Almost 10 weeks ago, we moved into our new home. I am really looking forward to the holidays to be able to settle in properly and hopefully complete painting our living space. On the weekend, we started getting excited about Easter and pulled the Easter decorations out as well as added a few new things to complement what we already had. I have written previously about how I have struggled with the importance we place on Christmas- decorating our homes, cooking special things, putting together gifts- whereas at Easter, we often celebrate with a chocolate egg or two and enjoy a Hot Cross Bun but that is where our celebrations stop. For the Christian, I figure Easter is a more important addition, for this is where the action of saving us actually took place. It is also good to help us rethink our priorities and ensure we are seeing Jesus as more than a babe in the manger, but as our Risen Saviour and Lord.
The big thing about the way we decorate the home for me is to ensure that anything we do takes us on a family journey to Calvary. In this lead up to Christmas, I want us to visually be reminded of the internal transformation God’s grace does in our lives. I also want my heart and the hearts of my little tribe to well-up with thanks for the path Jesus’ feet trod all those years ago, so that we could miraculously return into relationship with God.
To do this, we have focused on 3 areas: our Easter Tree, an Easter Verse Display and listening to Easter Music on my Spotify Playlist.
1. Easter Tree
This year, I was very excited to see K-mart was stocking a wire Easter tree, which I knew at $15 would complement our assortment of decorations we usually hang on twigs from the garden. I also grabbed a few of these cute wooden egg sets to accompany it. A few years ago my kiddies enjoyed paper mache-ing some foam Easter eggs (available from your local Spotlight/Lincraft or often cheap dollar st ores) that we pulled out. Along with the key decorations featuring stories of Jesus from Ann Voskamp’s Easter Tree printables.
Last year I also went to my local florist and they made up this Crown of Thorns for us, which I pop on the base of our tree along with some red fabric to remind us of the blood that was shed. (You can catch a glimpse of our new grey walls and white trim in the picture above!)
2. Easter Verse Display
We also will be making a display of Easter-related Bible verses this week. I couldn’t find some already made that I wanted to hang up, so have made some myself. Feel free to download them as one pdf file here. (I’ll share a picture on Facebook when we have it done)
3. Easter Music
Finally, we are listening to my Spotify Easter playlist. If you haven’t used Spotify, it is a very user-friendly music app, where you can stream music. I have just started creating Playlists and am really enjoying the process. If you search for “Easter Praise and Worship” it should come up, otherwise view below: