Christmas is such an easy time to get the kids excited about Jesus. We celebrate His birth with much happiness and fanfare. The books and activities are full of joy and hope and wonder. It’s not hard to gather the family around to talk about such beautiful things.

Easter is a different story. It involves death. A really ugly, horrible death. The story also includes hate and betrayal and many other hard subjects for us as parents to explain and for kids to understand.

But as hard as it may be, the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus is the most important story we will ever tell to our children. And while the Easter season gets cluttered with candy, bunnies, eggs, and all sorts of other harmless fun, there are plenty of resources for making Jesus central to this holiday.

We have some old and new favorite family Easter books to help us do just that…

The Tale of Three Trees by Angela E. Hunt

I just keep this book out year-round because it applies to Easter, Christmas, and any time! I’ve read it many, many times, but I still got all choked up reading it to the boys yesterday! The thing I love the most about this book is that the dreams of each tree turn out differently than they imagined, but so much more wonderful because they happened with God and to glorify Him. Talk about God-sized dreams, right?!

The Easter Story for Children by Max Lucado

This goes along with The Story, which we are reading as a family this year. I feel like the illustrations in this book capture a lot of intense emotion not shown in other children’s books about Jesus’s death and resurrection. I found it very powerful.

Jesus Enters Jerusalem and He Is Risen: The Beginner’s Bible Easter Flip Book

This book tells the story of Jesus’s last days on one side, then the story of His resurrection when you flip it over, all in the style of The Beginner’s Bible. The book also includes stickers that represent each part of the story. I think this would be a great sequence activity with kids – cut out the stickers and have them line them up on paper in the correct order of the story! Great discussion opportunity! {The teacher in me never stops thinking!}

The Story of Easter

This is a new board book from Tommy Nelson this year and it is SO cute! The bright illustrations and little handle have our one-year-old carrying it around as he goes! The story is short and rhyming – great for keeping his attention – but it also covers the key parts of the Easter message. It’s never too early to help our children know of the love Jesus had for us when He died on the cross.

The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones

{As I’m writing this, the Kindle versionis only $1.99! These prices change without notice, so please check before buying! And you don’t have to have a Kindle to read it! There are Kindle apps for all devices and computers!}

Well, you already know how much I love this Bible and how we read through the first 24 stories leading up to Christmas, but the New Testament portion is just as wonderful and powerful. If you’re reading in the week leading up to Easter, start with “The Servant King” on Wednesday, “A dark night in the garden” on Thursday, and “The sun stops shining” on Friday. Take Saturday to reflect, and then wake up bright and early Sunday morning to read “God’s wonderful surprise” together! And bring your Kleenex. This story Bible makes me cry EVERY. TIME.

I learned of Resurrection Eggs at our MOPS group a few years back, but only last year did I learn of a book to go along with them! And this year, another Resurrection Eggs book was released. If you’re looking for a book to use as a guide, check out these two:

Lily’s Easter Party: The Story of the Resurrection Eggs by Crystal Bowman

Benjamin’s Box: The Story of the Resurrection Eggs by Melody Carlson

I also wanted to let you know about a wonderful new Easter family devotion ebook written by my friend, Katie Orr!

Find More Jesus: How to Make Easter All about Jesus is an 8-day devotional for keeping Christ at the center of the holiday. You can also do all of the activities together on Easter morning – it is very adaptable! Katie’s heart for helping children see the real meaning of Easter shines through in this easy-to-read, easy-to-use book for the whole family.

Katie includes a supply list, Scripture readings for each day, a personal focus to emphasize with each activity, and discussion ideas. I think this is the PERFECT book for families, especially those with young children just starting to learn of Easter and those who want to change the way they have normally celebrated the Easter holiday.

I look forward to starting this with our boys on Sunday and you can join us! The ebook is only $2.99 both for PDF and on Kindle!

And you could win one of five copies TODAY ONLY! Enter below to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*I was provided review copies of some of these books, but was not compensated in any way for their inclusion in this post. They were included simply because our family enjoys them! All opinions are 100% my own!

**This post contains affiliate links.