Easter advent

Ever since our daughters have been attending Catholic preschool in our neighborhood, I’ve been drawn to how special the Easter season is within their faith. The reverence, remembrance, and ceremony have inspired a motivating holy envy that has made me take a closer look at how we celebrate Easter in our own home. For several years, I was disappointed in how Easter came and went with so little preparation or consideration on my part. Easter egg hunts and baskets, Easter dresses, and Easter Sunday worship made for a happy weekend—and I have the most treasured memories of these times from my childhood—but seeing what Easter could be got me thinking. How could I make our Easter worship more significant for our family? How could we make this a season more similar to Christmas, wherein we could keep our eye on the Savior as we celebrate his life, Atonement, and Resurrection, while remembering with reverence the sacrifice he made for us?

I scoured Pinterest and Instagram, looking for ideas. I was delighted to find that so many other families had set out to do something similar, and I found a lot of inspiration. On and off throughout 2022, 2023, and 2024, I have been making plans and purchasing items, piece by piece, to bring together our very own heirloom Easter advent. Somethings I had already, and everything else I bought or created over the last couple of years. It has been an investment of time and money, but it has been worth it—not only because of the collection of items I now have to help point my family toward the Savior, but because of how much I have been able to immerse myself in these stories and thereby come to know Jesus Christ even better for myself.

Our advent starts on the Thursday before Palm Sunday and goes through the Monday after Easter. We follow the timeline of the last events of Christ’s life, as well as his visit to the people of the Americas in the Book of Mormon. Each day has a story card with scripture references, a piece of artwork, and an egg filled with a scripture and at least one object. Some days also include a picture book and additional objects. You could easily add hymns, scripture videos, coloring pages, and activities as well, but I’m finding that simplicity works best for us at this stage of our lives. The kids love opening the eggs each morning, and we try to discuss the story and scriptures together as a family. This is our second year doing this advent, and it has made such a difference! This year, we even moved Easter baskets to the first day of Spring, and I am excited to see the effect of keeping Christ at the center of our Easter celebrations.

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Resources

As I mentioned before, I’ve been dreaming this up and adding to it for years. That has allowed me to buy things over a period of time, to wait for sales, and to let the Pinterest algorithm add inspiration catered to my style :) The book collection has been an especially fun addition because each book is now part of our library, which we can refer to throughout the year, not just at Easter. Below, I’ve included as many of the resources I’ve found for anyone looking to get started. Looking for something simpler? Check out my Pinterest inspiration board where you can find easy DIY advents as well as advents for purchase or download.

Supplies:

• Printable Scripture and Story Cards
  
• Wooden Eggs - Michael’s
  
• Tray - Hobby Lobby
  
• Palm Leaves - Hobby Lobby
  
• Painted Peg Doll Easter Creche- Beth Nietfeld Art
  
• ​Peg People - Michael’s
  
• ​Three Crosses - House of Joppa or Amazon
  
• ​10 Virgins oil lamp - similar at Amazon
  
• Replica Crucifixion Nail - Amazon
  

Books:

• The Donkey Who Carried a King by RC Sproul
• ​Girls Who Choose God: Stories of Courageous Women from the Bible and Girls Who Choose God: Stories of Strong Women from the Book of Mormon by McArthur Krishna and Bethany Brady Spalding
• ​This is Jesus by J Kirk Richards
• Teachings of Jesus and Miracles of Jesus by Brooke Malia Mann
• The Easter Story by Patricia A. Pingry
• The Tale of Three Trees retold by Angela Elwell Hunt
• The Story of Passover by David A. Adler
• The Miracles of Passover by Josh Hanft

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Artwork

For artwork, we turned to a few of our favorite religious artists, including Harry Anderson, Carl Bloch, Walter Rane, J. Kirk Richards, Jorge Cocco Santangelo, and Minerva Teichert. One thing I might do differently in the future is using more art each day. I love how different artists portray the same scene, and there are so many beautiful pieces to choose from! Our church website has many wonderful options available for download.

“Triumphal Entry” by J. Kirk Richards

“The Crucifixion” by Harry Anderson

“The Burial of Jesus by” Carl H Bloch

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Next year, I’ll fix some typos. We’ll keep the Jesus peg character out for everyday. I’ll see if I feel up to adding any of the music, books, animated stories, crafts, activities, etc. that I wasn’t up to this year. And perhaps we’ll highlight more people or more of the events of Holy Week or Christ’s life that we didn’t focus on this time. I’m mostly just grateful to have this foundation to get us started from here on out. As Easter comes to a close, I’m feel like this has accomplished what I hoped it would. We have remembered, we have celebrated, and we have drawn closer to Christ. My children know Him better, and the spirit of this season has been continuously in our home.

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“Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation”
Isaiah 12:2