If you’ve been reading my blog for very long, you know I’m not huge on crafts or high-energy decorations. It’s not that I don’t like them, It’s just that I’ve hardly had time or money to delve into such things. I’m into the more practical side of homemaking and mothering: training, educating, cooking, eating and cleaning and doing cheap, easy stuff together like singing, watching movies, and reading aloud. So don’t worry, none of these Easter ideas will involve running to the store or taking a lot of time.

1. Read the Easter story from the Bible. You can find the scriptures of the day-by-day events of Easter week here. Use the corresponding pictures from the Gospel Art Kit and display on a bookcase, wall, or mantel. I love how Wendee Wilcox Rosborough, Brad Wilcox’s daughter, has authored a new book about how to celebrate this Holy Week. She has given names for each of these days: Palm Sunday (the triumphal entry); Cleansing Monday (sanctifying the temple); Parable Tuesday (teaching the disciples); Betrayal Wednesday (offering and receiving forgiveness); Last Supper Thursday (the first sacrament); Good Friday (Jesus’ sacrifice); Salvation Saturday (Jesus Christ in the spirit world); Easter Sunday (life after death); and Conference Sunday (when Easter coincides with general conference).

2. Watch Finding Faith in Christ. We usually watch this and Easter Dream (video below, mentioned later in this post) after we have our Easter egg hunt. The sweetness of the candy is a good reminder of the sweetness of the love and life that comes from Jesus.

3. Sing some Easter songs with your family. Check out this adorable little girl singing Roger and Melanie Hoffman’s “Gethsemane” song below.

• Music: “Did Jesus Really Live Again?” (Children’s Songbook, 64)
• Music: “Easter Hosanna” (Children’s Songbook, 68)
• Music: “He Died That We Might Live Again” (Children’s Songbook, 65)
• Music: “Jesus Has Risen” (Children’s Songbook, 70)
• Poem: “The Garden” (April 2009 Friend)
• Sheet Music: “He Came for Us” (April 2011 Friend)
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• Sheet Music: “Hosanna (Simplified)” (April 2012Friend)
• Buy the sheet music for Gethesemane  by Roger and Melanie Hoffman

4. Watch Easter Dream, a touching story about faith in the resurrection, featured above.

5. Listen/watch videos from BYU’s Easter Conference. I’ve been watching/listening to these while doing kitchen work. I love these! The one shown below relates a personal experience by Brent L. Top about Christ’s mercy.  

6. Read aloud some stories about Easter and resurrection from the LDS Church magazines.

7. Read aloud some picture books about Easter.

8. Watch the MoTab’s rendition of the Messiah this Easter weekend. It will be streamed live from lds.org on Friday March 25, 7:30 PM MDT. 

9. Watch the virtual choir that the LDS Church assembled recently. My brother-in-law appears on the screen just as they’re singing the words, “And He shall reign forever…”at the 2:41 minute mark, in the lower right hand corner.

10. Memorize the Living Christ document. I’ve been working on this with the kids for the past two weeks as part of our homeschool devotional, but we won’t be done in time for Easter. That’s OK, we will just keep going, adding a sentence or two a day, and then rememorize it at Christmastime. Study aids, with the document broken down into 12 weeks, with pictures to go with each phrase, are found here.

11. Take some Easter treats to a lonely neighbor and visit with them.

12. Do an Easter egg hunt with some of the plastic eggs filled with symbols from the Easter story. Then tell the story while everybody munches on the treats. Here’s a list of the items you will need and the corresponding scriptures.

BONUS: Get the Easter Countdown from Montesserat from cranialhiccups.com and prepare for next year! This is her explanation of it here. I’m sorry I didn’t share this sooner. You could look it over and cram some of it in between now and Easter, like watching Bible videos, printing out the tags with the Names of Christ (featured towards the end of the document) to decorate an Easter tree, or creating the Names of Christ study booklet.