Our Favorite Easter Traditions

Happy Easter from all of us at Lehman’s.  We wish you a blessed day that is filled with joy!

In celebration of the day, we’re sharing with you some of our favorite Easter traditions we do with our own families.  After all, spending time with those we love is what A Simpler Life is all about!

Glenda Lehman Ervin, daughter of founder Jay Lehman and Director of Marketing:

Here are some of my favorite traditions and ideas for Easter:

1. Hide the Easter basket, inside or outside the house, and tell the child “warmer” as they get closer, or “colder” as they get father away.  It’s always fun to include statements like “You are frozen into an iceberg,” or “You are now on fire,” instead of just warmer or colder.
2. My mother always made fresh, homemade hot cross buns.  An English tradition dating back to the 1300s, these sweet buns feature an icing cross on the top. Find the recipe here.
3. Plant dirt and rye seed in the bottom of a lined Easter basket.  It grows very quickly and when you fill the basket with treats, it will be on top of a bed of real grass.
4. Now that my children are older (early 20s), they don’t want candy and chocolate in their Easter baskets, so I fill them with a favorite food.  My son, a carnivore who eats a very healthy diet, got a basket full of frozen steaks and chicken last year.  He loved it!  My daughter, who loves to bake, got a basket full of baking supplies and tools.
5. Color hardboiled Easter eggs but mark one for “Dad” or “Grandpa” and color a raw egg.  We used to do this for my father (Jay Lehman, company founder) every year so he was expecting it.  He would always make a big deal of tossing it around, saying he was going to keep it in his pocket or smash it on his forehead, all the while us children would scream “no” and giggle at his antics.   He eventually broke the egg on a plate and exclaimed how we tricked him once again.

Zach Coblentz, Chief Operating Officer:

The Easter week is my favorite week of the year.  For me it is a season of growth, the trees come back to life, the flowers start to bloom, and I feel a spiritual growth deep inside me.  I love following along what Jesus was doing each of the days leading up to His resurrection on Easter, and I enjoy sharing these stories with my wife and kids.  We learn a lot by putting ourselves in the shoes of the people that were in Jerusalem at that time. 

The night before Easter my wife and I hide our kids’ Easter baskets after the kids go to bed, and of course, the first thing we do when everyone wakes up is let the kids find their Easter basket.  My kids are all teenagers now, so I don’t know if we do this for them or my lovely wife, either way we love it.  After that we get ready, take a family picture and head off to Church. 

We love the Easter traditions of our church as well.  Of course, we have to sing our special songs like “I am He.”  After church, we get together with extended family and hide Easter eggs and enjoy each other’s company.  My favorite tradition though is the feeling I get from Easter; it happens every year and has become my favorite tradition.  It’s the feeling that Jesus came to save me, He came to save us all.   

Sue Bukovitz, Customer Service Manager:

Instead of filling Easter baskets, my in-laws create a scavenger hunt for all the grandkids. As the kids find the eggs, they’ll have anything from a piece of candy, some change, or a riddle inside. The riddle might be something like “rub a dub dub, you’ll find this gift in the _______” . The kids take turns reading the riddles, complete the together and race to the location where the small gifts are located. They bring back the gifts, colored coded to each family member and the hunt continues.

We’ve also done glow in the dark Easter eggs hunts with our kiddos. It’s a fun twist on the hunt! Simply snap a small glow stick to activate it and place it inside the Easter egg. Hide them in the yard about an hour before dark and watch as they “appear” in the yard for the kids to find.

Melissa Smail, Retail Marketing Specialist:

Growing up, my parents always got us up insanely early on Easter morning, which now as an adult seems like a normal time to wake. The purpose of the early rising was to have time to hunt all the dyed Easter eggs before the sunrise service at our church.   

(Sunrise service at my parent’s church – it’s so beautiful. Because of the direction of the balcony windows, the sun shines directly on the cross and the alter as the service begins)

The first egg of the hunt was always in our church shoes, which we made sure to set out the night before. It was so exciting to wipe away the grogginess of the early morning to see a colored egg IN OUR SHOES! We always thought we’d catch the Easter Bunny in action trying to slip that in our rooms but alas, we never did…I wonder why… 

My first year being away from home on Easter morning, my husband knew how homesick I was and so he snuck an egg into my shoe before we woke. It is such a sweet memory. 

I can’t wait to start this tradition with my daughter too.