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Looking for some new ideas to interact with families in your community this Easter season? Does your small church want to provide your families with some great activities that will not only be fun, but will help them engage in the meaning of Easter with their children? We have put together 5 easter event ideas for the whole family to try this holiday season. We hope that they will be a success!
Why Should We Have Easter Activities For The Whole Family?
Easter is a time of year that is filled with many activities, many of which are full of springtime symbols like bunnies and chicks, kites, and bubbles, but not as many focus on the true celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus! We can focus on teaching the families in our small churches to use this holiday as an opportunity to share about the gift of Salvation, reading the story of Jesus together, and learning the importance of who He was and what He did in His earthly ministry.
Through these various activities, we can also teach who Jesus is in our lives today, not just for adults, but for children as well. Imagine the joy everyone can share together as they celebrate Resurrection day. He is alive!
Get Input From Kids Of All Ages!
Sometimes when churches plan events, they forget to ask for opinions and ideas from those who will be attending, the kids! You might be surprised at some of the input you receive, new and innovative ideas for events, activities, and games, as well as ideas for where to promote your event! By asking the children of your small church for their input, you will be encouraging them as they are seen and viewed as a valuable part of the church family!
The Perfect Opportunity To Connect With Parents
Use one of the event ideas as a way to connect with parents in your community. Many times we have ‘children’s events’ and end up only conversing and engaging with the children who attend, but these events are family-focused. It’s important to connect with the parents, make them feel welcome, and provide activities that they will enjoy and remember.
Provide a way for your guests to give you follow-up information so that you can continue to communicate and engage with them in the future. Remember, many of these events are ‘top of the ministry funnel’ activities!
5 Easter Event Ideas For The Whole Family
1. Family Easter Craft-A-Palooza!
Decide on the craft projects that you will offer when you have your planning meeting. Ask different pairs of people in your church to be in charge of one station. They would be responsible for gathering all the supplies, setting up the room, and having someone there to instruct and help families as needed. This makes it truly an all-church, intergenerational activity as you can have folks of all ages being in charge of a station.
The idea of this activity is to invite families to participate in various craft stations. Depending on the age of their children, parents may have to help their children complete the craft, or for older kids, parents can make their own. Be sure to have enough materials to cover both scenarios. Each station will focus on one part of the Easter story. You should print out and hang the passage of scripture that correlates with that stations, or print out small handouts each family can take with them and read again at home.
The event will culminate with everyone gathering together for a time of refreshments and hearing the summation of the Gospel message of Easter and an invitation to attend Easter services.
Ideas For Different Craft Stations:
- Palm Sunday Windsock – Use a paper printout of Palm Sunday clipart, color, and then roll into a circle, staple shut, and glue on green and yellow crepe paper streamers. Use a small hole punch to make a hole, and thread yarn through the top of the windsock to make a hanger!
- Lamb of God Craft – Talk about the Jewish Passover and the lamb sacrifice, and how Jesus is the Lamb of God. Cut a 5-inch circle out of white cardstock. Cut 2 half-inch finger holes at the bottom side of the circle. Children will place their fingers through the holes to make the lamb walk. Kids will glue cotton balls on to cover the circle (except for the finger holes). Glue on wiggle eyes, a black pom pom for a nose, and use black felt pieces for ears.
- Last Supper Craft – Have ingredients present for each family to make the traditional Jewish Passover salad Charoset. Have some take-out containers for them to bring it home with them after they make it. Of course, provide hand sanitizer, plastic utensils for tasting, and a way for them to wash the items they use.
Here is a kid-friendly recipe for a family: 1 large or 2 small apples. Wash & cut up into small pieces (peel if desired). 2/3 cup walnut pieces. Chopped (or place in a ziplock bag and crush) Add in the bowl: 4 teaspoons sugar, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, and 1 tablespoon grape juice (typically made with red wine, but grape juice is child-friendly). Stir all ingredients together. Place in their container. Ingredients will have time to flavor. When they arrive home they can serve it on Matzah, or plain crackers (optional). - Mosaic Cross Project – Cut out cross shapes from cardstock (use 6 by 6-inch paper). Place a pile of 1-inch by 1-inch squares of various colors of tissue paper. Have white craft glue ready to pour out into small condiment-size cups for everyone to use. Place a basket of cotton swabs on the table to use for putting glue on the cross. Have a pack of unsharpened pencils on the table to use as a tool. Provide markers to put names on projects and wipes for people to clean their hands when done.
