Easter traditions?

When we were kids we used grated beets in boiled water for red eggs, brown onion peels for brown colored eggs... Spanish onions for more color in the eggs..anything my father could think up. tea bags and coffee grounds as well..lol
My children have an egg hunt, real and plastici at our home, inside and out. The Easter Bunny leaves baking soda tracks.. helps the younger ones follow a crazy path then find their Easter Goodies that have been hidden :}
I think anything you do with your children will be fondly recalled and a good time.. the point is to spend time with your kids, happy, stress free, pressure free time!
That's all they really want is TIME, someone to listen ( I have four) so sometimes I want earplugs but I zip my lip and open my ears :}
lol

We use cornstarch to make "bunny-prints" on the carpet throughout the house to show EB's path as he hid the eggs. A friend uses that carpet powder that makes the carpet smell fresh.

thanks for asking the question, Ali. I really enjoy reading what different things everyone does.
Most of my kids are all grown up but we used to hide Easter baskets and they had to search for them before church. Toys and chocolate...
Now we have just a 2 1/2 year old at home. We'll color Easter eggs and go to our Sunrise service at church and then have breakfast. This year we'll pass on the basket again...maybe next year.
Have a blessed holiday!

Since none of us like hard-boiled eggs, we buy wooden eggs and each family member paints one per year. We pull the old eggs out on Palm Sunday and use them to decorate the house, and then paint this year's eggs after dinner. It's fun to see how the kids' eggs have progressed over the years, to see their painting abilities grow and to see what kinds of themes they choose. I always paint flowers or some kind of nature scene; my husband always paints a geometric pattern. The girls like to see if they can identify whose egg is whose, and my son always makes his relative to what he's studying or interested in at the time (this year it's a skateboard!).
Easter morning we hunt the plastic eggs. No big deal if we don't find a few and the lawnmower catches it instead!

We had a beagle growing up so the Easter bunny always hid our baskets where the dog couldn't get them. The best part was looking for the baskets and finding the notes with clues left all over the house. I'd love to carry on this tradition when my kids are old enough to read - right now the EB leaves their baskets on the dining room table -- far out of reach of our dogs!

for us Easter is a bunny/chocolate holiday - not a religious holiday.
As a kid it was a religious holiday for my family and my grandma would always buy us kites and we'd try our best to fly them.
We went to the Woodland Park zoo a couple of years ago on Easter as a fun family outing. We found the cougars were having an Easter Egg hunt too...the zoo keeper kid dead chicks and the cougars 'found' their treats...ewwww :(

i want some too! I have a recent obsession with collecting seasonal decor.. i think i am getting baby fever again and it makes me feel sort of motherly? i dont know..... love hearing what people do for certain holidays!!! :)

for us Easter is a bunny/chocolate holiday - not a religious holiday.
As a kid it was a religious holiday for my family and my grandma would always buy us kites and we'd try our best to fly them.
We went to the Woodland Park zoo a couple of years ago on Easter as a fun family outing. We found the cougars were having an Easter Egg hunt too...the zoo keeper HID dead chicks and the cougars 'found' their treats...ewwww :(

My children are older now, 19 and 21, but just yesterday they asked me if I would resurrect(sp?) my tradition of sending them on a scavenger hunt for a special Easter treat. Easter morning they would find the first clue and then scamper around the house and yard to be lead to their little gift. When they were young it was usually a book but as they got older I also used CD's. Since we are not into the whole candy thing this was a fun alternative.

Hi Ali. We always have a traditional ham dinner. I have a 17 year old nephew who is autistic and lives at Kids Peace in PA (wonderful place) is visiting and has to return early evening, so we'll have a brunch instead of a traditional dinner. No kids at home but still dye eggs and make a special Easter basket for my husband.
My husband still buys me a corsage to wear to Church which I just love. I love the simple pleasures of life.
We also go to Church at 8:30 a.m.
Happy Easter to you and your family.
Regina

My son's first easter we set him up on cushion wearing just a nappy and let him go for it with a large egg. We had left it in the sun for a minute or so, becasue we didnt want sharp shards of chocolate. It was a wonderful mess. We had a family gathering the next year, and last year a group of friends all met in the park.. 12 kids between us - and had a BBQ brunch and an egg hunt.. so fun!
This year we are looking for some lovely traditions so I will be back to read with great interest. We always had a basket as kids.. but i am doing a basket from me.. and something special and magical from the bunny... just waiting to be inspired!

