Easter traditions?

We make as many egg dishes as possible Easter weekend. Using the boiled eggs. Then we are all egg-ed out for the year. LOL.
We do the traditional baskets (always includes a new game) and egg hunts, we visit our families, and eat great food.
We buy the kids new PJ's for every holiday eve and they get a new outfit to wear for the holiday too.
Have a great Easter!!!

I make a scavenger hunt for my kids like my mom did for us. I give them a sheet of clues that they have to figure out to get their prizes. This is so much more fun than just handing them a basket. Plus it's fun to watch how they figure out their clues.

We do color Easter eggs...but we save about 3 to put on our Poruguese Sweet Bread Easter morning. My husband makes eggs a la goldenrod (eggs on toast)after the egg hunt. This is the first year we will have a child for Easter...but we've always loved traditions!

My aunt told me once that my grandmother put a small piece of cotton in the door, as if the bunny had caught his tail as he left our home. So I done this, in hornor of my grandmother. My grandson cried and cried and thought it was terrible. We had to go outside and check and see if he was still outside hurt. Some traditions are not meant to carry on. Happy Easter from Alabama.

Its fun to see what you all do. We here in OZ, have pancake breakfast on easter morning, and always have an easter egg hunt.
Easter weekend is strange time for us, as it signifies the loss of our first son. And thats hard at the times.
My birthday is at Easter this year too, so more to celebrate.
We usually have family and friends around, and eat seafood, and hang out.
And mostly we remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. The incredible Love that is outpoured from ONE HUGE sacrifice. The NEW life that we have been given, due to Jesus.
And that, above all else, is worthy of some celebration!
Happy Easter from OZ!

I saw a really fun looking idea in a Family Fun magazine. I'm thinking about trying it with my kids. You take a ball of yarn and tie one end to his bed and then create a maze by taking it around doorknobs or furniture. He has to follow and collect the yarn as he goes. It could go through as many rooms as you want. At the end of the yarn maze he would discover his Easter basket. If you think he would be upset waking up to the maze of yarn you could start it it another room and take the adventure with him. Have a blessed Easter!

Ali, one more fun thing to do, and we do this over Halloween, Create a Easter Basket Chain. Make up two or three small Easter Baskets. Then pick three neighbors. Third go to neighbors house. Fourth, ring the doorbell....and run like the wind! In your basket will be a letter explaining they have just been "tricked" or whatever you want to call it, and then they need to copy the letter and find 2 more people to "trick"...sort of like 6 degrees. It is a lot of fun!

Growing up my parents raised chickens. So our eggs were always brown. Then we dyed them with beets and other natural things...at the time I just wanted white eggs with the bright colors (like everybody else), but now I would love to have those eggs again...they were so beautiful! I think that no matter what you do for Easter (or any holiday) having a tradition that you do every year is the important part. It's the family traditions that I always look forward to.
My mom was big on decorations. Each holiday she would get out the special decorations for that particular holiday, and we would help her decorate. We didn't have much money so they were usually homemade or paper cut-outs to put on the wall; but I remember just loving the decorations.

We always dye our eggs on Good Friday, a tradition my mom started and I now do with my kids - we dye eggs even though no one in my family eats them! At 9 1/2 and 8 1/2 we still do an egg hint after church on Easter Sunday - they still beleive. Have a great holiday!

For the past several years, I've made "Bunny Bread" from a recipe in Quick Cooking magazine. It's really easy (make from a few loaves of frozen -- then thawed -- bread dough), and makes a great conversation piece on Easter Sunday. You hollow out the tummy, fill it with spinach or veggie dip, lay the bunny on a bed of leaf lettuce and surround him with cut veggies, and you've got a really cute addition to the table. We love it.
Here's a link to a recipe online (see photo at far right):
http://www.recipezaar.com/163034

hey there,
It's wonderful to read all the fun ideas. My little one is three, so in years past we haven't done a whole lot. But this year we have already gone through and talked about the "Resurrection Eggs". They have little symbols inside to explain the real story of Easter. It has a cool activity book that goes with it - with recipes, crafts, worksheets, etc. Each year we can get more in depth with the story of Easter. Plus, we will dye eggs. Dress up and attend Church. Then we will gather with friends and have lunch and an egg hunt with all the kids.
you can check out the Resurrection Eggs here: http://www.familylife.com/default.asp
I hope you all have a wonderful and BLESSED Easter.
Kelley

