Use this Easter skit: The Old Rabbits’ Home to help children learn the real meaning of Easter.

The easy-to-read dialogue has delivery cues built right in. Follow up the production with the discussion questions provided at the end of the script.

The Simple Skit Setup

Do what you can to make the actors look like rabbits; at the least, give them cardboard rabbit ears taped to paper headbands. N.R. Jizer wears sunglasses, and the Stranger has a cane. Place five chairs in a row across the stage, facing the audience. Make sure your actors understand that they should use elderly voices, that “N.R. Jizer” sounds like “Energizer,” and that Plugs Bunny talks as much like an elderly Bugs Bunny as possible. (Note: Before the performance, you may want to review the special pronunciation of some of Plugs Bunny’s words.)

The Scene

The porch of a retirement home

The Skit Characters

• N.R. Jizer, a nonstop talker
• Trixie Rabbit, who’s obsessed with fruit flavors
• Plugs Bunny, a hard-of-hearing wise guy
• Codger Rabbit, who’s cranky and feeble
• Stranger, who’s friendly but quiet

The characters in this skit are all rabbits; four of them parody “famous” rabbits (the Energizer batteries bunny, the Trix cereal rabbit, Bugs Bunny, and Roger Rabbit from the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit.) Actors of either gender could play most roles, with minor word changes.

Puppet Options

This skit lends itself perfectly to puppets—if you can find five rabbit puppets. Make paper sunglasses for N.R. Jizer and, perhaps, paper eyeglass frames for the other rabbits. If you want to mix puppets and live actors, cast a leader as Stranger.

Extra Touches

If you have time, add costume and makeup details—pink noses with whiskers, buck teeth, and clothing such as suspenders and bow ties.

Easter Skit: The Old Rabbits’ Home

(As the skit begins, all characters except Stranger are onstage, sitting in a row of chairs and looking into the distance.)

N.R.: Well, just look at that sunset. Too bad my eyes aren’t what they used to be. Which reminds me of the time I was marching down the highway in the dark, beating my drum, and a logging truck hit me. I just kept going and going and going.

Trixie: (Interrupting.) Oh, don’t get started on that again! It is a nice sunset, though. Reminds me of a bowl of cereal:  raspberry red. lemon yellow, orange orange. Ah, but that cereal is for kids! Right, Plugs?

Plugs: Ehh, what’s that doc?

Trixie: (Speaking louder.) I said, “ISN’T THAT RIGHT?”

Plugs: Bright? Yeah, it’s bright! Brightest sunset I’ve seen today!

Codger: It’s the only sunset you’ve seen today! I don’t know why I hang around with you gray hares. I’m a movie star! At least I was until I was framed! I was framed, I tell you, or my name isn’t Codger Rabbit! (Starts coughing.)

A New Bunny in Town

(Stranger enters the stage, walking with a cane.)

Stranger: Hello! Mind if I join you?

N.R.: Nope. Are you new here?

Stranger: (Sitting.) Yep, I’ve just retired.

N.R.: Then welcome to the old rabbits’ home! I’m N.R. Jizer. (Points at others, introducing them.) This is Trixie Rabbit; that’s Plugs Bunny; and down there is Codger Rabbit He used to be a movie star, you know.

Codger: Until I was framed! (Starts coughing again.) Framed, I tell you!

N.R.: And what’s your name, stranger?

Stranger: Oh, just call me Bunny.

Plugs: Funny? What kind of name is that?

Stranger: Bunny! Just call me Bunny!

Plugs: Ehh, what’s that, doc?

Unbelievable Acts

N.R.: Nevermind. Look at that sunset. Reminds me of the time I march around the world in eighteen days. Just kept beating that drum—BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! Right into the sunset! Nothing could stop me! I just kept going and going and going.

Trixie: (Interrupting.) And you’re still going and going on and on about all the unbelievable things you’ve done! Well, I can top that! I remember the time those little kids wouldn’t let me have any of their cereal. Ah, that cereal! Blueberry blue, grape purple, watermelon pink.

N.R.: (Interrupting.) Get to the point, will you?

Trixie: They wouldn’t even let me have a taste! So I stuffed them into a van and drove to the cereal factory and dumped them in food coloring! That taught them a lesson, I’ll tell you! They came out lime green, apricot gold, and mushroom gray.

N.R.: (Interrupting.) Enough with the colors! That’s quite a story, but I’ll bet Plugs Bunny can beat it! Right, Plugs?

Plugs: Ehh, what’s that, doc?

N.R.: (Speaking louder.) I said, “You can beat that!”

Plugs: Eat what? Not that cereal! It’s for kids!

N.R.: Forget the cereal! We want to hear a story about the most unbelievable thing you’ve ever done.

Plugs: Oh! That would be the time I burned Elmer Flub. It was the opening day of wabbit…I mean rabbit hunting season. I was munching carrots, minding my own business when suddenly my whole world exploded! Old Elmer was shooting at me! So I turned, and I reached up and tied his shotgun in a knot.  Next time he fired, he was toast.

Codger: (Speaking loudly.) What’s so unbelievable about that? My story is an unbelievable one.

Plugs: Oh, yeah? What’s your story, doc?

Codger: (Pauses.) I was framed!

N.R., Trixie, and Plugs: WE KNOW!

The Newcomer’s Background

N.R.: (Speaking to Stranger.) How about you, newcomer? What’s the most unbelievable thing you’ve ever done?

Stranger: (Pauses.) Hmm, I guess that would be…Easter.

Trixie: Easter? What about it?

Stranger: Well, I managed to convince everybody that it was really about colored eggs.

N.R.: What?

Trixie: Colored eggs?

Codger: You’re kidding!

Plugs: That’s the most ridiculous thing I ever heard!

N.R.: Now listen, Stranger. We like to tell some tall tales around here. But that whopper you just told is a little too unbelievable!

Codger: Yeah! Who would fall for a story that said Easter was about colored eggs?

Stranger: Oh, you’d be surprised.

Plugs: And I suppose you got everybody to forget about the real meaning of Easter?

N.R.: About that man who died, then came back and just kept going and going and going?

Stranger: That’s right.

Codger: (Getting up.) Well, you can’t expect us to believe that, pal. We weren’t born yesterday, you know!

N.R.: (Getting up.) Not by a long shot!

Plugs: (Getting up.) Colored eggs, my foot! What’s up with that, doc?

N.R.: Well, it’s time to get inside for dinner. Probably mashed carrotts again.

(All groan and exit the stage except for Trixie and Stranger, who talk on their way out.)

Trixie: Say, bunny, these colored eggs—were they Raspberry Red?

Stranger: Yup.

Trixie: Lemon yellow?

Stranger: Yep.

Trixie: Orange orange?

Stranger: You got it.

Trixie: Ooh. (Exits the stage.)

Stranger: Gets ’em every time! (Exits the stage.)

For Discussion

Scriptures to Read

Matthew 28:5-7 and 1 Corinthians 15:17-22.

To Talk About

Ask:

• About how old were you when you first heard of the Easter bunny?
• What did you think when you heard about him?
• Which do you suppose more people think of when they hear the word “Easter”: colored eggs or Jesus? Why?
• What do you think is the best way to celebrate Easter? Why?
• In no more than 10 words, how would you explain to someone who’d never heard of Easter why it’s important?

Excerpted from Instant Skits for Children’s Ministry by John Duckworth (Group).

Looking for even more great ideas for Easter? Check out all our Easter posts.