Mar 27

Mar 27 Making Easter Special: Tips to Simplify Your Easter — and Keep It Special!

Easter traditions don’t have to be overly complicated to be special and meaningful. What is it about big holidays that draws out the “crazy” in us. Personally, I blame Pinterest. Too many amazing ideas in one place. Too many “I can do that” moments pinned to my Easter board.

I’m only slightly kidding. Pinterest is great and I hold no major animosity toward it. I actually really do love finding new ideas to add to our holiday fun. I’ve just learned that I need to put a limit to my creative planning. I try to just pick a few of our favorite traditions to do and maybe pick one new thing to add to the mix every so often.

Slowing down at Easter time is actually really important to me. So, I wanted to share a few tips on how to simplify the holiday.

Decorating Simplified:

Each year when I pull out our Easter bins, my kids get really excited. Yes, I said “bins.” I have more than one. I actually have three. Easter is a big deal in our family. I love decorating for Easter. I’ve slowly been accumulating some fun Easter decor through the years during all the post-holiday sales. However, this year I’m not hosting Easter brunch. So, I’m not decorating everywhere. I’m picking my favorite things to put out to make our kitchen and eating area extra special and keeping the rest packed up.

Here’s one tip I love to share: Decorate with books. I use my special holiday books on my counter and my fireplace mantle. I keep our Easter books packed up with all our decorations to keep them special for the holiday.

Good Friday Simplified — & extra special:

We have a family favorite activity that we do almost every year. We literally nail our sins to a cross. It’s been a powerful tradition through the years to remind us about how Christ died for our sins. We talk through forgiveness and just how special it is. Here’s a post I wrote several years ago that has all the details on how we do it…including links to the dissolvable paper we use! It’s really amazing!

Special Meals Simplified:

Meals are a wonderful way to create memories. Like other holidays we have some of our favorite recipes that get pulled out. However, again, I try to look for ways to simplify what I’m serving. Instead of making every single thing from scratch, I look for ingredients — and side dishes — that I can buy ready to eat. One year I spent hours making a beautiful trifle with homemade lemon curd and whipped cream. The next year I just bought lemon pound cake, lemon curd, and store bought whipped cream. I layered them and served it with mint and berries on top. No one even noticed the difference. Easy peasy! I have a holiday meal planning mini-course that is free right now. The holiday meal planner in there is amazing! Be sure to check it out.

Decorating Eggs Simplified:

As much as dying eggs is fun, it can be messy. I find that I tend to put off this kid-favorite tradition just because I don’t want to clean up the mess. So, I’ve started buying easy kits with stickers and crayons for decorating eggs. Easy and not too messy.

Easter Activities Simplified:

Okay, I know that decorating eggs is an activity. But I also know you may have dog-eared some magazine pages with new ideas or pinned a few things to an Easter board. Pick one new thing and leave the rest for another year.

You don’t have to go overboard to make a holiday special. When you simplify and may just find that you enjoy the holiday more. I have a free holiday tradition planner HERE, if you want to take a look at how you can simplify all your holidays. I find just writing down fun ideas and knowing I can do some this year and others another time really helps me.

Happy Easter! May the Lord richly bless you and your family this season!

Blessings and joy,

Kristi Clover

Let’s Connect: My Website, My Simply Joyful Podcast, — & YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter. Get your Free Sanity Savers for Moms ebook.

P.S. We’re addressing anger and ways to conquer it together during our March Madness series this month here at The Better Mom.