Each Easter, I want to keep the focus on Christ rather than all the "extras" of Easter. Yet, I do want it to be fun for my boys, too.
So, we put together a fun little Easter basket with a little bit of candy, a book, maybe a small item if I can get a good deal....and a homemade chocolate cross (and you can tell from the picture that my then 2-year-old enjoyed his cross immensely!).
Although some stores do carry chocolate Easter crosses (I think I saw them at Meijer one year), I decided to make my own so that I wouldn't have to hunt high and low to find one. I spent a couple of dollars on the cross mold the first year, and then I purchase the chocolate candy melts each year.
It is SO easy to make the chocolate cross. You basically just melt the chocolate and pour it into the mold. And you can just use your microwave to melt the chocolate if you don't have a double boiler. Check out my homemade chocolates tutorial for more details.
I found my chocolate cross mold on Amazon, and you can pick up chocolate melts at JoAnns or Michaels using the 40% off coupons that they always have in the Sunday paper (or Amazon if you can't make it out to the store).
What do you do for Easter? Do you give your kids chocolate Easter bunnies or something else? How do you reinforce the message of Christ in your home?
Kelly
What a great idea!
Dave @ Home School Dad
Great Idea. I think I will try it with the kids this year.
Cindy
What a good idea. We try to make the day Christ-focused in a few ways. We try to refer to it as Resurrection Day instead of Easter, though no one gets bent out of shape if one of us says Easter instead. We make Resurrection Cookies every year, but we have yet to get them to turn out the way they should, lol! We do give candy, including chocolate bunnies, and we get each child a little stuffed bunny or chick or something. I don't have a cross mold, but I saw an idea on another blog about spreading melted chocolate into a pan and cutting it with a cookie cutter. I have a cross cookie cutter, so maybe we'll do that this year.
Corrie at "Cents"able Momma
Thanks for the ideas, Cindy. That's an interesting idea to call it Resurrection Day! We actually make resurrection buns each year, which I plan on writing a post about. Resurrection cookies sound like fun...plus you could use your cross cookie cutter to make sugar cookies in the shape of a cross, too.
Jodi
That is a great idea! My daughter always makes chocolates for everyone for Christmas (ornaments, santas, etc.). She could do the crosses for Christmas too! Thanks for the idea!
Tiff
Great idea! I will definitely try this out. I also want to do those "empty tomb" cookes...I keep saying I am going to and always forget.
Ladydi
Here is a good way to focus on the meaning of Easter my daughter who is 22 still talks about these as not only do they re-enforce the meaning or Easter but they are a bit of a mystery.
Resurrection Rolls:
1 package refrigerator crescent rolls
8 large marshmallows
ground cinnamon
butter
Take 1 crescent roll, this represent the tomb. Lay it out flat and put a little butter on it, not much. The butter represents the oils that were poured on Jesus.
Next sprinkle some cinnamon on the the butter, the cinnamon represents the spices.
Finally take a marshmallow and place it on the crescent roll. The marshmallow represents the body of Christ.
With the butter, cinnamon and marshmallow on the crescent roll, take the roll and wrap it around the marshmallow and seal it closed.
Bake in the oven as per package directions. When finished this is what you should have left.
An empty tomb, the body of Christ, the marshmallow will have melted away leaving a nice aroma of oils and spices, butter and cinnamon.
And it tastes great too!
Corrie at "Cents"able Momma
Thanks for the great recipe, LadyDi! We make those rolls also, and I plan on doing a post in the coming weeks on those rolls and what a great illustration they are even for little kids.
Whitney Child0fGod
hey there.
wanted to mentioned that i wholeheartedly agree and God bless your family for not polluting the holy resurrection with easter bunny nonsense... kinda like santa claus and Christmas, huh?? *smh*
God bless you sis.
entrecard,
whitney
Susan
This is an awesome idea!! Thank you so much for sharing!
Christina
Was googling easter cross molds and it dropped me here 🙂
My mother always gave us chocolate crosses in our easter basket. The only problem I had with it was the chocolate wasn't nearly as tasty as the easter bunny ones! It was a bit cheap.
I'm expecting my first baby and for some reason thought about this for celebrating easter...I really want to do it this way, too! However, I'd like my child to not feel like he's missing out on good chocolate because mommy decided to do things the Christian way.
So I thought about making my own 🙂
Other ideas my mom did to reinforce Christ in Easter was give us a Christian gift in the basket that she gave us before church every easter (we weren't allowed to eat the small amounts of candy before church). I got a precious moments puzzle one year; one brother got a children's bible (which consequently had my brother hating the bible for a period after he discovered Jesus died on the cross...he was so upset!); Veggie Tales would frequently show up in the Easter Baskets for the boys as well as Christian novels for my sister and I as we got older. Sometimes Christian music would be in the basket and Adventures in Odyssey!!! The last gift I really remember getting was a really nice Study Bible with my name engraved on it. That Bible has only recently been replaced as I kept losing the psalms from it!
My mom also did pasanki easter eggs and would make several to hide in the yard that would have our names on them and some christian art or message. The goal was to find "our" egg =p
Those are some ideas from my home growing up...that I hope to carry on with my own kids 🙂
CaptPoco
What a nice tradition!
I wonder if anyone here has heard the Tom Waits song "Chocolate Jesus" or seen the "My Sweet Lord" exhibit. They both caused a big furor (at least on TV news). People said that they were part of a "war on Christians" or that they were insensitive. Personally, I am heartened by the number of people who follow this tradition and I think that, yes, it does teach kids about the Bible and Jesus. It's always refreshing to see what regular people think about religion, as opposed to some dim-witted televangelist or corrupt religious official.
Leonel @ Easter Chocolate
I love this idea, I will definitely try this with my two boys!