Even though many of us try to focus our attention at Easter time on the historical and Biblical miracle of the resurrection of Jesus – let’s be honest. Most of our memories aren’t of sitting in a lovely church service listening to stirring music and a sermon, but rather of other, well, less spiritual elements. What we wore. What we ate. Who found that last, tough-to-find Easter egg. And standing still for the annual Easter family photo. There’s no shame in these memories. I believe God enjoys his people having fun. And Easter was always fun!

Easter Fashions

I grew up with a sister and have also been blessed to have a daughter, so finding or making a special Easter dress is just in my DNA. Half the fun was definitely in the planning. And wearing hats when we were little. I’m the short one in this photo where we are all wearing our classic Easter bonnets.

Our Mom was great with sewing, so I think for many years our dresses were birthed from those gigantic pattern catalogs that you could look through in the fabric department at our downtown J.C. Penney store. Together, Mom and I would try to agree on a pattern. I have a funny teenage memory of wanting to choose a sundress with very thin, delicate shoulder straps. Mom immediately squashed that idea because she couldn’t work out in her mind what “undergarment” I would be able to wear underneath it. Duh, the answer was “strapless” but Mom didn’t want to go there with me. We went with a more modest choice that year (and always!).

As I began to sew or buy Easter outfits for my own kids I also really enjoyed the planning and the dreaming. I would make my own trips to the local Hancock’s Fabric store in Georgia to get started on an Easter creation for my daughter. My son would just usually get a new shirt to wear with his standard “Sunday” pants. Maybe some new shoes if he had outgrown the others. But boys are definitely easy when it comes to Easter fashion.

Easter Foods

For Easter lunch, my childhood family leaned heavily into the traditional Easter ham, deviled eggs, a green vegetable, baked beans smothered in brown sugar, and potato salad. When it comes to my kids, though, ham would not prove to be a favorite. But no matter the meat from year to year, we still clung to the Davis family Easter side dishes – including the sugary baked beans.

But let’s be honest again. The real stars of Easter foods are not meats and vegetables. You and I both know it’s the candies, cakes, and maybe even a lemon meringue pie! I could live for days on only those little Brach’s Malted Milk Eggs. And let’s not overlook Cadbury eggs and any brand of jelly beans. Yum!

Dyed Eggs & Hunts

To this day, the smell of vinegar takes me right back to my childhood kitchen where my sister, mom, and I had hard-boiled eggs ready to dye. We had coffee cups lined up – each with a mixture of boiling water, vinegar, and a different shade of food coloring. We used those little wire egg holders to dip our eggs and then placed them back into the egg carton to dry. Then they went back into the fridge to wait for Sunday.

Our family egg hunts were pretty simple. After church and lunch, either Mom or Dad would take our chilled eggs outside and hide them. Mom’s flowers had usually started growing for the spring at this point, so there were lots of leaves and blooms to hide them under. If Dad did the hiding – well, some eggs were probably never found. His hiding spots were way too ingenious for two little girls to discover. 

Easter Family Photos

My dad was a dang good amateur photographer, so of course, he had a fresh roll of film ready for Easter Sunday. If I remember correctly, he usually wisely took our family photo just before we got in the car to head to Sunday School at First Baptist. If he had waited until his little girls came home after several hours at church, I don’t think we would have looked as polished as we did at 9:15 a.m. 

Collecting Memories

All of Dad’s Easter photos as well as the ones that I took of my own kids are very, very precious to me. They hold a place of honor in my family’s digital story and photo collection. If you have read down this far, then thank you for letting me walk down memory lane for a few paragraphs.

Did my Easter memories stir up your own? I hope so. When you have a chance, write them down. You don’t have to write a book or even an essay. Just a few paragraphs will capture memories that you can share with future generations as they are creating their own.

And, to circle back to where I began, the resurrection of Jesus is actually very important to me. As we loved to say at the Easter church services before we headed home for lunch and candy – “He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Hallelujah.” Hallelujah, indeed.