When Did Easter Become Christmas

The other day I was scrolling through Instagram (as one does when procrastinating sermon-writing), and I stumbled upon a video titled “What I Bought My Kids for Easter.” The woman in the video started off by saying, “I know you’re supposed to buy your kids bikes for Easter, but I decided to do something a little smaller…”

Wait—what?

Buy your kid a bike for Easter?!

When did Easter become Christmas 2.0? I mean, growing up, I was lucky if I got a few chocolates and maybe—maybe—a hollow bunny. Easter was never about the Bunny, or baskets, or sugar crashes. It was the greatest Christian celebration of the year. It was the day the world turned upside down, because Jesus defeated death.

And we felt it.

There was this electric, euphoric joy that coursed through the whole church community. The sanctuary would ring with triumphant music. There was genuine laughter. People—usually so reserved—would shout: “He is Risen!” with a force that could lift the roof. It wasn’t just a holiday. It was the culmination of hope.

Easter has always been my favourite. And not just the Sunday morning service, but the whole weekend. Honestly, since becoming a minister, my love for Easter has only deepened.

From planning and shopping for our Maundy Thursday Seder dinner, to draping the sanctuary in black for Good Friday, to sitting in the aching stillness of Holy Saturday, to writing my Easter sermon and preparing for that first breathtaking note of the Hallelujah chorus—every part of it is sacred. Every part adds to the anticipation, the emotion, the sense that something cosmic has shifted.

And when Easter morning finally arrives? When the music swells and the alleluias ring out and I look out over the congregation and see joy spilling from faces young and old—my heart nearly bursts. I carry that joy with me for days.

Looking back over the past 40-something Easter Sundays of my life, I can honestly say: it’s never been the hot cross buns, or the chocolate, or even the egg hunts that made them special. It’s been the feeling—that surge of joy, that deep knowing—that no matter how broken this world seems, no matter the pain or the conflict, life wins. Love wins. God wins.

Because Jesus is alive. And because of that, we are promised an everlasting communion with God.

So sure, give your kids a chocolate bunny. But maybe skip the bike.

Let Easter be Easter. Let it be joy. Let it be resurrection.

Amen.

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