Instructions:
Use the cotton swab and make a dab of glue on the cross. Pick up a piece of tissue paper and wrap it around the end of the pencil (center the square, then pull down the edges). Use the pencil to place the tissue paper into the spot of glue. Continue on in this fashion until the cross is filled. - Resurrection Rocks – Provide acrylic paint, various cleaned rocks (approx. 4-inch width), permanent markers to write with, paper towel for mess control, paper plates to use to paint their rock on, and water to rinse out brushes.
Instructions:
Let guests paint rocks how they desire and give them a chance to dry a bit. As they wait, read the story of Resurrection morning. Then write praise words on the rocks and encourage families to place the rocks around the neighborhood for others to find!
2. Easter Bonfire
This family-friendly event will be a time for gathering and connecting with other families around the campfire or fire pits set up in the church parking lot. Provide ingredients to make S’mores! Make sure you have something to use for roasting the marshmallows, you can purchase roasting sticks in bulk for this or use sticks. For a fun twist, what about providing ‘Peeps’ for the marshmallow in the S’more? Have some kind of drinks, hot cocoa or just water, plenty of napkins and wipes.
Ask your pastor or children’s director to share a devotion about how Jesus spent much time around the campfire with His disciples, preparing them for His departure and asking them to take the message of Jesus to others around them. Challenge your families to do the same!
Tip: Have some sort of seating available, you could use benches, ask people to bring their own lawn chairs, or use hay bales if you live in the country.
3. Easter Care & Share Event
Invite families to come and make small party favors and cards to give to a local nursing home, care facility, or adult day care. Provide materials for card making like stickers, markers, crayons, and sheets with verses or words of encouragement that people can copy into the cards.
For party favors, you could make large white styrofoam cups, put bunny faces on the front, cut out ears from construction paper and glue on the back of the cup, wiggle eyes, pink fun foam triangle for the nose, and pink marker for cheeks.
Place various items in the cup (ask church members to donate these items). These items could range from individual tissue packs, chapstick, decorative pens, mini notebooks, candy items, or even prayer cards.
Ask for volunteers to deliver the cups to the facility of your choice. Have a time of prayer over the favors before you send them off.
4. Easter Bingo Night
Make your own Bingo Cards (there are several places online where you can make them) and instead of using numbers, use pictures of different items/people in the Easter story. Across the top use the letters J-E-S-U-S instead of Bingo. (on your call tags and your game cards, be sure to mark S #1 and S #2, so you can keep those rows separate).
Invite families to come to play as a team. Give each family 2 cards to play together. For a fun twist, use jelly beans as your markers, and give each family a ziplock bag of jelly beans before the game begins. Warn them if they eat the jelly beans they will be eliminating their chance of winning!
Play the game like you would normal Bingo, have a small prize table where someone from the family who wins can come up and choose a prize from. Our ministry partner, CTA, Inc., is a great place to find Christian seasonal gifts for all ages.
Provide a time of hospitality and snacks following your games, which will give families a chance to connect with one another.
5. Scavenger Hunt With Benjamin’s Box
Use this beloved children’s book, Benjamin’s Box, for families in your church to hear the story of Jesus through the eyes of a boy in Jerusalem. While Benjamin finds items to put in his treasure box to remind him of what he is learning and seeing, you will provide a time for the families at your small church to make their own treasure box, and then put items in their box that they can take home and talk about with their family!
When families arrive, ask them to all sit together to hear the story of Benjamin’s Box. Have your pastor or someone who is a good dramatic reader, share the story. After the story has been read, invite everyone to go and make a family treasure box. You can use wooden boxes, chipboard boxes, shoe boxes, or even bakery boxes, whatever budget your small church can afford.
Provide items for families to decorate their boxes with like embellishments, stick-on gems, buttons, glue, glitter, paint, whatever you come up with!
Once the treasure boxes are made, have a table with items that represent what Benjamin put in his treasure box (they don’t have to match exactly, just a reminder), then have a printed list to place in the box as well.
This activity will bring the story of Easter right into the homes of all your guests and it will be a treasured activity that they can use year after year.
Tip: You may want a couple of hot glue guns heated and ready for older kids and adults to use to adhere some items to the box.
Share And Celebrate The Good News
One final tip: Set up a photo booth area at your event. Families love to capture photos to remember their activities. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to have a great backdrop and the guests at your event will appreciate it. This is also a way for them to remember your church and the kindness that they received from you!
Easter is the perfect time of year to invite new friends and families to your small church events. It is statistically proven that people are more open to accepting an invitation at this time of year. So go ahead and share the good news and celebrate the resurrection joy with your community!
We hope that you have discovered a new idea that you can try with your small church family. We would love to hear how it goes! Share some of your photos and stories on our Small Church Ministry Facebook page. You could be just the inspiration for another small church to try a new event! Happy Easter!
Read More:
6 Best Easter Event Ideas For Women’s Ministry
