It is no secret that EASTER IS MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY OF ALL TIME. First of all, its during Spring, which is my favorite season of all time. Spring is the season God convinces me that He won’t ever leave me, no matter how dark winter was. Second, if it weren’t for Easter, I would still be lost and hurting, without redemption. Third, Easter is pretty and lovely and flowery and I just love it so darn much.

Josh and I want our kids to know that being followers of Jesus isn’t about having a list of things we don’t do. In fact, its the opposite! Jesus is our reason to celebrate as a family and so we make an effort to celebrate Him well and often. At Christmas time, we advent. We wake up early and meet with Him, sing to Him, craft about Him, and serve others because of Him.

It felt harder to help our kiddos get excited about the meaning of Easter. All the books we could find were about really fun, good things like bunnies and eggs. We are ALL FOR bunnies and eggs! But also, we wanted to help our kiddos find just as much excitement about what Jesus did for us on Easter. When we were dead in our sins, Jesus died for us and rescued us. On Easter Sunday, we celebrate that Jesus conquered death so that we can be reconciled to God and live with Him forever. That is a huge deal for our family. The hugest. To celebrate Easter with our kids, we use an idea we had: 10 Days of Easter.

Big Picture: For the 9 days leading up to Easter and on Easter Morning the kids get to open a little package that has a Easter themed activity for the day. There is a Bible verse we talk about and something fun we do together to celebrate our Risen King.

Our kiddos love it. They remember it and they are already excited with us about when March 18 gets here this year! I put together a PDF with the pages I print out for each kid and our activity for the day in case you want to bring 10 Days of Easter into your home to use with your kids.

Download the PDF files here: 10 Days of Easter Printables

*Ideal for ages 3-6*

(You can read about our earlier years of doing 10 Days of Easter with our toddlers/babies here.)

If you decide you want to do it, just print out the sheets for each kiddo and put together a little bag for them to open each day with the pages, and whatever coordinating supplies you need for the day. There are basic instructions but you will have to put a little time into assembling them for your family and incorporating the supplies that you would want to use. Total, I would guess that you would have to put 3 hours into prepping for this. But I would also promise, that for us, the 3 hours is TOTALLY WORTH IT! We have a blast!

Check out some fun pictures of our memories from 10 Days of Easter last year!

I hope some of you want to join us! Questions? Comment below and I will do my best to get them answered! Does your family have ideas for other ways you celebrate our Risen King on Easter? I would love to hear those in the comments too! Hop over to Instagram and follow me (madebymaddi) to see our pictures as we celebrate this year and I will make sure to post ways that we are including our baby boy in the festivities!!!

PS. I think last year we missed a day or two. No big deal, we doubled up the next day. Life happens. So feel free to join us for 5 days of Easter, or 3, or none this year and you can join us next year when life slows down a bit. I get that too. I’m not should-ing you.

He is Risen Friends! He is Risen, Indeed.