The reality is that I never wanted to start when our children were small by celebrating Easter with a bunny....regrettably, I listened to some very logical sounding people (many of whom are Christian) who told me that my children would somehow miss out on an important part of their childhood if I didn't let them believe in the Easter bunny, Santa, and the tooth fairy. Recently, in a quest to make our Easter celebration more about the resurrection, I came across this post. Here's the part that got me.
"The Easter Bunny, Santa, Tooth Fairy, etc. are all characters that families tell their children to believe in. They can't see these characters, the kids learn about them from what their parents tell them and one day they find out that it was all a myth. And then there is God; the kids can't see Him, they learn about Him primarily from their parents and a naive mind could then think that God is mythical as well...I think there is great potential for confusion. The truth about God is the most important thing that I will teach my children and I want to avoid things that could confuse them."
Convicting! When Jeff came home from work and I showed him this post, he was also convinced it could be detrimental to our children to let them continue in our current way of thinking. We decided that even though Easter was only a couple of weeks away, we had to ditch the Easter Bunny. Because Easter is so close, we decided not to have a sit down talk and just flat-out say, "all these things you believe are not true." That talk will happen in the future, probably this summer. Right now, we are taking the redirection approach. Anytime, the Easter Bunny comes up, we just tell the girls that Easter is not about a bunny, it is about the wonder of the cross and how Jesus rose from the dead. So far, this has been a great strategy...I have not heard Mikayla or Susannah ask about the Easter Bunny in weeks!
One sad moment came as I was reading an awesome children's book to the girls a few weeks ago. The Very First Easter tells the story of Jesus in a kid-friendly way and ends with His death and resurrection. It is my girls' favorite bedtime story right now. They LOVE it! Anyway, as I started to read it the first time, after reading the title, Mikayla looks up and says, "I thought Easter was when the Easter Bunny comes!" OUCH! Since then, our focus has shifted completely. Although others around us may still refer to the Easter Bunny with awe and excitement, our girls will know that the real excitement is that "He is Risen!"
PS. Santa and the Tooth Fairy-- watch out!
