Celebrate this season of renewal, abundance and love with some new family traditions. Here are seven ideas:
1. Create a kindness wreath for your front door. Begin with a small, plain wreath. A week or two before Easter, distribute 10 or more ribbons in bright spring colors to each family member. Whenever someone reaches out to another in kindness during the week, another ribbon is tied onto the wreath.
2. Fill a wicker basket with handmade cards featuring cheerful messages and perhaps a small gift or two. Leave the basket anonymously on a friend's doorstep, along with a request that they empty the basket and do the same for someone else.
3. Sit down with your children and each create a special collage or drawing that depicts what Easter means to each of you. The artwork can become a permanent part of your family's Easter decorations. Before they go into storage at the end of the season, scan them or take a photograph so you can record the artwork in your family journal or scrapbook album.
4. Videotape (or audiotape) young children singing a fun seasonal song. These renditions of "Little Bunny Foo Foo" and "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" will be treasured for years to come. Make copies and send the tapes to family and friends whom you can't be with on Easter.
5. When it's time for your annual Easter get together, present each guest with a 6x6 or 8x8 sheet of cardstock and ask them to handwrite a message especially for the Easter holiday - perhaps ways that they are feeling joy, gratitude, or hopefulness. Snap a photo of each guest and create a simple (and quick) mini scrapbook album as a keepsake, featuring one page for each guest - with their photo and Easter message.
6. Make a Garden Journal. Cover an ordinary dime-store composition book or journal with spring patterned papers or magazine clippings of your favorite flowers. Now record the process of creating your family garden this year. Make sure to include pictures of each of you working in the soil. Don't forget the journaling - and lots of flower pressings.
7. Buy or make handmade Easter greeting cards and send them to friends and family. Make a point to send out at least seven cards this season to people with whom you'd like to create a deeper friendship.
May these ideas for Easter family traditions spark more ideas that you can use throughout the year to celebrate the beauty that comes to us through friends and family.
Susie Cortright is the founder of Momscape.com as well as Momscape's Online Scrapbooking Magazine and Momscape's Organic Living Channel - all of which celebrate the simple splendor in our everyday lives. Visit her site today to subscribe to her free weekly newsletters featuring fresh new ideas and inspiration.