I'm not sure exactly how it happened. But the Easter Bunny has no place in our celebration of Easter. My kids get baskets. This year, they get a movie, some books, some candy, a little stuffed animal. But those baskets are from Mommy and Daddy- not a bunny.
For me, personally, Easter is about 2 things.
1. The Christian celebration of the resurrection of Christ.
2. Gathering with family and friends for a meal and fellowship.
So the Bunny just hasn't had a place in our celebration. From the first Easter that we celebrated with Teagan, we never went into the idea of an Easter Bunny. I remember getting baskets from the Bunny when I was growing up. So it isn't like I'm just opposed to the idea. I think it just felt too complicated. It just felt like something else I needed to build up and stand behind and... I just didn't want to. I like that our baskets are gifts to our children from us.
How about you? What's the tradition in your family? Did you grow up believing in the Easter Bunny? Do you perpetuate the idea of the Easter Bunny in your family?
However you celebrate... Happy Easter! I hope you enjoy your plans for this day!
7 comments:
We don't do the Easter bunny either. It's not what Easter is about, I completely agree. We also don't do Santa Claus, but that one makes people a lot more upset than excluding the Easter bunny.
We have never focused on the Easter Bunny, however, the girls have gotten the idea into their heads. I'm assuming from school and friends. We are now struggling with how to "go there" without ruining the idea of Santa Clause for them.... I'm not quite ready for that! Ack!
Good idea Liz. One less lie to keep going for children.
We always had the Easter Bunny growing up. I do the Easter Bunny for my kids as well. Even though the tradition has its roots in Paganism, for me the whole concept of this holiday, whether one is celebrating Eoster, Passover, or Easter, is the concept of new life, of redemption, that we can all be made new again and reconciled. While to the kids the eggs just hold candy and they are pretty, I remind them that eggs represent rebirth. In spring, everything that was dead is born again, just as Christians are born again in Christ. Just as the Jews in Egypt celebrated life and reconciliation in God's love when the Angel of Death passed them by. There are so many layers of meaning in all of these celebrations, I like to touch on them, even though my kids don't understand it yet. So the Easter Bunny will stop by this morning (at Grandma's house, not ours, since I have explained to the kids that the easter bunny is not overly fond of our dogs), and when the kids have baskets of pretty eggs, we will talk about spring and life and Christ's resurrection and how good it is to know that life is precious and continues on.
Happy Easter to you, Liz. Enjoy your family as you celebrate the joy and beauty of the resurrection!
This is the first year the Easter Bunny hasn't come and we didn't color eggs! Our youngest is 13 and the older two aren't home...not a typical Easter at our house and I haven't decided how I feel about it yet. We aren't even doing the family dinner thing. My daughter's birthday is today but she is 300 miles away. Not liking Easter this year.
We hid stuff around the house and then spend the rest of the day re-hiding the eggs. Emily goes nuts to find them and could care less about the M&M's.
Last year she asked how the Bunny got involved with Easter? A good question. I had to do some research on it since I didn't know the answer.
OH yes, and I HATE the Bunny at the mall for photo-ops - ridiculous!
We didn't really take the Bunny seriously as kids--pretty similar to your house, where we had an egg hunt but knew our parents were hiding the eggs! Happy Easter, Liz!
Post a Comment