Easter is Coming – What if Your Student Can’t Come Home?

Easter is early this year, which may make it hard for some students to come home, especially if they came home or traveled elsewhere for Spring Break, just two weeks earlier.

One of our daughters has Spring Break the first week of March, but our second daughter has it when most universities in the south have it, during the second week of March, the 11th through the 15th. With Easter on Sunday, March 31st this year, it may be difficult to justify a second trip home.

So, what if your student, who is usually home for Easter, isn’t this year? What will you do?

For those who celebrate Easter, it can be a double-whammy for families – not only do you not get to see your student, but you also miss an important religious celebration.

Some ideas to help the far-away kid feel included:

·      Send your student a Bible Study that you can discuss together in the weeks leading up to Easter. (My favorite is https://www.alabasterco.com/products/the-good-and-beautiful-bible-study?_pos=1&_psq=bible-study&_ss=e&_v=1.0)

·      Send some filled egg-hunt eggs ahead of time to a friend or roommate and have them stage an Easter Egg hunt on Easter morning.

·      Facetime while attending an online service on Easter Sunday. Watch the service together, hear the sermon, and pray together.

·      Have an Easter meal delivered to them and eat together on Facetime.

·      Encourage them to volunteer at a local church, food pantry or shelter, to embrace the spirit of the season.

·      Have a family discussion about what everyone gave up for Lent and why.

And of course, at The College Care Package Company, we always encourage parents to send a box full of love for meaningful occasions. We have an Easter box for him and for her. We’re sending two Easter boxes to our daughters and their roommates to arrive around the 1st of March, so they can enjoy it for the entire month leading up to Easter.

Contents for HER: Compendium thoughtful notes - “Hope” or “Living with Intention,” Warmie bunny - heat in the microwave for aches and pains, bunny nightlight, desktop wooden Peep, Easter hair scrunchie, Easter bunny socks, Sour Patch bunnies, 5 egg-hunt plastic eggs filled with silly Easter jokes and your choice of candy, squishies, mini bunnies and chicks, small wooden cross and CASH.

Contents for HIM: Easter socks, spring bowtie, marshmallow Peeps, Sour Patch bunnies, Spring Mix Jelly Bellies, beef jerkey, 5 egg-hunt plastic eggs filled with silly Easter jokes and your choice of candy, fruit snacks, fidget toys, small wooden cross and CASH.

Whether close in distance or far away, make Easter with your college student special. The landscape of holidays will change as they get closer to starting their own, truly independent lives. Start new family traditions they can take into adulthood.