Easter is a fun holiday for kids. After all, most Easter traditions revolve around kid activities. Even so, Easter tends to be a fairly low-key holiday. For Christmas and their birthdays, kids will spend weeks looking forward to their presents. At Halloween, some kids will spend days on their costumes. Easter, on the other hand, is towards the end of the school year when everyone is starting to think about summer. But kids are only young once, so why not play up Easter a little bit extra this year? Here are a few things you can do to make this year’s Easter extra special.
Make Easter Baskets Extra Unique and Personal
As a parent, you probably have lots of things to worry about in a day. For this reason, it can sometimes be hard to find all the time you’d like to have to show your kids your enthusiasm for the personalities they are developing. Reminding your kids you care is extremely important to developing and maintaining a relationship with them, so this year, instead of giving all of your kids the same candy and the same toys, make each basket unique to encourage them in their personal hobbies and interests.
Start by getting each child personalized baskets. You can get baskets that reflect a favorite hobby, favorite animal, favorite colors, or with their names embroidered. Next, choose gifts that are specific to each child’s interest. For the girl who loves soccer, cats, and the color blue, go with a new soccer ball and some bright blue shoelaces and head bands, or maybe a Build-A-Bear Workshop cat wearing a soccer outfit. For the boy who loves science fiction, dinosaurs, and drawing, go with some age-appropriate new books and a set of dinosaur figurines, or maybe a nice set of new art supplies.
Go All-Out with the Easter Egg Hunt
This year, don’t just hide candy in a couple of eggs and hide them around the house. If it’s a nice day in your area, be sure to take your egg hunt outside. If you have older kids who don’t want to hunt, get them involved in hiding the eggs instead. Be creative with your hiding. Hide some in tougher spots like between low tree branches or in the mailbox for the older kids and in easier places like on the edge of a flower pot for the younger kids. Add some special things to the eggs, too: small toys, single dollar bills or interesting coins (for example, you can go to the bank to get some collectible gold presidential dollar coins), beads or charms, etc.
Or change it up this year and consider a scavenger hunt instead of an Easter egg hunt (you can still use hidden plastic eggs to contain each clue). This is a good way to get lots of kids of different ages to work together.
Get Creative!
Bring out your DIY spirit for Easter. Beforehand, you can make lots of your own decorations. For example, you could make a handmade wreath in pastel colors for your front door, a paper garland in pastel colors, some felt birds and bunnies to go at each placemat, or splurge on some seasonal flowers to design a nice centerpiece for the table. If you aren’t normally a crafty person, you can find lots of easy directions and kits online or at craft stores for making these fun, personal decorations.
Depending on your skill level and interest, you may also be able to make some of your Easter basket gift items for your kids or your spouse. For example, if you can sew, you could make a stuffed animal for your child. If you can crochet, you could make a knitted hat for your husband.
Go Healthy this Year
Consider avoiding lots of candy and sweets this year in favor of a more health-conscious and Earth-conscious plan. There are lots of alternatives you can choose in place of candies like special dried fruit and nut mixes or yogurt covered fruit. You could also buy smaller assortments of nicer treats. For example, instead of a dozen plastic eggs full of jellybeans and chocolate eggs plus a chocolate bunny, maybe each child could get a small box of six fancy cookies or some other special, unusual treat. That way, it still feels like a treat, but there’s less emphasis on eating lots and lots of sugar.
You could also consider getting your kids involved in making their own Easter treats. This could serve as a fun activity for them and also an opportunity to choose a healthier treat to prepare. And again, because the child made them herself, the emphasis is more on the fun activity than on the sugar.
Plan a Special Meal
If you will be cooking a special meal this year, consider which recipes have become family favorites and which ones might be better retired. Come up with a new menu for the year focusing on in-season produce for a more sustainable meal. Ask friends and family for their favorite recipes or look through cookbooks and magazines for new ideas.
Or if you normally eat in, consider making Easter dinner a special night out for your family. Choose a nice restaurant you’ve wanted to try and splurge a little bit!
There are lots of ways to make Easter more fun this year, but it’s also important to take some time away from the fun to appreciate your family. These activities are great ways to spend quality time together that your kids will remember for years to come.
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