tales movie, ect. There are ways you can still participate in the easter gifts and eggs, just make them more centered around Christ.

fashionmumofboys replied: We are also Catholic and celebrate Easter by going to church, then spending the day with family. Handing out Easter eggs, etc.

It's a special day for us.

mom21kid2dogs replied: Much like we do at Christmas, our primary focus at Easter is the religious connotation of the holiday. From a Catholic perpective, this is actually a more event filled celebration than Christmas. We do 6 weeks of Lenten sacrafice prior to Easter, Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It's pretty hard in our religion NOT to get the "real" reason for the holiday. We do a small basket and egg hunt but none of it occurs before celebration the ressurection of Christ.

Freckled Momma replied: We go to church on Easter and also do the basket and egg hunt thing. Plus we always get together with family. Everything is way over commercialized nowadays...it's up to us to teach our kids what Easter is truly about and why it's such a celebration. So, yes, I feel the same as you

Good for you, Nicole for wanting to teach that to your children

A&A'smommy replied: We haven't done the whole easter bit yet BUT last year we started to we got her a small gift and she got to decorate eggs and look for them with her cousins. This year we will start to explain it to her and we will do gift and the whole easter thing. I think think we are going to have company from missouri this year so I'm really excited about that!

Maddie&EthansMom replied: Yes, Nicole I know how you feel.

Hillbilly Housewife replied: Yep... I feel the same way. We've actually asked our parents not to do the whole Hallmark thing... for ANY Holiday. My mom was and is still ticked that I told her that we weren't going to do the easter bunny and santa clause thing...that they were secondary - even the outlaws were offended... and they're really religious.

We do give up something though. I grew up with no eating meat on fridays....so we do that here too, usually - unless we have company....I HAVE to serve meat when we have company.

My3LilMonkeys replied:
I am not trying to start a debate here but just to comment on this - If the reason we have Christmas is because of Christ than the schools really shouldn't take a "Christmas" break because they need to be seperated from religion (with the exception of course of religious schools).

I understand your point about not liking it being called winter break, but IMO it is the most objective way of dealing with a situation that is always going to make some people unhappy.

And to stick with the topic - since we are not really religious, we don't do much for easter at all. We have family dinners and the girls do get small baskets. As they get older we will probably explain to them the reason for Easter so that if they choose to become religious themselves they will have a background for it.

TeagansMom609 replied: We celebrate Easter but I couldnt even tell you what Easter is. We were never taught anything about it. To us its just a holiday where you dye eggs, dress up in pastels, have easter egg hunts, see the easter bunny and eat ham.

CantWait replied: We celebrate Easter, but really don't make a big deal of it. The kids will usually get summer clothes, pjs, or if they need a big item like a bike we'll give that to them and a small basket of chocolate, but we certainly don't go all out.

C&K*s Mommie replied: Thank you all for your responses & your honesty. I have learned of a new approach to breaking out of the habit of the way we did things growing up. That is I found more ways to incorporate the truth into Easter, while still being able to do the easter egg hunts for the kids. Seeing that we just got off the Christmas roller coaster, I will leave the gift buying out. Too much stress.

Thanks everyone!

Thank you Pam, for your honesty, as well. Also, I never looked at the Christmas break, in that light of keeping church and state separated. I tend to "go with the flow" most of the times, not making waves because I do not really think too much on things. Christmas break was one of them. In other areas I disagree with taking Christmas out, but to each his own opinion. Just my personality, I suppose.