I love each and every Holiday season that comes up. Each offers something new and special to create lasting memories with your friends and family. These 25 Easter traditions are a fun way to cherish your family time together.
Easter, and springtime in particular signal rebirth and regrowth making it the perfect time to appreciate the past and build on the new. These 25 fun ideas are a great for your family to start and carry on special family traditions for years to come.
1. Create a DIY Easter Basket
Got an old sand pail or basket lying around? Great- clean it up and get started decorating it for the Easter Holiday. Paint it white and paint a bunny face on it. Grab some clue and tissue and get crafty, or weave on some cool fabric for a unique appeal.
There are so many ideas to choose from and so many ways to make a basket from everyday items. Get the kids involved so they can make their basket just perfect before the Easter Bunny stops by!
2. Easter Tea Time
Having your kids dress up in Sunday best, and maybe a spring get-together with an egg hunt on the lawn to follow. Let your children revel in the slow charm of bygone years with an Easter tea party.
Kids love tea parties—but tea is a little sophisticated for most young palates.
Consider serving iced tea, apple juice or homemade lemonade instead. Pour it from a teapot into small china teacups (available at craft stores) decorated with stickers by your older kids, or simply into paper cups for a younger crowd. For tea party food, finger sandwiches or decorate macaroons are a must.
3. Decorate Easter Eggs
A tried and true tradition! Dipping eggs in a brightly colored dye and watching it take hold is a delightful experience for kids of all ages.
Decorate with glitter, paint, and stickers and use them to decorate the house or Easter baskets. If you want to up the ante, plan an Easter egg decorating competition, complete with prizes, in your neighborhood!
4. A Visit with the Easter Bunny
Pictures with the Easter bunny is a time honored tradition or funny memory depending on which family member you ask.
I loved going to my local store and sitting on the Easter Bunny’s lap for pictures and a chocolate bunny. My sister however, does not have as fond of memories and seems to recall it being more terrifying which led to some amusing pics in the long run.
Year after year our pictures with the Easter Bunny did not disappoint!
5. Decorate an Easter Egg Tree
Make a trip to the craft store and purchase some foam or plastic eggs and decorations. This is a fun activity and lets the kids get creative. Attach a matching colored ribbon to each egg and hang from a live or artificial tree. You can purchase from Amazon as well here and set it up with the kids.
6. Plant an Easter Garden
It’s no secret that Easter ushers in the arrival of spring. Brighten your yard with an array of blooming plants. Consider pansies, tulips, marigolds, and petunias. Or you could create a miniature Easter garden like this one using moss and creative mini figures.
You can create a whole mini world for yourself! Kids love these fun ideas and get so into creating their world, they might even forget electronics are around for a bit 😉
7. Attend an Easter Parade
Easter is a great time to watch a glorious parade. Many cities have Easter celebrations with parades, or Spring time events around the Easter season. Grab some folding chairs and head to the parade route and encourage those participating.
Or even better, find a way to participate- maybe through school, church, a kids organization or health programs. Its so much fun to watch the excitement on your little ones face as the colorful floats pass by, the uniquely decorated people and groups, the marching bands and gymnasts, and if you are lucky enough, then the Easter bunny gets to make his way down the street hopping along the parade route.
8. Plan an Easter Brunch Time
A Special Easter brunch for the family, neighbors or church friends is a wonderful way to spend the morning. You can follow this guide on how to plan the perfect Easter brunch and become a brunch time master!
9. Egg Time Machine
Have your kid write a letter to him or herself that can be placed inside a plastic egg to open next year on Easter. Your child can read about what they were thinking and doing when they were a year younger. It’s a fun way to read how they have grown in a year. Grab some plastic Easter Eggs here.
10. Color, Draw and Create!
Are your kids into coloring pages? How about printing some awesome Easter coloring pages for them and let them enjoy. Even kids and adults can get in on the fun with super intricate adult coloring pages and more. Grab 35 Easter coloring pages here for all!
11. Baking, and More Baking
Put an apron on and break out the mixing bowls! Bunny, chick or egg-shaped cookies are perfect shapes to bake and decorate for this holiday. Feeling ambitious? Try an annual bunny shaped cake decorated with icing, coconut, and candies.
