Symbols of Easter: When you decorate your house for Easter, remember that you really shouldn’t do ANY Easter decorating until the Saturday before Easter (Easter Vigil — the first Worship Service of Easter). During Lent, any decorations you have in your home should be LENTEN decorations. But on Easter Saturday the Easter decorations can come out: Chicks and ducks represent the new life that is ours in Christ who makes us new creatures in Him. Other Christian Easter decorations include eggs, Easter lilies, flowers from bulbs, caterpillars becoming butterflies — all of these are examples of life being sealed away for a time before new life bursts forth.
Egg Decorating:
To blow out the contents of a raw egg: poke a hole at each end of the egg with a darning needle. Twist the needle around inside the egg until the yolk is broken. Then blow hard through the hole at the top, collecting the contents of the egg in a small dish (for scrambled eggs). Rinse out the eggshells and allow them to air dry thoroughly before decorating.
Decorate with fine felt-tipped felt markers in a variety of colors. To avoid smudges, start at the center of the egg. Draw miniature Easter symbols or whatever strikes your fancy.
You can also dye blown eggs (just like hard-boiled eggs). Make the sye water. When the water has cooled, add the eggs and allow eggs to sit in water until they turn the desired color.
After the drawings/egg artwork have dried completely, spray with clear acrylic (best done by an adult) for permanent finish.
If you wish, glue a loop of yarn or ribbon to the top of the egg and hang it/them on an egg tree.
You can make an egg tree with forced bloom branches: Clip branches that are about 20″ long from forsythia or pussy willows found in your own yard, at the florist, or the yard of a generous friend. Bring the branches inside & pound the clipped ends with a hammer. Arrange the branches in a water-filled vase or jar. Place the arrangement in a warm room and watch for young leaves to begin appearing within several days. Decorate the blooming branches by hanging blown Easter eggs on them.
Don’t forget to leave your Easter decorations UP for 7 WEEKS!! They don’t come down until Pentecost. The Easter Season is seven weeks long!!
Easter Story Cookies
Make these together with your kids on Easter Vigil (the Saturday before Easter). Note that each step in the recipe has a Discussion and Bible Reading.
Ingredients / Items needed:
Bible
1 Cup whole pecans
1 teaspoon vinegar
3 egg whites
Pinch of salt
1 Cup white sugar
1 large gallon zipper bag
Wooden Spoon
Tape
Directions:
1) Activity: Put pecans in a Ziploc bag & let children beat them with a wooden spoon, to break them into small pieces.
Discussion: After Jesus was arrested, He was beaten by the Roman Soldiers.
Read: John 19:1-3.
2) Activity: Let children smell vinegar. Add 1 teaspoon vinegar to a mixing bowl.
Discussion: When Jesus was thirsty on the cross, he was given vinegar to drink.
Read: John 19:28, 30
3) Activity: Add egg whites to vinegar.
Discussion: Eggs represent life. Jesus gave His life to give us life.
Read: John 10:10-11
4) Activity: Sprinkle a little salt into each child’s hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl with the egg and vinegar.
Discussion: This represents the salty tears shed by Jesus’ followers, and the bitterness of our own sins.
Read: Luke: 23:27
5) Activity: Add 1 cup of sugar.
Discussion: The sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us. He wants us to know and belong to Him.
Read: Psalm 34:8
6) Activity: Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12-15 minutes or til stiff peaks are formed.
Discussion: The color white represents the purity in God’s eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus.
Read: Isaiah 1:18
7) Activity: Fold in broken nuts. Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper. Drop mixture by spoonfuls onto waxed paper.
Discussion: Each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus’ body was laid.
Read: Matthew 27:57-60
8) Activity: Place the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF. Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door.
Discussion: Jesus’ tomb was sealed.
Read: Matthew 27:65-66
9) Activity: GO TO BED
Discussion: You may feel sad that we had to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus’ followers were sad when the tomb was sealed.
Read: John 16:20 and John 16:22
10) Activity: On Easter morning, open the oven and remove the cookies. Take a bite. Notice … the inside of the cookies are hollow!
Discussion: On the first Easter, Jesus’ followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty.
Read: Matthew 26:1-9.
Resurrection Rolls:
Ingredients:
1 pkg. Refrigerated crescent roll dough
1 tsp. Cinnamon
melted butter
1 TBSP sugar
large marshmallows
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350.
2. Give each child a triangle of crescent dough and a marshmallow. Explain that the roll represents the cloth that Jesus body was wrapped in and the marshmallow represents Jesus.
3) Have each child dip the marshmallow in melted butter, symbolic of the embalming oils.
4) Then dip the marshmallow in the cinnamon & sugar representing the spices used to anoint Jesus’body.
5) Wrap the coated marshmallow tightly in the crescent roll – not like the typical crescent roll, but bring the sides up and seal the marshmallow inside.) This represents the wrapping of Jesus’ body after his death. (If you seal the crescent rolls well, the marshmallow will melt and the roll will be puffed up empty when you take it out of the oven.)
6) Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and place in the oven (tomb) for 10-12ins. Remove from oven. Cool slightly.
7) When rolls are cooled, children oven their rolls (cloths) and discover that Jesus is no longer there. HE IS RISEN.