Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Easter Dilemma

So, I really, really want the focus of Easter to be about the Savior and the real reasons we celebrate Easter. I like Easter egg hunts and Easter baskets, too, but it's kind of hard to draw a parallel between the two. At Christmas, it seems easier to have Santa be a part of Christmas (Jesus' birth was a gift to us, we give gifts because of the Wise Men, Santa is kind like Jesus, etc.), than it does at Easter. Seriously... I'm having a hard time trying to come up with a tie-in with the Easter bunny.

And then, I wonder if I even should. Adam is EXTREMELY realistic. He questions everything. He has always known that cartoon characters aren't real (today he told me, "Does anyone really think that Barney's a real dinosaur? That's ridiculous."). It makes me sad in a lot of ways. When he was three, he asked me how many people were in the world. I gave him a good guess, and then he said that there was no way that Santa could visit all of those people in one night. He never really gets excited about Santa, and I think the things he does say, are more for me (how pathetic is that?). I can imagine he's not going to believe in the tooth fairy, either. He just doesn't go for that kind of stuff.

Yesterday, we were talking, and he said, "So you're saying, that a bunny as tall as Daddy hops to everyone's house and hides eggs in the middle of the night?" And then he gave me this, "Come on, Mom!" look. And it made me squirm, because it does sound a bit far-fetched. I changed the subject, because it occurred to me, that maybe I shouldn't even push it. Maybe it's better to just focus on the Savior and tell him that we are going to have an Easter egg hunt after church, put on by Mike and I, just as a fun family activity. I mean, if he doesn't really believe anyways, why try to convince him of something that takes away from Easter, anyways? But, I don't want him ruining it for anyone else in his Primary class or anything, you know?

So, what do you guys do to try and celebrate Easter for the real reasons? I know my mom does her Easter egg hunt on Saturday. Do you do the Easter bunny thing? Do nothing? Do it all? How do you tie it all together?

4 comments:

Grammy Suzzy said...

You know, Allison, that Saturday hunt/now non hunt just kind of evolved. I always felt the same way that you do...tying in a Bunny hiding eggs with the Resurrection of the Savior. And then, of course, there were those late nights after Dad came home from a dance that we were out in the yard hiding eggs until the wee hours of the morning. I like the dying/decorating eggs, and that is our new tradition, and Grandma has her hunt...that she hides ... on Easter.

Amanda said...

This year (and maybe from now on) we will be doing the egg-hunt on Saturday. Really, it stems more from church starting at 8am and Nathan having meetings that start at 5:30am.

We've just kind of explained the real reasons for Easter and said that the Easter Bunny is a fun addition.

It kind of stinks that Adam has to be so practical, huh? Darn him! ;)

The Muhlesteins said...

Growing up we never did any bunny stuff on Easter, but I do like the idea of after the egg hunt sittign down and talking about the resurrection and how the eggs represent it...

Danyel said...

My mom had 12 eggs that had paper and an item that had to do with the death and reserection of christ. She would hid them and the ones that we found we got to read out loud if I find mine I will email you a set of instrouctions.