How to Hold a Fun, Christ-Centered Easter Egg Hunt

Creating a Christ-Centered Easter in a World That's Obsessed With the Easter Bunny

It can be a challenge to keep your family's focus on Christ when the world is focused on turning Easter into a huge profit-making holiday full of colored eggs, stuffed animals, and even wind-up chickens that lay bubble gum eggs when they walk.

Easter was always one of my favorite holidays growing up, and I have to admit that a lot of that had to do with the fact that I knew the Easter Bunny was going to visit my house and leave me with a basket of treats.

Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with having a little bit of fun while celebrating our holidays, but when it comes to religious holidays, I've tried to make it a priority to make sure that our focus is more on Christ than it is on the commercial end of things.

Fun, Christ-Centered Family Traditions

The first year that I was married, I realized that I had a responsibility to start creating Christ-centered traditions for my family. After all, if my husband and I didn't do that, there's no way that the media would.

I wanted to give my husband an Easter basket, but I wanted to make sure that our Easter didn't just turn into a giant gorging fest where we stuffed ourselves to the brim with jelly beans and Peeps, leaving us with no room for the Living Water or the Bread of Life. At that moment, I came up with a plan to be able to turn our focus to Christ and what he's done for us while having a little bit of fun at the same time.

Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt Using Scripture References

Every year, my family has an Easter egg hunt, but it is a little bit different from most Easter egg hunts that you have probably attended or heard of. In order to be successful in this Easter egg hunt, it is essential to turn your heart and mind to Christ.

1. I start out by leaving one plastic Easter egg out in the open. Usually, I set it on the kitchen table or another high-traffic area of the house where I know that it will get discovered quickly. This Easter egg contains not only a little bit of candy but also a scripture reference.
2. Our family pulls out our scriptures and looks up the scripture reference that was found inside the egg. We read the scripture together and talk a little bit about what it means. Then we try to figure out what clues that scripture might have about where to look for the next egg. For example, if the scripture reference was John 6:35, which refers to "the bread of life," we would make our way to the bread box and discover that there is another egg hiding there.
3. Eventually, the clues end up leading to our Easter baskets, which also have a religious theme to them. That way, we can still keep our focus on Christ.
4. Sometimes, I have to get a little creative to make the scripture references fit with locations in our house, so I will write the main idea of the verse on the clue and then underline keywords that might be especially useful. You can really make this as easy or difficult as you want it to be, depending on who is participating with you in the Easter egg hunt.
5. The sky is basically the limit as far as how long you want your Easter egg hunt to be.

I will provide some scripture references here that I have used in the past, but to be honest, I get a lot out of searching for clues to put in the eggs, so you might want to consider coming up with some of your own clues.

After all, my family only ends up reading the scripture references in the eggs, but I have an opportunity to get some deep study about my Savior in as I go through my scriptures searching for scripture references that would be suitable clues.

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Possible Clues to Go Inside Your Easter Eggs

Like I said before, I think you will probably get a lot more enjoyment out of delving into the scriptures and finding your own clues, but I will provide some of the scripture references that I have used in the past in case you are looking for ideas to supplement your own.

Here are some references from the Bible that may prove useful to you:

• John 6:35- "I am the bread of life." (this clue obviously leads to wherever you keep your bread)
• Matthew 5:13- "Ye are the salt of the earth" (this clue leads to a salt shaker)
• John 7:37-38- "Come unto me and drink...living water." (this clue leads to a sink)
• John 8:12- "I am the light of the world." (this clue can lead to a lamp or candle)
• Matthew 17:20- "If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed..." (this clue leads to mustard)
• Luke 24:1-6- "...They came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices." (this clue leads to your spice rack or spice cupboard)
• Matthew 7:11- "Or if he ask a fish will he give him a serpent." (we use this clue for our fish tank)
• Mark 2:17-"They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick..." (this clue leads to a medicine cabinet)
• Matthew 22:14- "Many are called, but few are chosen." (this clue leads to a phone)
• John 4:36- "gathereth fruit unto life eternal" (this clue leads to the fruit bowl)

Clues From the Book of Mormon

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I also consider the Book of Mormon to be canonized scripture, so I used the following references as well, but obviously, you can stick with the Bible references if you aren't comfortable with the Book of Mormon.

• Helaman 3:28- "gate of Heaven is open unto all...who...believe in Christ." (we used this one for a baby gate)
• Mormon 7:5-7- "He hath risen again..." (we use this clue for yeast)
• 2 Nephi 26:24- "He loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life." (this clue leads to a globe or map)
• 3 Nephi 13:6- "Enter into thy closet...reward thee openly." (this clue leads to the closet)
• Mosiah 4:30- "Watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God." (this clue leads to a mirror)
• 2 Nephi 31:20- "press forward feasting upon the word of Christ" (this clue can lead to anywhere having to do with food)
• Moroni 10:32- "Love God with all your might, mind and strength." (this clue leads to exercise equipment)

Christ-Centered Easter Basket Ideas

At the end of the Easter egg hunt, our last clue inevitably leads to the jackpot of our Easter baskets. This is often located in a closet (where Christ suggests that we should pray) or sometimes even in the bathtub (there are all kinds of references to water in the scriptures).

The location of our Easter baskets doesn't matter quite so much as what is in them. I always try to make sure that there are a few items in our Easter baskets that are going to continue to draw our hearts and minds back to Christ.

This doesn't mean that we never have any jelly beans. In fact, I've even purchased one of those cute little wind-up chickens that lays bubble gum eggs as it walks. I don't think there is anything horribly wrong with these things as long as we have a few things in our Easter basket to remind us why we are really celebrating.

Gift Ideas

The following is a list of Easter basket gifts that I have used in the past:

• Pictures of Christ
• Scripture story videos
• CDs of hymns and other religious songs
• Scripture hero action figures
• Church-related games

Comments

Rachel L Alba from Every Day Cooking and Baking on April 07, 2015:

Hi Becca, What a lovely idea. I'm just sorry I didn't read it when my girls were small. I hope more people can read this. Is there a way you can publish this other places for next year? I voted up, awesome, beautiful and useful.

Blessings to you.