Stuffed animals, live chicks, decorated eggs, chocolate-covered marshmallow bunnies, new spring apparel, style shows, fashion parades, egg hunts, spring breaks, short vacations, ham dinners and snapshots of the kids in all their new Easter season finery. That’s all OK — if kept in perspective.

But let’s remember the real Easter.

Because Easter without Jesus is like Christmas without Christ.

The last supper, prayers in Gethsemane, the betrayal and arrest of Jesus, the mock trial, a cock crowing three times as Peter denied any connection with his Lord, the scourging, a crown of thorns, suffering, anguish, despair, the march to Calvary, Christ’s plea for forgiveness for his tormentors, the sacrifice, death on the cross, burial in a garden tomb.

But then on the third day came the joyous promise of Easter. The resurrection! A stone rolled away, an empty tomb, encounters with the risen Lord on the Emmaus Road, His appearance among the apostles in the upper room, convincing the doubting Thomas that it was Jesus standing before him.

Gifts from God: Forgiveness, salvation, an incomprehensible love, promise of joy and eternal life.

Such is the real Easter.