10 creative ways to make this Easter the most memorable

By Patti Garibay, Op-ed Contributor Sunday, March 28, 2021

Patti Garibay is the Founder and Executive Director of American Heritage Girls (AHG) | Courtesy of Patti Garibay

Many families across the world may be celebrating the Easter season from home again this year instead of attending church services and family gatherings. While we know that Christ is always with us, some parents may need to look for ways to help their family celebrate Christ’s resurrection and hope in Him a little differently on this year’s significant Resurrection Sunday. As a parent, you play a part in shaping your children’s memories – make them full of hope and togetherness. Stuck on where to start? Check out this list for a few of our favorite ideas to make this Easter the most meaningful and memorable ever.

1. Study Scripture together. Reading the account of Jesus’ death and resurrection with your family is an obvious choice. Does your church have a Scripture reading plan for Easter Week? If not, here are the verse references in each of the Gospels: Matthew Chapter 21 (Palm Sunday) and Chapters 26-28; Mark Chapter 11 (Palm Sunday) and Chapters 14-16; Luke Chapter 19 (Palm Sunday) and Chapters 22-24; and John Chapter 12 (Palm Sunday) and Chapters 18-20. Keep reading through John 21 for more stories of what Jesus did after his Resurrection.

Encourage your older children to make a study of the different accounts of Easter in the four Gospels. What are the similarities and the differences? What special characteristics does each account have, and which details would we miss if we only had one account? Which account seems most interesting or meaningful to them?

2. Get crafty. Make palms for Palm Sunday! What do you have around the house that you could make palms with? Construction paper? Newspaper? And what do palms look like? Find pictures and figure out how to recreate them! This is a great chance to talk to your child about the events of Palm Sunday. What does the word “hosanna” even mean?

3. Take to the kitchen. There are oodles of Easter-themed baked goods from which to choose! Empty Tomb Cakes, Resurrection Rolls, and Hot Cross Buns are some of our favorites. Let your children use their creativity to figure out how to decorate their treats and enjoy the sweet time together in the kitchen.

4. Make a playlist. Psalm 147:1, NIV tells us: “How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!” Task each member of your family with choosing his or her favorite worship song to create a playlist. Come Easter morning, turn up the volume and have a sing-a-long praise fest together!

5. Start a garden or flower pot. Planting something and watching it grow is something to look forward to every day and builds our hope. Look through bulbs and seeds sales online to see what your family might want to plant. The possibilities are endless, and gardening is a wonderful way to grow kids who are Helpful, Perseverant, Responsible, and Resourceful.

6. Reinvent Sunday School. Use Resurrection Eggs to teach the story of Easter to your younger children! Resurrection eggs are a set of plastic Easter eggs that each have a little symbol inside that tells part of the story of Christ’s death and resurrection. If you don’t have time to order a set, go on a family scavenger hunt! What can you find around the house to fill your eggs? (If you’re really stuck, a quick internet search on “Resurrection Eggs” will give you plenty of ideas.)

7. Decorate your house or yard. What do you have that you can use to decorate for Easter? Can you use your Christmas lights to decorate for Easter? Hang Easter eggs from your tree branches? Use window paint on your windows or chalk on your driveway? Hang colorful paper chains? Get the whole family outside with a project you can work on together!

8. Start a family Prayer Book or Prayer Jar. As a family, write your prayer requests on pieces of paper and put them in a jar, or write them down in a book. Once a month, go back through your prayers as a family and praise God for the ways that he has answered them. Throughout the Bible, we see that remembering the miracles God has performed and the prayers He has answered renews the strength, hope, and courage of His people. The Raising Godly Girls Blog on the American Heritage Girls website has resources for Easter themed devotional posts and audio features on prayer and Christian values.

9. Seek out signs of Spring. If possible, go for an Easter morning walk through the neighborhood or a hike in the woods and look for signs of spring! How many can you spot? Some regions of the country are just starting to bud out, while others are in full bloom. Do you have a family member or friend you’re missing who you could send pictures to or video chat with? Exercise helps lift the spirit and burns some of that cooped-up energy!

10. Watch some Easter videos on Right Now Media. There’s something for every age group. Run a search on the keyword “Easter” to see everything that’s available, but here are our favorites:

Behind the Easter Story is a two-part documentary, about an hour total, on what Jerusalem was like in the days of Jesus. It shows the sites of his activities during the events of the Holy Week and beyond, leading to his Ascension on the Mount of Olives. Good for Explorers through Adults.
5-Minute Family Devotionals for Easter Week! These eight animated videos tell the story of Easter, and are designed for families to watch one episode each day starting on Palm Sunday and running through Easter Sunday. They include discussion questions for families at the end. Great for small children and Pathfinders.
Seeds of Easter is a series of Scripturally-based worship songs to help families hide God’s Word in their hearts. Great for families to use together!
Yancy’s Little Praise Party is another great way for younger kids to worship God and make the joy of the Lord their strength! Best for small children and Pathfinders, but the songs are catchy—you and your older girls might find yourselves humming along!

For more than two decades, Patti Garibay has been at the forefront of countering the culture by leading girls and women to creating lives of integrity. She is the Founder and Executive Director of American Heritage Girls (AHG), a national Christ-centered leadership and character-development program. She helps thousands of girls discover their true identity and purpose in Christ through AHG’s transformative programming. Patti is the author of Why Curse the Darkness When You Can Light A Candle?, which is a story of trust and obedience to inspire those who desire to make Kingdom impact yet struggle with the fear of inadequacy