Grow: Resurrection Baskets

In our house, we’re in the middle of the season of life called “Tradition Experiments.” While we know we really want meaningful family traditions, Jake and I aren’t so on top of it that we come up with a perfect holiday tradition on the first try. So, while the kids are young, we’re trying out different ways of celebrating the holidays in a way that adds meaning to our family’s faith journey.

We’re only a couple weeks out from Easter and we’ve been thinking on what to do about the Easter Basket tradition. Last year we did Spring Baskets the day after Easter, and filled them with fun, spring-related items. This year, Jake and I are designing the kids a Resurrection basket which we will give them on Easter (or as we call it around here, “Resurrection Sunday”).

While we haven’t nailed down what will exactly go into it yet, we’ll be choosing items that focus on the spiritual formation of the kids and that will help them along on their faith journey. Some of our ideas….

1. A Bible

After coming to faith in Jesus in junior high, I was a Bible-collector. For Christmas, for my birthday, whenever- I always wanted a new Bible. Looking back, I see how that was very helpful to my spiritual growth.

As the kids grow and mature, I want them to be able to interact with different versions of the Bible (oh the luxuries of living in the West!) that meets them where they are at developmentally. This year, we’re thinking about the Jesus Storybook Bible (which was highly recommended to me by lots of my mom friends!).

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2. Music

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Music is what often brings our family to our best times of bonding, and it often helps connects us to God. Like many families who have young children, we spend much time singing and listening and dancing to all sorts of music. We’re thinking about this Slugs and Bugs Under Where? by Randall Goodgame and Andrew Peterson. We have the first Slugs and Bugs and Lullabies album and LOVE IT. Love It. love it.

(On their website, I found this quote by Randall Goodgame about this cd: “”Parents won’t want to stick a fork in their eye when they’ve heard it for the 10th time in a row.” Haha, it’s true.)

3. Movie

Each day the kids get to have up to 60 minutes of screen time, and I’m always looking for something new to introduce them to. Soooo, I think we’re going to try out the What’s In the Bible, Volume 1. It’s created by Phil Vischer (the guy who also did VeggieTales). They have a $10 off coupon on their website, which means we can try it out for only $5.00– it makes the risk easier (I’m always a little leery of “Christian” movies for kids because some of them can be pretty cheesy).

4. Supplies to plant a vegetable.

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 While we’ve never had our own garden, we’ve enjoyed gardening with our good friends, the Reeses. Because we’ve moved around so much, we haven’t been able to be in one place long enough to even have a potted garden! Because we’ll be here in Philly for at least another year, we’re taking the plunge and committing to the growing of one vegetable (I know, risky).

How does this relate to spiritual formation? Not only is there something profoundly spiritual about growing something edible from just a small seed, but we’re also going to talk about how when we memorize Scripture, it’s like planting a seed in our hearts. The Holy Spirit will grow those “seeds” to maturity as we faithfully follow Jesus. This idea is not original at all- I’m borrowing this from ImpressYourKids.

This year the kids will just share a basket because, well, they share everything. If this is the tradition that sticks, I think there’s real potential in letting the basket grow with the children/teenagers/adults- the content can change, the number of baskets can change, the way of presenting it can change. I think this is one that even us parents could participate in (having each spouse make a “basket” for the other OR creating a basket together for both to share that revolves around a specific topic or area of growth).

For more great ideas, head on over to Easter Pinterest Board!