Go traditional and serve hot cross buns on Good Friday; they fill the kitchen with spicy, sweet, and fruity aromas!
12. Egg Relay Race
After the fun of decorating Easter eggs, give them a second act by using them as the focal point in an egg relay race. Divide participants up into teams. Give every team a hard-boiled egg and a spoon.
Blow the whistle and the players balance an egg on the spoon while walking or running to a given point and back and then hand off to the next team member. The first team to finish wins the game.
13. Shell Crack Game
Here’s a great Easter game to play year after year! This time each person gets his own hard-boiled Easter egg and pairs up with one other participant.
The contest is to have each pair smash the small ends of their eggs together. The person with the unbroken shell advances to the next round where they pair up and do it again. The one who has the last uncracked egg wins.
14. Easter Basket Scavenger Hunt
Instead of just placing the Easter Basket out on Easter morning, add a fun twist with a scavenger hunt! For little ones, draw a map with picture clues. With older children, use written clues.
And for active ones, let them hop to it by placing an Easter Bunny footprint trail on the floor that will lead them to their basket. I use this Easter bunny foot stamp here and flour in my house… make its look like the Easter bunny hopped all over the house! Fun Easter Traditions that have been carried on for many years.
15. Treats for the Easter Bunny
This tradition is similar to leaving cookies and milk for Santa, but make it a rabbit-friendly treat. Put carrots and water out before bedtime cause ya know, bunnies love their carrots right!?
16. Plant a Jelly Bean Garden
Plant a handful of jellybeans in the dirt outside the night before. Replace each one with a lollipop while little ones sleep. In the morning, eyes will grow wide as they see each jellybean has grown into a magical lollipop treat!
17. Egg the Neighbors
Spread Easter joy by egging the neighbors with an Easter basket filled with goodies. Leave the basket on their front porch and ring the doorbell before running back home.
Make sure the basket contains a “You have been egged” sign and maybe a clue about your family to help them guess who left it. This is one kind of egging your neighbors won’t mind.
18. Easter Basket Puzzle Hunt
Start with a white, blank puzzle (you can buy one at a craft store or here on Amazon) with pieces small enough to fit inside plastic eggs. With the puzzle still together, write a message about where their Easter basket is hidden.
Then, break up the pieces and divide between the eggs. After all the eggs are found, the children will have to put the puzzle together to find the location of their Easter basket.
19. Observe Lent
Lent is the period of 40 days which comes before Easter in the Christian calendar. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, Lent is a season of reflection where some may choose to “give up” something and preparation before the celebrations of Easter.
Many give up meat, sweets, or other foods however, you can also choose to do something instead. For example, go to Church more often, say an extra prayer every day, or read some scripture verses.
20. New Easter Clothes
Having new clothes for Easter is deeply rooted in European customs and led to the same practice here in America. Wearing a brand new outfit for Easter Sunday has become one of the most commonly celebrated traditions for families. This adorable dress is under $20!
21. Gather Round the Table
Many families have a big Easter brunch or dinner, often featuring ham as the main course. Coming together over a grand meal provides families a time for fun, food, and fellowship. Inviting extended family members will bring generations together.
22. Easter I Spy
This Easter I Spy game is a cute kids activity perfect for those that need some entertainment during the day. Its also a clever way to get some learning in at the same time! How many of the Easter-themed objects will they be able to find? The free printable worksheet is great for keeping the kids occupied for a while. Can also be used as a classroom activity.
23. Easter Egg Hunt
Once the Easter bunny comes through town, he tends to leave treats and candy egs all over the yard for kids to pick up! We let the kids have their hunt just before we eat so they can get all their excited energy out before they sit down for a nice family meal. Often times we use toys, treats, and coins for the game but you could just use the dyed Easter eggs. Its all fun and games for the kids
24.
25. Egg Rolling
In many towns, egg rolling is an important part of the Easter tradition that usually takes place on Easter Monday. Decorated, hard-boiled eggs are rolled down a hill to see which egg can go furthest without breaking.
With these fun ideas, your family will have many meaningful traditions to look forward to each year. Enjoy the season!