Here are some new-to-me Christ-centered Easter traditions, from Maria Eckersley. She’s a mom of 6 who has a gift for teaching the restored gospel of Jesus Christ as taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She has a YouTube channel here where she shares ideas for making scriptural truths come alive using object lessons. She’s so craftsy and creative. With her object lessons and fun crafts, I feel like I’m watching a mashup of Mr. Wizard meets the Martha Stewart of Mormondom.

Today I’ve rounded up some of her videos that showcase some wonderful Christ-centered Easter crafts and activities.

Disclaimer: This is not a checklist of things to do. She doesn’t expect any family to do all of these. She says she doesn’t even do all of them. This a beautiful buffet of ideas. Take what works for your family without making you feel like you are running faster than you have strength. (How’s that for mixing a statement from my days of leading La Leche meetings with a phrase from the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ?, LOL.)

The first three of these ideas come from the video above.

1. Joy of Jesus Coming Out of the Tomb Craft. This involves making a paper tomb and filling it with a surprise. Sister Eckersley encourages us to talk with our children about how that surprise represents the joyful surprise that the followers of Jesus discovered when they saw the empty tomb and then the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.

2. String Eggs

Sister E explains that we didn’t get to see the Savior and His life firsthand. We do have His form, though, or His example and His words, in the scriptures. This is just like with these string eggs. After the balloons are gone, we don’t see them. But we have the form, made after the real thing. She says you take embroidery floss and separate it into strings, coat the strings with a glue/water mixture, and wrap it around the water balloon. Then you let the eggs dry overnight. You then pop the water balloon inside and take it out. What you have left is an amazing, perfect egg made out of string.

3. Sharpie Egg Dyeing Trick

Out of all the ideas she suggests, this one looks the simplest. Instead of dyeing hard-boiled eggs, you mark them up with Sharpie markers. She says these marks are to represent what happens to us in mortality, the bad things that happen to us. So don’t bother to make the marks pretty. Then you pour rubbing alcohol on them, and it transforms the designs into a thing of beauty. She says this represents the idea that things that have been broken become beautiful and whole, through the power of Jesus Christ.

The next seven ideas come from the video above, which Maria released two years ago on her YouTube channel, when members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were studying the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ for our Sunday School curriculum. She says she took seven Christmas traditions and turned them into Easter traditions.

4. Christ-centered Easter decorations, like a Hallelujah banner (seen at the top of this post), or these Easter lilies., with scriptures about Jesus printed on the inside of the petals. Maria suggests setting apart a day to this, and playing Easter music as you decorate, similar to when you set aside a day and decorate for Christmas.

5. Drop off a surprise Easter egg hunt for someone else, someone who you think will love hunting for eggs in their yard. (Young children and the young at heart.) This is egging your neighbor in a nice way!

(I’m adding in my own suggestion here. If you know of elderly people who are sick and or lonely, and not easily agile and therefore probably not interested in an egg hunt, maybe give them an Easter basket full of thoughtful and useful items like socks, lip balm, hand lotion, a pictures of the Savior, and a book or DVD that promotes faith in Christ.)

6. Have a family Easter breakfast. Or do whatever meal works for you. She says she does challah bread French toast. She says she makes challah bread for Christmas. Then for Easter she uses the same recipe to make French toast.

7. Serve others in the temple. She points out that the sealing power used in the temples was restored on a Passover Easter Sunday, in the Kirtland Temple. It was April 3 1836, when Elijah of the Bible appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. As part of your Easter celebration/temple anniversary, she suggests creating a temple experience for your family. This could involve baptisms for your teens, other ordinance work for older family members, or, if you can’t get to the temple, doing family history research.

8. Draw names and do an egg exchange in your family. This is less stressful than a gift exchange at Christmas but still involves a little bit of anticipation like Christmas does. She says she does this instead of Easter baskets. She has two ways to do this.

a. Decorate an egg in a way that reminds you of that person. So after they draw names she gives them each an egg to decorate. Then they set it on the mantel the morning of Easter Sunday. They have fun guessing whose egg belongs who. I started thinking about this and thought, how fun it would be to use wooden eggs that last forever. If you did this often starting when your children were young they could leave the home at 18 with a carton of decorated eggs that would bring back memories of home as they decorated for Easter wherever they go.

b. Give a plastic egg that separates in half to each family member. After they draw names tell them to fill up the egg with something that the intended recipient will enjoy.

This sounds so fun to me!!! I am hoping I can enroll my family into doing this. I’m thinking of how fun it would be to alternate between the two ideas.

9. Act out the journey of the women who went to the tomb and have it be a part of a sunrise hike. As an alternative to the hike, she suggests memorizing The Living Christ before Easter. Then recite it together and record yourself reciting it together. (Hint: you can get free sheet music of words of The Living Christ document set to music over here.)

10. Fly kites on Easter Sunday. She says in other Christian faiths you see people flying kites representing Jesus’ resurrection. She loves that kites symbolize Christ’s ascension. She also loves that just as kites stay tethered to the earth after they arise, Jesus Christ has chosen to stay tethered to the earth by communicating with us.

Wow, what an amazing list! If you feel overwhelmed by it, remember, don’t feel like you have to do all or any of them. Maybe just pick one and incorporate it this year, then add a new idea next year.

This video below comes from last year when members of The Church studied the Doctrine and Covenants. It has more 8 more ideas!

If you want even MORE ideas, check out Maria’s NEW book below. The only thing from above that is repeated in the book is the making paper lilies activity and the oil lamp craft. I’ll be poring over the book and the ideas above to see how we are going to fit a few of these activities in over the next two weeks, along with the ones from Emily Belle Freeman over here. I want to do the Easter lily activity on Emily’s Day #5, Good Friday, since she mentions using lilies on that day.

Want more Christ-centered Easter resources? Go here to get a PDF of Easter picture books.

Go here to get a PDF of songs, stories, and poetry to share with your family, one of each, each day as we countdown to Easter!

Happy Easter! Remember, He is Risen, and He loves you!