Ban the Bunny...Happy Easter!!

I have a confession to make. In our house we have a ban on the Easter Bunny. Here's the story:
Several years ago one of my daughters became frightened the night we had gone to visit the Easter bunny at the mall. At first I thought "Sure, just an excuse to not go to bed and after we spent all the time in line!! How ungrateful!!!"
Then the charitable me (yes, there is one) thought "Wait a minute...a big bunny which may or may not be a man dressed up is coming into our house at night...Yep, kind of creepy!" And so I made a fateful decision.
I said "The Easter Bunny is not real. I put the candy and treats in your basket. See nothing to be afraid of, go to bed!"
Now some might say that I was just trying to get the whole "I'm scared" ordeal over with quickly, but I reasoned it like this.
Easter is really a more important holiday than Christmas. Yes, we celebrate the birth of the Savior, but isn't the resurrection of the Savior even more powerful? Without the atonement and resurrection of Christ there would be no eternal family for us. His birth is beautiful and there are wonderful songs to sing and celebrations to be had, but His death and resurrection are key to our salvation. With Santa Claus at least there is a spirit about him that emotes joy and hope and faith and believing in things we can't see. Santa I can more easily incorporate into our belief in the Savior.
But why do we get caught up in a big bunny? What does he do? He can't even talk!! And he doesn't even have elves!! I didn't want to take the fun out of Easter for my kids (and I definitely still wanted the Cadbury Eggs!) so this is our way of leaving the made up stuff out and concentrating on the meaning of Easter.
So I apologize if my kid is the one who tells your kid "The Easter Bunny is not real!", but because he has been raised to follow in the footsteps of Christ, hopefully he won't be hitting your kid while he debunks the myth. Sorry that's the best I can do.
The gift of His atonement and helping my family focus on that is more important to me. Maybe to you too.


So Ban the Bunny and Happy Easter :-)