I love this quote from Elder Gary Stevensons’ General Conference talk of April 2023 where he quotes N.T. Wright:

“We should be taking steps to celebrate Easter in creative new ways: in art, literature, children’s games, poetry, music, dance, festivals, bells, special concerts. … This is our greatest festival. Take Christmas away, and in biblical terms you lose two chapters at the front of Matthew and Luke, nothing else. Take Easter away, and you don’t have a New Testament; you don’t have a Christianity.”  (Elder Gary E. Stevenson, Liahona, May 2023)

Can you imagine the shift in our society when we have several generations of families and neighbors having joy together and getting renewed each year by an intensive celebration of Easter as our “greatest festival,” even greater than Christmas? Not just a superficial Easter bunny egg hunt, but a deep dive into the meaning of each day of the Holy Week leading up to Easter? I love this challenge/invitation! I invite you to join me in it!

Here are the books I recommend to feel all the wonderful Easter vibes so you can get ready for this special day and prep to make it a holy festival. Most of these books I read last year and absolutely love.

1. First, the Gospel Art Book, from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so you can get the prints shown in my timeline at the top of this page. When I was a young mom, these prints were sold in a file box, and so that’s what I have, with the prints loose and not bound in a book. I used them as shown above at to the top to hang on a garland with clothespins. Every morning during Holy Week for our family scripture reading we read the scriptures related to the event of the day during Christ’s last week and hang up the picture. But now they are only available in a book, at the Church’s online store. I suppose you could carefully cut the prints from the binding and still use them in a timeline like I show above. I also have a simple free printable timeline of the Holy Week created by a friend over here.

2. Second, a book to do a deep dive into making the rituals of Easter meaningful for your family, with music and scripture readings.

Here’s a summary of the book in the video below.

3. If you have a younger family, this book below is easier to digest and execute because it is much simpler, specifically designed for little children. My review of it is here.

I love the idea from the above book of doing Parables Sculpturades. We did it last year and I want to make it a tradition every year. We laughed so hard and connected, it was a total win! Not all family members were there, I can’t wait to do it with my daughter, son-in-law, and grandsons in the mix this year.

Providentially, I had just found a book about Christ’s parables at a thrift store right before I discovered this idea. So, we referred to that book during the activity. That’s a little pig in the lower right-hand corner, from one of the parables.

4. This book below strikes a balance between the two above: it has more information than the simpler one, but not as much nitty-gritty, perhaps overwhelming detail as the top one. My husband’s cousin Janet Hales wrote it with her husband, Joe Hales. It has activities to do every day during Holy Week like the two above. I also love, love, that it has a scripture treasure hunt to do on the day after Easter Sunday, to tell the rest of the story about what Jesus did while he was in heaven, after He died, before he was resurrected and came back to earth.

5. This book below is one man’s personal reflections on how Easter is so meaningful to him, connected to the death of his wife.

6. Here is a wonderful dive into the grace of Jesus Christ which comes from His atoning sacrifice in the Garden of Gethsemane. I totally loved reading this last year.

7. If you want a fun fictional read that takes place during Easter, read this one below. It’s a romance, a bit cheesy, but also has a lovely Christian Easter theme. It’s entertaining and clean.

8. Sally Clarkson’s book below has a chapter on family traditions, going month by month through the year. I give a recap on what she reveals her family has done for Easter through the years over here.

9.Then there are the two companion books authored by Emily Belle Freeman related to Easter. I haven’t read them yet, but I’m pretty sure they depict the Holy Week traditions that she has in the videos I’ve compiled over here. I love that these books are like bookends to her Christ-centered Christmas books. For each holiday, she has one for adults, and one for children. I also love that the traditions involve simple household objects, except for an Easter lily, and focus on discussion involving thought-provoking questions involving people involved in the Savior’s last week.

10. Want some Easter-themed stories, scriptures, poetry and songs to share with your family each day? Go here to get the April excerpt from my Family Devotionals ebook, and then get stories for all year round from the rest of the book here.