Easter Traditions: Seven Ways To Add Meaning To Your Family Celebration

Family traditions connect us to past and future generations. They provide meaning and connection, as well as a sense of ritual and comfort. And they can create - and help to preserve - some of life's most moving moments.

Easter traditions can help to usher in a season of love, rejuvenation, and abundance. Here are seven ideas for sharing the sweetness of this special season:

- Start a kindness wreath for your doorway. For the week of Easter, give each family member 10 or more ribbons in bright spring colors. Each time a family member reaches out to someone in kindness during the week, they simply tie another ribbon onto the wreath.

- Ask your children to make a special drawing or a collage that depicts what Easter means for them. After you display them during the Easter season, scan them or take a photo and record the artwork in a special journal or album for a treasured Easter keepsake.

- Create a Garden Journal. Cover a composition book with spring patterned papers or photos/clippings of your favorite flowers. Document the process of creating your family garden this year. Make sure to include photos of your family members digging in the dirt. Record their favorite flowers and their favorite part of working in the garden...and, of course, lots of journaling and flower pressings.

- Fill an Easter basket with cheerful messages, handmade cards, or simple gifts. Then leave the basket anonymously on a friend's doorstep.

- If you have young children, video- or audio-tape them singing a fun seasonal song. Tapes of "Here comes peter cottontail" and "Little Bunny Foo Foo" can make treasured mementos. Share the tapes with distant family and friends.

- When it's time for your Easter brunch or Easter dinner, give each guest a 6x6 sheet of cardstock and ask them to handwrite a couple of special messages for the holiday...perhaps ways they are feeling renewed or grateful in their lives. Snap a photo of each guest and create a quick and simple 6x6 mini-album as a keepsake featuring one page for each guest (with their photo and contribution.)

- Make some handmade Easter greeting cards to send to family and friends. Or renew friendships by hostessing a card-making party where each guest makes 5 to 10 friendship cards. Make a point to send out five cards this spring to people with whom you would like to rejuvenate a relationship.

This holiday, may you embrace and celebrate the beauty that comes into our lives through our family and friends. (And enjoy lots of chocolate!)

Susie Cortright is the founder of momscape.com - http://www.momscape.com and Momscape's Scrapbooking Playground - http://www.momscape.com/scrapbooking - devoted to helping visitors record and preserve their cherished memories.

Susie also trains and supports new scrapbooking instructors with a new and rapidly- growing direct sales scrapbooking company. Find out how to join her team here: http://www.momscape.com/scrapbooking/consulta nt

In The News:


WFAA

Zale to sparkle for holidays; quarterly loss not as severe as expected
Dallas Morning News, TX - Aug 29, 2008
By MARIA HALKIAS / The Dallas Morning News FILE 2007/AP Irving-based Zale plans to have lights in all its stores' cases for the holidays. ...
Tiffany, Zale confident on holidays; shares jump guardian.co.uk
Strong Brands Yield Strong Sales Forbes
all 311 news articles

Soybeans Rise as Holidays May Boost China's Consumption Outlook
Bloomberg - Aug 29, 2008
Consumption of vegetable oil will jump in the lead up to the mid-autumn festival and the National Day holidays, as bakeries sell traditional oil-rich moon ...

Move the holidays
Times Online, UK - 16 hours ago
Sir, Jack Greensted (letter, Aug 26) commendably shows us how his son was inspired by a wet West Country holiday this year to follow our heroic Olympians. ...

Farm of the week: It's cabin fever as farm holidays prove popular
Yorkshire Post, UK - 5 hours ago
Together with a pair of holiday cottages, they make Humble Bee Farm an all-season attraction. "We've had people in them when it's been snowing outside. ...

Telegraph.co.uk

Holidays under threat as XL cancels flights to Caribbean
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom - Aug 29, 2008
By Charles Starmer-Smith Thousands of Britons could lose their Caribbean holidays after XL Airways this week cancelled all its flights to the region from ...

Toast the end of summer holidays with homegrown peach cocktail
Daily Gleaner, Canada - 5 hours ago
Don’t just eat local — drink it as well with this peach cocktail which is a perfect drink to toast the end of summer holidays this Labour Day weekend. ...

Ust Kamenogorsk residents celebrate 2 holidays
Kazinform, Kazakhstan - 7 hours ago
/Lyudmila Malko/ Today Ust Kamenogorsk residents celebrate two holidays Ц Constitution Day and cityТs 288th anniversary, Kazinform reports. ...

Eyes on literary prizes as publishers' holidays end
Radio France Internationale, France - 2 hours ago
by Jan van der Made The holidays in France are over, and it’s la rentrée. That means kids go back to school, the parliament goes back to its deliberations, ...

Children end summer holidays with a bang at adventure playground
Evesham Journal, UK - 4 hours ago
By Steve Mather » MORE than 50 children enjoyed a party to mark the end of an exciting summer holiday full of activities at Evesham Adventure Playground. ...

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like ... Holidays Are Here at ...
MarketWatch - Aug 28, 2008
PHILADELPHIA, Aug 28, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The Holidays are approaching which means it's time for family, friends, and fabulous fashion! ...
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