This Easter will be the first my toddler is able to understand and most likely to remember, and I do definitely want to celebrate the Easter Bunny and all of the marketing-Easter-Spring hype, but I don’t know if I want to celebrate it and our religious Easter together. Would it be strange to have our kids (well, one now) grow up celebrating the Easter Bunny on Saturday and Easter Sunday on, well, Sunday?
Since my daughter’s birthday falls with Easter (this year is her 8th – and a very important one for us as she will become eligible to be baptised on her birthday/Easter), we decided after seeing the amount of Easter Bunny/birthday stuff that comes together (we did that for two years – and that was enough for us!) – and the potential loss of the spiritual nature of Easter – we celebrate the Easter Bunny stuff the week before or week after Easter – depending on how her birthday falls – this spreads everything out and allows the fun of candy, etc. without it overshadowing our day of worship.
Now that they are older and some kids have commented on the oddness of the Easter Bunny’s visit not being on Easter Sunday – we have them write a letter each year requesting an appointment for the day that we have chosen as a family. Works fine for us.
Bravo on wanting to keep Easter as a sacred day!
August 21st, 2009 at 9:11 pm
AH love, easter bunny and easter are two peas in a pod.
References :
August 21st, 2009 at 9:44 pm
That’s what we do cause we feel it is important to focus Sunday on religious activities, not something that is essentially a fun game.
I think it is perfect, well, maybe I’m biased cause we do it, lol.
References :
August 21st, 2009 at 10:24 pm
I don’t see anything wrong with that. I grew up in a Christian home, and they felt it was important to seperate the Christmas ideas. Eve was always about the religious stuff and Day was all about Santa and presents. They never really seperated the whole Easter thing…but I can see how that’d make sense if you are religious.
References :
August 21st, 2009 at 10:53 pm
I don’t think there is anything wrong with that at all! In fact that is the way it should be if you are religious. Easter is actually based on a pagan holiday, and now days we rarely even celebrate what it’s "really" there for. It is as over marketed as Christmas is, and I don’t think that is right either.
References :
August 21st, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Since my daughter’s birthday falls with Easter (this year is her 8th – and a very important one for us as she will become eligible to be baptised on her birthday/Easter), we decided after seeing the amount of Easter Bunny/birthday stuff that comes together (we did that for two years – and that was enough for us!) – and the potential loss of the spiritual nature of Easter – we celebrate the Easter Bunny stuff the week before or week after Easter – depending on how her birthday falls – this spreads everything out and allows the fun of candy, etc. without it overshadowing our day of worship.
Now that they are older and some kids have commented on the oddness of the Easter Bunny’s visit not being on Easter Sunday – we have them write a letter each year requesting an appointment for the day that we have chosen as a family. Works fine for us.
Bravo on wanting to keep Easter as a sacred day!
References :
August 21st, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Go for it!
We don’t really celebrate the Christian religious part of Easter – we go more for the spring/earth renewal/rebirth angle, so bunny fits in just fine for us on Sunday. But, you should create your own traditions that work well with your family.
Check out your local park district, too. Odds are they’ll have Easter Bunny stuff going on on Easter Saturday, anyway – making it all make more sense for your child over the years.
References :
August 22nd, 2009 at 12:08 am
I think you are over thinking! It sounds like you do want to celebrate both the bunny and the resurrection…don’t make it more difficult or confusing for all involved. Your child will be more excited about the fuzzy bunny, eggs, candy etc, for the next few years…so what? As long as you celebrate the religious side as well they’ll get it as they grow up with all your traditions and teachings…As soon as they are in school they’ll be arguing with the other kids, no the Easter Bunny comes on Saturday, not Sunday…or that Santa comes tomorrow when Christmas is 2 days away…We did have Santa come on the 23rd one year before my kids were in school because both my husband and I had to work early Christmas Day, and we didn’t want to miss the Christmas morning Santa gift excitement!
References :