I used to think that candy and decorated eggs were essential for Easter.  I’m not so sure about that anymore.

From my childhood, I recall with great fondness the baskets of candy at Easter, but the BEST gifts were the books.  Some Easter Sundays we would come to the breakfast table and find, on our chairs, lovely hard-bound copies of classic children’s books.  One year there was a white bound copy of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm on my chair. It has an inscription in it from my parents to me with the date. I still have that book.

I think that the giving of a quality book in a nice binding is a beautiful tradition for an Easter gift.  Far healthier than the sugar filled candies that grace the traditional Easter Baskets with the sugar highs that follow over-indulgence.  A great book feeds the mind and soul and helps to shape our understanding of the virtues by giving us characters, both historical and fictional, who demonstrate the virtues for us in their stories.  They can also demonstrate the sad results of failing to learn and live the virtues!

On the celebration of the Resurrection, it seems fitting to add to quality of life with good literature rather than risk long term health with so much candy.  Not that candy, which can symbolize the sweetness of life, isn’t a good thing.  In moderation, it can be very nice. It isn’t that the new life symbolized by the Easter eggs isn’t also a good thing.  I just think a new tradition of giving some sort of gift with long term value is better.

Now to book shop before Holy Week!