Every year somebody asks me, "As a Christian, what do you do about the secular myth of the Easter Bunny?"  This is a frustrating subject for many people who want to focus on the Resurrection of Christ but remember the fun days of their childhood and see the commercialism of the holiday everywhere they look.

I have an extremely deep love and faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement and resurrection.  To me this is what the Easter holiday is mostly about.  Mostly?  Yes, mostly.  The other part of the Easter celebration is to strengthen families, build good traditions that will warm your child's heart for years after they leave their childhood home behind, and to rejoice in this life that Christ so willingly blessed us with.

It takes work and imagination to come up with a unique set of traditions.  And it take repetition.  Year after year the holiday will make its appearance.  Build delightful memories over those years and you will never regret it.  Search out what other families do and pick what will fit best for your own.

Here are some of the traditions that have brought laughter and anticipation to our precious children.

We celebrate the secular traditions of Easter on the Saturday before Easter.  This way we can again enjoy the fun without it detracting from the sacredness of Easter.  We call this Bunny Day.

The Friday before Bunny Day we boil eggs.  Lots and lots of eggs!  Then we go through the process of letting the little children color the eggs.  What a mess!  As a mother I really don't like this part of Bunny Day but as a mother I love the excitement my children feel.  So, we color eggs.

Last Easter my older children wanted to do the candy shopping for Bunny Day.  Nothing could be easier!  I gave them the money and sent them to the local discount store.  They came back with traditional favorites and a few unique treats.  And they prepared to experience the Grown-Up side of the holiday.

After the little ones go to bed the big ones hide the treats.  It is tough hiding treats for a family of nine children!  Oh sure, the older ones don't need to look for the treats they hide, but when it comes to eating them, you bet they want a part of the abundance.

We once had another large family stay the night before Bunny Day and they helped us hide all the candy.  We turned off the ceiling fan at the wall switch and put candy on the cleaned blades.  When the children came down and turned on the fan it rained jelly beans and other candy.  The children from both families were delighted.  We have had the same candy rain every year since.  A simple tradition was born and lifetime memories formed.

Years ago just before Easter, my sister asked my children if they had their egg rocks.  She told them that every year some eggs were dropped outside by the bunny as he was hopping around.  They were never found and loved by little children so they turned into rocks.

The children were to gather only one rock each.  It should be as smooth and round as possible, clean it up and put it under their pillow so that it would get warm.  Then on bunny morning, the rock opens up and disappears leaving behind bunny candy.

I learned from sad experience that bunny candy absolutely must not be chocolate.  Chocolate has this habit of melting under warm pillows!

Every year the children run around finding just the right rock.  When we moved to Utah, I had to call Ryan's friends' mothers to tell them why their children were bringing rocks into their home and trying to wash them for Bunny Day.

Unlike Christmas, the children do not have to wait for sleeping parents to awaken to begin their egg search.  The children know the morning will bring sweet things and so we go over the simple rules.

1.  Everybody has to search at the same time.
2.  Bigger children search upwards, little children search downwards.  Older children supervise and help younger children.
3.  When all the sweets are collected then they gather at the table and evenly and happily divide them among all family members, searchers and non-searchers.
4.  Eat what you want, when you want for the day because after Bunny Day sweets will be rationed at parents' discretion.  In other words, if you are going to get a sugar high, keep it to one day!  We have noticed that Easter tends to be a very crazy day at church and don't want our children contributing to the madness any more than is normal.

As we lay in bed we can here the noise.  We cuddle close, knowing that any minute some little one is going to rush in unannounced to tell us of a discovery.  We also know the wiser ones will try to keep us uninterrupted so that they have more free time before we get up and make them clean up.  Oh the mess Bunny Day causes with nine children!  Eating rules are disregarded and there is colored egg shells everywhere.  Pretty foil candy wrappers and bits of this and that settle on the floor like a dusting of glitter.  But everything cleans quickly provided there is a working vacuum handy.  Unstructured and chaotic the early morning ends and children begin to return to reality.

Playing Bunny Day on the Saturday before Easter gives us a great deal of family joy and at the same time leaves us free to concentrate on Jesus Christ and his resurrection on the real Easter morning.  Our family is centered on Christ and love the life we experience because of that focus.  Worshiping isn't a once or twice a year event with us.  Nor is is limited to Sunday services.  Yet, even with a daily attitude of faith it is good to spend special moments throughout the year where we deepen our understanding and appreciation and faith in our Savior.  For us Easter Sunday is one of those times.  We speak of Him, we learn of Him,  we draw ever closer to Him as we allow ourselves to become aware of the many ways our existence is richer because of His love.

Year after year, our activities around Easter foster both joy in our family and faith in our Savior.  I pray each of you will find the traditions and teachings that will bless your children's lives in equally precious ways.

Cherie Logan