With Easter quickly approaching, you may be eager to share certain holiday traditions with your kids.
You may look back fondly at some of your childhood traditions, but there may be others you wish you could ditch. The secret is combining your favorites with new ones to create what your children will remember. Be sure to take on only those that make sense and not overload yourself.
The ideas below are great things to incorporate into your Easter traditions. These can be fun ways to spend the holiday with your kids and find some new things to do. Take your favorites, but don’t feel pressured to take on everything. You can adjust if some don’t work well for you and your family.
Make and Hide Easter Baskets
One of the staples of Easter is the Easter basket. Filling the basket with some candy and little toys is similar to the practice of the Christmas stocking. You need things that will fit easily within the basket. Your budget can be as big or small as you like. Small kids are happy with little things. The traditional grass can be an issue, but you can use green tissue paper just as easily, and it’s way less messy.
Hiding the entire Easter basket creates an entertaining element. This is one of the traditions I brought with me when having kids. The excitement kids get from searching for their goodies is a lot of fun. Be sure to take pictures of them discovering their baskets.
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Go to Brunch
Plenty of restaurants host brunch, but they get busy, so you may need to book ahead. Getting dressed up and going out for brunch after some Easter basket hunting is a great way to move into the next portion of the day and ensure everyone is fed and happy. You could also meet other family members there and enjoy a meal together without anyone having to cook.
The other great thing about brunch is that your kids can choose from breakfast or lunch food, which should help them find something they like. If going out sounds like too much, you could have brunch at home and prepare the food yourself and then let people pick what they want to eat.
Attend or Host an Egg Hunt
This one is another activity you can venture to or host at home. Easter egg hunts happen in many communities. Sometimes they’re plastic eggs, and sometimes, they’re candy eggs. It all depends on the event.
You can set it up at home or scour local egg hunts to find one. Hopefully, you’ll have nice weather, but if not, you can always have one indoors. My kids even started asking me to hide eggs for them at other times of the year, which can be fun for a while anyway.
Make Cut-Out Cookies
Just like with other holidays, cut-out cookies are an enjoyable Easter activity. We have cookie cutters for all holidays and even a few more fun ones, like dinosaurs and unicorns. If you don’t want to make dough from scratch (which I get. It can be a pain), there are many ready-made options for you to look into, and they’re not all that different. They work well, and I’ve become a fan just because it makes the whole process faster.
The thing I keep in mind when doing cut-out cookies for different holidays is that it’s okay if some snowmen get mixed in with your bunny cookies. Let the kids pick what they want, and you can have a great time with this activity. We tend to get snow in April still, so why not? It’s possible to build a snowman this month yet.
See some of our favorite cookie decorations here ->
Enjoy a Meal Together
Having a special meal is another great staple of a holiday. Growing up, we always had ham and side dishes like potatoes and rolls. This one is a simple tradition, and you can incorporate your favorite foods.
Gather Around a Fire
Whether you build a bonfire outside or in the fireplace, you can gather with your family around the fire. This tradition comes from northeastern Europe to shoo away winter and welcome spring. You can tell stories or make smores. Whatever you do, this is a cozy way to spend Easter evening.
Have an Easter Movie Night
While there may not be as many Easter movies as Christmas movies, there are still many to choose from that you can incorporate into your evening. Breaking these into two categories, I have the nostalgic ones and the kid-centered ones.
The Ten Commandments and The Sound of Music were on every year at Easter-time, so I grew up watching these yearly. While you can watch these any time of the year, it seems fitting at this time of year because of the deeply ingrained tradition encouraged by ABC and NBC. The Ten Commandments is a commitment since it’s over three-and-a-half hours long, so it might be good for breaking into pieces over the weekend.
Another one that directly ties to Easter is Easter Parade, starring Fred Astaire and Judy Garland. This cute musical begins at Easter and cycles from one year to the next. My kids like this one, and it showcases the leads’ talents very well. Garland singing the title song alone makes this one worth the watch.
If you want to go the more kid-centric route, look for movies with rabbits, such as Peter Rabbit, Zootopia, and Hop. Don’t forget the Easter treats to go along with movie night.
Enjoy Chocolate Bunnies
There’s nothing that quite says Easter, like the famous chocolate bunnies. While it’s a lot of chocolate, it only comes once a year. You can share them with the kids.
Dye Eggs
This tradition is better if you have someone in your household who will eat the hard-boiled eggs, but it can still be a lot of fun. You can either dye actual hard-boiled eggs or find plastic eggs to decorate online too.
No matter which kind of eggs you decorate, this is messy fun for kids.
Check out these fun and easy egg-dying tricks from our Instagram!
Create Easter Art Project
There are many different art projects to choose from, such as drawing bunnies, making them out of paper plates, or getting a kit online. Whatever you choose, you can make the yearly art project fun for your kids.
Attend Local Easter Events
Check out your local Easter events, especially if the weather is nice. There may be community egg hunts, petting zoos or a parade that you and your family can enjoy.
Creating your holiday traditions to share with your kids is a great joy as a parent. Be sure to ask them for input as you decide which ones are your favorite. Happy Easter!
