How an Easter Tree Helps Our Family Focus on the Roles of the Savior

By Anne Maxson

A few years ago, my husband felt that we needed to increase the reminders in our home to celebrate Easter. This included gathering a number of decorations and an “Easter Tree” and “Easter Nativity” in addition to a number of daily devotionals for Lent and the Easter Season. We have loved how this has helped us to focus on the Savior even more during this time.  

The church I attended growing up had a large focus on the Easter season. Starting with Ash Wednesday at the beginning of Lent, and ending with the Holy Week celebrations - Palm Sunday, a Passover Seder Supper on Thursday, Good Friday church services, and (very) early sunrise services on Easter Sunday. I am very grateful for the knowledge, understanding, and fond memories those traditions and experiences brought to me. 

That said, as I learned more of Christ through the teachings found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, my knowledge expanded immensely in regard to what the Atonement of Christ meant for me personally. I came to understand that through the Atonement of Christ, I was not only promised the opportunity for resurrection and forgiveness from sins but also that I could rely on Christ to help me in my everyday life. 

In his October 2015 General Conference talk entitled, “Strengthened by the Atonement of Jesus Christ,“ President Dallin H. Oaks shared, “Our Savior’s Atonement does more than assure us of immortality by a universal resurrection and give us the opportunity to be cleansed from sin by repentance and baptism. His Atonement also provides the opportunity to call upon Him who has experienced all of our mortal infirmities to give us the strength to bear the burdens of mortality. He knows of our anguish, and He is there for us. Like the good Samaritan, when He finds us wounded at the wayside, He will bind up our wounds and care for us. The healing and strengthening power of Jesus Christ and His Atonement is for all of us who will ask.”

One of my favorite parts of our Easter Tree is the ornaments that we have that have names associated with the Savior. Each one helps me to focus a bit more on the depth of my relationship with the Savior. 

I loved this invitation that Sister Runia shared in her talk entitled “Your Repentance Doesn’t Burden Jesus Christ; It Brightens His Joy,” at the April 2025 General Conference - “Tonight, before you pray, imagine Jesus Christ close by. He is your Advocate with the Father. Ask yourself, ‘What would my Savior say to the Father about me?’ And then become silent. Listen for that voice that says good things about you—the voice of the Savior, your finest friend, and your Father in Heaven, who is really there.”

We are each seen, known, and loved by the Savior and our Heavenly Father. As we celebrate Easter and reflect on all that it means, we are better able to gain an understanding of this truth.