My advice is let children be children. I seriously doubt that parents will damage their children if they give them a chocolate bunny at Easter, new clothes, and a stuffed bunny rabbit.
My advice is let children be children. I seriously doubt that parents will damage their children if they give them a chocolate bunny at Easter, new clothes, and a stuffed bunny rabbit.
Generally, children up to the age of six or seven are not asking questions like “Is the Easter Bunny real?” They are more interested in the experience of being full of chocolate than existential questions of being or differentiating between Jesus and the Easter Bunny.
To be perfectly transparent, my perspective is shaped primarily by the way I was raised. I was introduced to the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, but it never interfered with my coming to faith in Jesus.
I never doubted the reality of the risen Christ. I simply enjoyed the chocolate and the presents and moved on from there.
Now, you might have a precocious child, who will ask profound questions (and who doesn’t think they have a “genius” in their midst). But the reality is that they may at one moment pose a profound theological question and at the next minute ask for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Answer the question and make the sandwich.
Now having expressed my opinion, I would encourage caution in mixing fictional characters like the Easter Bunny with church.
At Temple, we do not have the Easter Bunny show up at church to meet the children, nor do we have Santa show up at Christmas.
Perhaps, this simple separation is enough to help children understand that there is a profound difference between fantasy and reality.
But, what about Easter egg hunts? Frankly, I didn’t know that this was an issue with some churches. We do have Easter egg hunts off campus; however, as children come to me with their parents with a desire to come to Christ. I have never had one child or one parent say, “They are confused about the reality of Jesus and the reality of the Easter Bunny.”
So go buy a chocolate bunny (not the hollow kind, but the solid ones) and have fun with your children.
And by the way, send me some “Gold Brick Eggs,” I love those things.
Rick Byargeon