For Easter we set out baskets the night before and the Easter bunny fills them with a little bit of candy, and usually some crayons and a coloring book. A little toy and a kite. This year the Easter Bunny will be leaving everybody a new bike, and a helmet. We then go to Easter dinner at my grandpas, and he lives on a farm so we usually go for wagon rides with the tractor or horses. My kids also head to their dads grandparents house, where they take part in a "hunt" for their present. Each person has their own egg that they use every year, with a clue in it to where their present is.

We started a cool tradition when my husband was trying to bond with his teenage daughters.He came up with memory eggs--we put memories for the year in the eggs. The memories are written on strips on paper.(It is easier to do it on the computer and cut the strips). It is a neat way to talk about favorite memories and accomplishments. We have one person read their memories out loud and it is fun. We each take a turn reading our memories. We usually try to do about 8-10 memories. The conversations that follow are cool. My husband and I also have fun doing the memories for each other. Then you can put the strips on a scrapbook page.
This has become a favorite easter tradition:)
Jessica

Ali,
Our Easter traditions consist of going to have our picture taken with the Easter Bunny at the mall (I think it is the same ole bunny but oh so cute!). Grandma always buys Demi's new dress and shoes..and the cousins all dye eggs. This year we are making confetti eggs on Thursday which should be so much funny. We will attend church on Saturday evening this year. The Easter Bunny will hide our baskets and then it will be time to hunt for eggs outside. (Last year I forgot to turn off the water sprinkler so they were a little wet and the candy was soaked..haha) Then we go to my sister in laws mom's house to have a ham dinner and then all the big and little kids hunt for eggs. My mom has one big egg with the kids names on it with $$$ inside to find. Then they empty their baskets to see what is in the plastic eggs, they usually end up trading their candy! Usually the kids swim, cold or hot before our mid day dinner and after the "Big Hunt".
We are so blessed to have family and friends to share this day with every year!
PS - I love the fun stuff with Easter but really feel like Demi should know the reason for this holiday and what happen on this day with Jesus. So I will find a special way to share this with Demi maybe with a new book or coloring page.
Happy Easter to you and your family,
Diana

Since the kids have gotten older - we hide their baskets with clues. And they have to help each other solve the clues to find their baskets. A clue would be: So far you are doing great, but be careful, make no mistake, if you leave it running it forms a lake. Or It's cold and dark when I'm closed, I brighten up when I'm opened - What am I?

We actually decorate an Easter tree every year. We cut a branch off a tree and place it in a vase in hot water. We decorate eggs and hang them as well as ornaments from the easter tree. Its a german tradition that I grew up with that I have continued with my children and they love it.

We haven't really settled into a tradition at home yet, but every year my mom makes the kids a special easter basket. They are all different, and special to the recipient in some way.
This year, I'm going to try a more complex easter egg hunt for my seven year old. I have 24 plastic eggs that I am putting Quickutz bunnies, eggs and chicks in, as well as some clues and a little present for my husband and our cat. Then as my son finds the eggs he can read the clues to his present and trade in the bunnies, eggs and chicks for it. When he finds the egg with the present for his dad and his cat he can give those to them, reminding him this isn't just about his receiving.
It just snowed here yesterday, so I think it will be an inside hunt, but that works too!

