Easter traditions?

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! :)

wow...what a lot of fun traditions. we put the kids initials on their plastic eggs so that the older kids can hunt in harder places and the younger ones can look for theirs in much easier to spot places. then if they see someone elses initials they just don't pick it up.

'Can't wait to have time to read through all of these... :) 'Wanted to share one thing that my XDH and I used to do, because we had a fireplace (not common in Florida)... we would put bunny "footprints" from the fireplace to the baskets and back, on the carpet, and tell the kids that EB came in the same way that Santa did. :) HAPPY EASTER!!!

My daughter and I are going to the mall to walk bunnies from the SPCA.

There were 4 of us kids and we lived in a 2 br flat in Chicago. We LOVED the plastic Easter egg hunt my mom set up around the apartment!!! We were especially excited when we shook the eggs and heard clinking bc it meant MONEY!!! We hoped and hoped it was quarters and not pennies in there.
ONCE I FOUND AN EGG WITH A WHOLE DOLLAR OMGWHEEEEEEE!
We also had fresh flowers on the table for Easter dinner. We are Polish Catholic so we always had ham, polish sausage, sauerkraut, lamb butter [shaped like a lamb] and lamb cake.
As an adult, now I always buy the lamb butter for my brother's Easter dinner [he is the only one with kids and a big house to host it]. I put it on the table and cry, "OFF WITH ITS HEAD!" and then chop the head off before anyone else gets any, and butter my bread. LOL
I am sick but that's what's lovable about me.
I so totally have to scrapbook these memories. My grandparents were from Poland and never did any of these "frivolous" things and even as a single mom with 4 kids, my mother was determined that WE would have those growing up. And we did -- birthdays, costumes, Tooth Fairy, Santa, fashionable clothes, everything.

Hi Ali!
Mine isn't really a tradition; instead, it's an Easter story I love to tell. I plan to scrapbook it soon.
When I was in kindergarten, my teacher told us we would have a big Easter egg hunt with a chocolate bunny as the grand prize. Competitive little thing that I was (and am;)), I made up my mind that I was going to win. On the day of the hunt, our teacher informed us that someone ate the chocolate bunny, so there was no prize. Undetered, I still planned on winning.
Out we went into the yard to hunt eggs. Each time I got near one, some vicious little child would snatch it right from under me! We went back inside, counted the eggs, and a victor was named. I had not gotten a single egg, and was totally embarrassed when our teacher asked if there was anyone without any eggs. I slowly raised my hand. The teacher then made the three children with the most eggs each give me one. Somehow, I ended up with the same three eggs I brought that morning. What a trauma!
I've since thought that those Easter eggs are like life itself. I already had everything I needed when I got there that morning, and I didn't need anything extra to make me special.
Counting the days 'til Anaheim!
XOXOXOX

Starting with Palm Sunday, we have a very short little family devotional each night to talk about the last week of Jesus' life & read the Bible. On Sunday, we read about His Triumphal Entry to Jerusalem, on Monday, the cleansing of the temple, etc. Sometimes we have little objects to help hold the kids attention, nails on good Friday for example. Then Sunday morning, we talk about the Resurection. It has been neat to see how much joy & understanding my girls have of this beautiful holiday. After church, we have an Easter egg hunt.

Everyone has such great traditions!
The main tradition we have is religiously based. It comes from the Polish tradition and is the blessing of the Easter basket. After 40 days of eating very sparingly during Lent, people would often get sick after eating the rich foods that come out on Easter Sunday. So a long time ago, the Polish people thought that if you blessed the food, it wouldn't make you sick. I don't know if it works, but it makes for a nice tradition. On Saturday, a large basket is filled with foods that will be eaten on Sunday... hard boiled eggs, butter, wine, cheese, keilbasa, salt & pepper... and taken to church for the basket blessing.
There is another tradition that I want to *start* when I have kids of my own. Burying and then digging up the alleluias. During Lent, alleluia is not said at all because it is such a deeply somber and penetential season. So on Fat Tuesday or Ash Wednesday, I'd like to bury alleluias in plastic eggs. Then on Holy Saturday, we could dig them up so we could use them during Easter Vigil!

For the last couple of years we have had a hunt for my son with clues hidden in plastic eggs which are then hidden in the garden. Each clue leads to another egg, the final clue to a chocolate Easter Egg sent from the UK (our homeland), usually Cadbury's and filled with his favourite candy! I make Hot Cross Buns for days (and eat them for days!). This year we are having a party on Saturday, with an egg hunt, egg throwing contest and hot cross bun bobbing - tie them to a string, hang them from a tree and catch them in your mouth and eat them with your hands tied behind your backs!! And a proper "English" tea - with afternoon tea in china cups, cakes and .... more hot cross buns!!

It's very interesting to read the traditions you have in the US. Here in Ireland we don't have Easter Baskets (in fact had never heard of it till I read people's posts). The Easter Bunny comes to some houses (similar to Santa....) but not as diligently as Santa. For the past few years my SIL has had an egg hunt for the grandchildren and kids in the neighbourhood. She makes maps - easy ones for the little kids and there's a little bag for each child to find. In my family we used to have a prochog (pronounced pur-uh-oh-gg - Gaelic) which is a little picnic. As children we would be brought off in the car with our parents, grandparents and whichever cousins/family were around. We made a little camp-fire and fried sausages in a pan! It was originally something my father's family did as children. Can't really happen when the weather is bad, but this weekend is promised very sunny and warm (fantastic by Irish standards) and so we have been talking about what form the prochog will take this year - BBQ or all out campfire?!

Also meant to say that we don't dye eggs in Ireland either...cos our eggs are brown or kinda tan in colour...not white. Dont' think you could dye them. The little difference are wierd, aren't they!