When we were little we'd wake up to a thank you note from the EB which was left next to an empty water glass and partially nibbled carrot which had been full and uneaten when we left them out the night before. Also, our mom would sew matching dresses for me and my older sister, then we'd sit on the big rocks in the flower bed in the middle of the front yard where all the Daffodils would be blooming and have our pictures taken. Somewhere in there we went to church and then to lunch/dinner at one of the grandparents houses.

When I was a kid, the Easter Bunny (my Dad I later found out!) left wet and sometimes muddy footprints coming up the deck to the front porch...big, hoppity, smudgy prints, leading to the baskets. Now that I've got my own children, the Easter Bunny does it at my house! My boys love it. Also, my husband and I hide the eggs outside late at night, when the boys are asleep. When they wake up, they go out to look for eggs, see the baskets and the bunny prints and voila! - magic!

Great question! We boil crawfish every Easter (we are in Cajun country; what can I say?). I also give each of my kids a book. I actually give them each a book for every major holiday. I want them to grow up knowing how awesome reading is... how important it is to always be learning something new!
Now I'm going to go back and get some ideas for new traditions we can start. Awesome! I LOVE family traditions.

We go to Sunrise Service at the lake{6:30am}to celebrate The Resurrection out in the crisp morning air, for all to see.Even the kids don't mind getting up early when they have donuts, hot chocolate, and coffee waiting for you! Then we head back home to prepare brunch for about 20 members of my husband's family.In the past we've always had lots of kids to hunt plastic eggs out in the garden...but sadly this year it will only be my 14 yr.old and 10 yr. old! Why do kids have to grow up so fast???
Congrats again on the badge, it's so cool to be part of something so awesome!

Ali,
No Easter traditions to share....but I did see that Thursday on Oprah is a show on autism.
Jennie

Hi Ali, I haven't read all of the other ideas yet so hope i haven't doubled up - here in Australia, our Easter bunny leaves a line of clues a bit like a treasure hunt - the kids follow these clues all over the back yard until they come to the end where there is a big prize of lots of easter eggs.
Last year we painted eggs too!
Can't wait to hear what you do.
x Janelle

When I was a kid not only would we dye eggs with my grandmother, we would also blow the insides out of fresh ones and then carefully cut a window out of each. After they were washed out and dry, we would create little Easter scenes inside with all kinds of craft goodies. My grandfather had cut and secured a tree branch in a flower pot for us to hang our eggs from. Great memories.
After the first grandchild was born (my kid) and was old enough, my mother started having Easter parties for the whole extended family. As well as an egg hunt (which is pretty fun on two acres), we play games like 'Duck Walk Races' and 'Toss the Egg'. There is also some kind of fun and messy craft (cookie decorating, etc.) One year we had a contest for the grown ups. We had to bring an uncooked egg, wrapped up and protected. My dad took each in turn and dropped it onto the ground, even from a ladder. The egg which didn't break won. So much fun and some very clever ideas came from that one.

Ali, I know this may be short noticed, but one Easter tradition I love is not just a egg hunt, but a scavenger hunt the day before Easter. Get your friends, family, and neighbors involved. It is a great way to not only celebrate Easter with your family, but as a community as a whole. Prizes to find could be Easter related, or not. I know you have Simon on a special diet, so it may be a great way for him and other children to do something and not have to involve loads of sugar filled candy. Just an idea!

We decorate eggs on Saturday. Then we spend a few hours with my husband's family. We hunt plastic easter eggs. They used to have a birthday cake for Jesus, which is funny because nobody in their family actually likes cake. That tradition faded away over the last few years.
On Saturday night while the kids are sleeping my husband and I put out the baskets filled with candy and small toys. We hide the colored eggs and jelly beans. Growing up, the Easter Bunny always hid them in my living room. My husband and I did it that way as well but then last year I decided to try hiding them in the backyard instead. We let our oldest son get up with us really early to help because he figured out the secret.
As soon as the kids wake up we let them make a dash to wherever the candy and eggs are hiding. Then we have a fun breakfast outside and a fancy Easter lunch later.
Our family is secular so we don't actually go to church. Instead we focus on celebrating springtime.