My son always got an Easter Basket hunt.. when he was little .. there were cards with instructions .. look in the hall closet .. and then a sign would say .. look in ...and so on until he found his basket .. (One year it was behind the pool .. one year it was in the guest bathtub .. ) .. as he got older .. the clues were more cryptic .. one year it was math equations that then related to cryptograms... (numbers = certain letters) and he had to solve the puzzles ... One of the years it was rhymes ... You have to look carefully if you are going to find me in the ...(Tree) ... Look here, look there, look everywhere .. but be sure to check right by the (Stairs)..... I also remember when he was really young .. just putting picture/stickers on each card .. so he knew where to look ...
He turned 16 last year .. and the sign on his door .. just said FIND ME! ... (It was on the top shelf of the garage junk .. and blended right in ... took him hours!)
Now one year for Christmas .. his basketball hoop was too big to wrap .. so he had to follow and gather up a ribbon .. to get to his gift...

The Easter bunny always leaves big chalk footprints all over the patio outside and spills Easter grass and jellybeans inside from the door to the Easter baskets!!!

We always color Easter eggs a day or two before easter. The Easter bunny leaves the easter baskets hidden in the living room for the kids to search out and find. Sometimes we make it to Church other times when spend time at home with family and we always have an afternoon easter egg hunt in the yard with the colores eggs. One year I did an Easter brunch and invited neighbors to stop by at anytime. It was a fun day.
peace
Kim

I am the youngest of six kids and what I remember most is after hunting around the entire house to find the eggs the easter bunny hid, we would all sit at the dining room table and have egg spinning contests. With the egg laying on the table, you grasp both ends and spin it. If you do it correctly the egg will start spinning and stand up on its end. The one whose egg stands up spinning the longest without falling off the table wins. It was HOURS of fun :)

Before we can get to the joy that is Easter, we must experience the sorrow that is Good Friday. It's very important for me to teach my children the WHOLE Easter story; to let them go through the questioning and pain that is Good Friday.
This year we will be attending a Good Friday service and spending most of that day truly pondering the death of Christ.
I think it makes the joy of Easter that much more beautiful and joyous. And I am always suprised at how much the kids truly "get it."
Elizabeth

We are starting the natural egg dyes tonight. As seen in Country Living. My kids are 8 & 12 and are both stoked! LOL...
It's coffee, blueberry, tea, beet juice and grape juice. They turn out SO pretty...very European looking. AND.. they don't end up tasting like what they are stained in! Then we start Sunday morning with a trail of jelly beans leading to the baskets..then off to FILL the bakets in the yard. Eggs are ALL over! Then an afternoon bike ride on the Willamette Riverfront to prepare for a WAY too fattening dinner!I LOVE Easter!

I grew up in Germany, and one of my fondest memories has to do with a little game we did with the hard boiled eggs before eating them. (the eggs had been colored and hidden and found - typical easter hunt). I have no idea if this game is typical to Germany or just my family, but I know my in-laws here had never heard about it before.
Two people at a time can play. Each one chooses an egg. One person holds their egg, choosing which side (top or bottom) is facing up. (Have a good grip on it). The other person gets to hit their egg on top of the first person's (not full-on smashing it, but a firm tap either with the top or bottom of the egg), and the winner is the one whose eggshell stays intact. That person then goes on to the next person in the family, until the ultimate winner is determined. Usually there ends up being one egg that is hard to beat. Of course, as a kid you usually want to try it with all eggs available, so there better be a plan on who will eat all the eggs.
I loved this as a kid, and it's still a part of my easter breakfast now. Happy Easter!

Of course, we dye eggs and do the traditional hunt on Easter morning. We also attend Mass. But those are fairly normal things.
At our house, the Easter Bunny leaves a trail of jelly beans from my kids' beds to their baskets and a little basket beside the bed to collect them as they make their way to the basket. Stole that idea from my sister.
When we get together for Easter dinner (or lunch usually) we do another egg hunt for all the kids in the family - nine kids ranging in age from 1 to 12. We use plastic eggs and we color-code them: a different color for each child. That way we ensure two things: 1. each child finds the same number of eggs, 2. we can hid the little ones' eggs in easy to find places and they won't get snatched up by the older kids first and conversely, we can hide the older kids' eggs in more challenging locations. It works out pretty well and the kids have a blast!
By the way, I'm loving reading through everyone else's traditions. Great idea, Ali! :)