Each milestone and holiday after you lose your angel baby can feel like you’re losing them all over again. These are the days that we dreamed of – taking pictures, dressing them in adorable outfits, and watching their faces light up with delight.
Losing a baby is a heartbreaking experience that can make special occasions like Easter especially difficult. However, finding ways to include your baby in Easter celebrations can help honor their memory and keep their spirit alive.
Whether this is the first year without your baby or the 10th, it’s not too late to create new traditions. Each stage of grief is so different, so give yourself the freedom to make plans and then change them. What feels right this year may not be right next year. But I encourage you to put some thought into what you would like to do before holidays and milestones arrive. When you have a flexible plan in place for special days, it can help steady you on the day of.
Here are some simple ways to include your baby who passed away in Easter celebrations:
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1. Light a candle in memory of your baby during Easter dinner
You could also decorate a candle with your baby’s name or a special message. Consider getting a specific candle like one of these to light on special occasions for your baby.
2. Attend an Easter service or event in memory of your baby
Go to church and celebrate the risen Savior who has made it possible for us to be reunited with our babies one day! You could light a candle or say a prayer in their memory during the service.
3. Take a family picture with a framed picture, a stuffed animal, a blanket, or some other symbol for your sweet baby
This is one of my favorite way to include my son!
4. Create a special Easter craft or artwork in memory of your baby
This could be something as simple as a painting or drawing, or you could make an Easter-themed ornament with your baby’s name or photo. If you have living children, consider getting a craft like this where your little ones could decorate a cross for their heavenly sibling!
5. Cook a special Easter meal or dessert in memory of your baby
You could make a food you craved when you were pregnant with them or try a new recipe that you think they would have enjoyed.
6. Take a moment to journal
You can write a letter to your baby and tell them how you wish they could participate in the celebration here. You can also journal to our Savior on this special day and thank him for dying so that you and your baby can live in eternity with him. Consider getting a journal for these special occasions so you can have all these letters in the same place, year after year.
7. Make them a plate for Easter Dinner
This simple, tangible action of setting a place for them at the table can be such a sweet way to include them and acknowledge their absence.
8. Create a special Easter basket or gift in memory of your child
You could include items that remind you of them, such as a book, stuffed animal, or toys appropriate for the age they would be. You could also fill it with gifts for your living children from your heavenly child. If your kids believe in the Easter Bunny, maybe he could leave flowers for your baby to decorate their grave.
9. Decorate their resting place or memorial spot
If you have a shelf or spot in your home where you display remembrance items, you can add Easter decorations. If they have a spot in a cemetery you can give their gravestone a spring facelift. You could visit the cemetery on Easter and take a family picture there. Here are some suggestions for how to spruce up their memorial place that you could use year after year.
10. Wear jewelry in honor of your baby
If you have a locket, necklace with his or her initials, bracelet, or t-shirt that reminds you of your baby, you can feel more connected to them by wearing it on Easter. This is a simple, subtle way to acknowledge that you want them to be a part of the day. Here are some examples of jewelry that you could wear in honor of your little one.
11. Dress your memorial stuffed animal in an Easter outfit
This is a bittersweet way to do something tangible for your baby. If you have an Easter onesie that you dreamed of putting on your baby, and you have a stuffed animal in their memory, you could dress the stuffed animal in the outfit. It can be so sweet to see the outfit put to use. Any living siblings are sure to love participating in this one.
12. Plan an Easter egg hunt
Whether you have living children, nieces and nephews, or you are fun-loving, competitive adults, you should plan a classic Easter egg hunt! A simple way to include your baby in this would be to hide a symbol of your baby as the prize egg. You could tell your kids that your baby sent the prize egg so that he or she could celebrate Easter with them or you could just tell them that you’re doing it in their honor. Write your baby’s initials on the egg, specially decorate it, and fill it with the best candy, stuffed animal, money, or other symbol. Get creative!
Remember you don’t have to do anything at all for your baby to be loved and remembered this Easter. You should do whatever feels right for you and your family this year. Everyone grieves differently, and it’s important to find ways to honor and remember your baby that feel meaningful and comforting to you.
I’m praying that this Easter you are comforted by the knowledge that our babies are with the resurrected savior and we will see them again.
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Romans 8:18
Be sure to check out other resources for baby loss here.
Thanks for reading!
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