Can you believe it? It’s March 2nd! We got through January and February! Yay!!! It was easy this year for me, I admit, because of the mild winter, in the West. Here in Utah Valley, we only had two snowstorms, one the weekend after Thanksgiving, and one the week after Valentine’s Day. It’s been such a warm winter that my daffodils have already popped up and I hear the birds chirping when I go walking in the morning. I have hardly felt a need to cultivate hygge this winter. Despite what the calendar says, it definitely feels like spring. I took down all my wintry and Valentine’s Day decorations last Saturday and got out most of my spring stuff.

If you want an easy way to decorate for Easter, here’s my favorite tip: use Easter picture and chapter books! You can put them on top of a bookcase, as shown above, on a coffee table, in stacks, with the spines facing the direction where they are most likely to be observed. If you are as blessed as I am, you can use the ledges above your windows and doorways. Mine are wide with grooves so it’s like they were meant to hold books! See below. Most of these books I have found at thrift stores in the past few years, for $1 to $2 each. I’m having sooo much fun switching out my seasonal and holiday books ever since I discovered this trick last summer, for Independence Day.

I also found the garlands at Target, Dollar Tree, and Hobby Lobby, over the past 10 years or so.

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes is so nostalgic for me. I have had this copy in the photo below, on the right, since I was a child. I got it from the Scholastic Book monthly order in second grade. It is Easter bunny-centered, with no mention of Jesus, but it is meaningful as it shows the family culture of a mother training her 21 children to do work. They then carry the burden of running and maintaining a household, so that the mother can start a season of working beyond the home serving, helping the Easter Bunny, as things are going well in the home. Some may call it feminist. I call it showing the seasons of a wise woman’s life. This is where a woman has as her primary focus being a mother, to bear and nurture children with proper training. After a time of investing in the young years of her children, it may be wise to spend energy outside of the home, according to community needs and the woman’s desires. Who would have thought that an Easter picture book would have so much social commentary? OK, now I’m stepping off my soapbox and going back to decorating for Easter…

I added in some St. Patrick’s decor in with the Easter. The shiny garland below came from Hobby Lobby. I found the cute St. Patty’s “sign,” which is actually a table runner, at the Provo D.I. last August, for only $3. It’s folded in half and held in place by the Max Lucado book, sitting on top of it. I’m even more excited about St. Patrick’s Day this year, as I recently discovered closer Irish roots than I have before. One of my sons moved to Ireland last summer with his wife. I found out just last week in FamilySearch that my 8th great grandfather, Thomas Matthews, was born in the same town where my son and his wife live now! Yes, I can say, “Kiss me, I’m Irish!” I dream of traveling to visit them in the next few years.

I only have one St. Patty’s picture book, which I’m keeping in my Morning Basket right now, so it’s not in the display above. I just mixed my Easter books with St. Patty’s decor. It’s all springtime and Christianity, since St. Patrick taught about Jesus, so it works!

The book above on the right is by my husband’s cousin, Lynne Hilton Wilson. Can you believe I found it at the Springville UT DI for only $2, a few years ago? It’s currently over $40 on amazon! I feel so blessed to have found it. What a treasure! The illustrations are just so lovely. Here is a closeup below. You can get it a lot cheaper on deseretbook.com for around $20, here, if it ever gets back in stock. I just love it. It’s not really a children’s book, as the text is lengthy. If I used it with little children I would just point at the pictures and talk about them.

I just so enjoy the illustrations by Shari Griffiths, like in the two-page spread shown below.

They are just so lovely!

Besides thrift stores as a place to get Easter picture and chapter books, you can find them new and used at amazon of course. Another place to buy them used and pay thrift store prices, is addall.com. Go here to learn how addall.com works.

Want my free PDF of meaningful Easter books? There’s not a licensed character in the bunch! Here you go! Click on the button that says “download” below to get it.

Want more Easter inspiration? I’ve got a lot!

Go here for a random list of Easter-y blog posts, and go here for a huge organized list of resources! I invite you to share one of the poems, stories, or songs from that list each day with your family as we count down to Easter. It’s early this year, on April 5, 2026.

My BYU-attending son made this wreath on a date and gave it to me last year. It’s so beautiful! He has surprised me the past few years with how arts-and-craftsy he is! He never showed much inkling towards that in our homeschooling years together. I love surprises like this.