Start by deciding how close to Easter Sunday you actually want to have your Easter egg hunt. If you and your children normally attend local Easter egg hunts at churches or those put on by civic organizations, you’ll want to plan your hunt at a time different from those. Set a date, time, and location and then send out invitations to your children’s friends and family.

Consider purchasing some small items to give away as well as candy eggs for the children to find. You can include stickers, small toys, or other small items in the eggs. Don’t be afraid to ask the other parents to help supply Easter eggs to be hidden.

You can plan on having a small table of drinks and snacks for the children after they’ve hunted for eggs. You may also want to have some adult snacks that the parents can enjoy while the children are busy hunting.

Create several areas to hide Easter eggs in, one for each age group of children you expect to be hunting. You could also buy a specific color of egg for each age group so older children will know to leave those eggs alone. Ask the older children to wait while the younger children search for the eggs designated for them if all of the eggs will be hidden in one general area.

Remember the age of the children hunting for eggs when you hide them. If there will be very small children – crawlers and toddlers – you’ll want to make the eggs easily visible. For older children you can be a little trickier when hiding the eggs. Put them under leaves, in pipes, up the gutter spout, and higher than ground level. Make them really hunt for them.

Keep safety in mind while hiding the eggs. Avoid places around water or near electrical outlets. It would also be a good idea to have a first aid kit on hand, in case someone falls down and scrapes a knee.

You may want to have a few extra plastic pails or baskets on hand in case someone forgets to bring one. This would also be a good time to invite a new family from the neighborhood or ask a family you know is struggling financially to join in the fun.

Easter is more than chocolate bunnies and Easter baskets, but that doesn’t mean you can’t organize an Easter egg hunt for your children, their friends, and neighbors. It’s a great time to reach out to those who are new or struggling and include them in the joy of the season.

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United States

The United States has a variety of Easter traditions because there are many denominations here. Roman Catholics begin observing the Easter season on Ash Wednesday, which is forty-six days before Easter Sunday. It is also commemorated with the forty days of Lent where Catholic followers fast and abstain from certain things in preparation for Easter. Protestant believers often celebrate with Easter sunrise services and taking communion.

Some churches host Easter egg hunts the Saturday before Easter as a means to reach out to their communities and draw attention to what Christ did on the cross. You can expect to see Easter lilies decorating churches. Many churches offer sunrise services because they believe that Christ rose early in the morning on Sunday. Children are given Easter baskets.

Mexico

Most of Mexico’s population is Roman Catholic. They often have productions where they re-enact the last supper, betrayal, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday.

Russia

Brightly colored eggs are given as gifts in Russia. On Easter Eve, the priests go through the city and knock on parishioner’s doors, which leads to a procession through the streets where songs of praise are sung. People pick pussy willow and tap others on the shoulders with the plant to wish them good luck.

Italy

Don’t expect to hear the bells peal from Good Friday to Easter Sunday morning. When they finally do ring, Italians hug and kiss each other proclaiming that Jesus is alive. They celebrate Easter dinner by having roast lamb.

Israel

Israelis don’t celebrate Easter, but they do celebrate Passover, which often falls during the same time as Holy Week. During Passover, they remember how God lead their ancestors out of Egypt. Passover, or Pesach, is followed immediately by the Feast of Unleavened Bread which lasts for seven days.

United Kingdom

Many Easter traditions include food, and that’s no different in the U.K. You can find people eating hot cross buns, which symbolize the cross, and exchanging chocolate eggs. They often also hide eggs around for children to find, much like in the United States.

Pagans and wiccans choose to celebrate the arrival of spring rather than commemorate anyone’s death or resurrection. Instead, they prefer to have a feast to honor the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, which is where the English word Easter comes from. They also celebrate using colorful eggs; however, they believe the eggs are a fertility symbol.

Easter traditions and customs change from country to country. However, depending upon your religious background, you may not celebrate the holiday at all. That doesn’t mean that you can’t celebrate spring even if you don’t believe in Christ’s resurrection.

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Felt sheets can be purchased from nearly every discount and craft store. Your children can have fun making felt Easter decorations for their own room or to decorate common areas of your home. Some Easter decorations made with felt can also be used outside.

Door sign

Create a felt door sign with a decidedly Easter design to it. Allow your children to take several sheets of felt in various colors – pastels would work best. Choose some craft or Popsicle sticks as a base and then cut some felt to fit over it.

Have them glue the felt onto the craft sticks. They can then decorate their door sign with additional felt pieces cut in the shape of bunnies, chicks, flowers, or the cross. They can write their name on the felt with permanent marker or fabric paint. Be sure they include ribbon or some way to hang their sign once it is completed.

Sleeping bunny

Why not create a small bunny with leftover felt pieces? After filling the plastic eggs for the Easter egg hunt, you most likely have a few egg halves that you can’t match. This is a perfect way to recycle those unmatched halves.

Glue an egg shell half onto a piece of painted wood. Then put glue in the egg and place one large white pompom inside the egg shell. Glue another white pompom on top of that one. Glue two medium pompoms to the side of the upper pompom for the cheeks. Then cut two white felt ears and glue them onto the top of the head. Glue two mini pompoms between the cheeks. Make two sleepy eyes out of black felt cut in the shape of crescents. Glue them on and it will look like you have a sleepy bunny coming out of an Easter egg.

Easter flag

Since you can buy felt in large pieces off the bolt, why not get a larger piece and make a “Welcome Easter” flag that you can hang from your door? Buy a piece of sunny yellow, pastel blue or pink. Cut the letters for the flag, as well as Easter type motifs from corresponding colors. Use craft glue to stick the words and pictures on. Hang it from your door and welcome this special holiday.

Felt is a great material to work with for Easter crafts. You can have fun with felt Easter decorations that you can use for years to come. Don’t forget to have your children join in the fun of making these festive Easter decorations for your home.

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Each year hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, of colored plastic eggs are sold to fill Easter baskets or for children to find during Easter egg hunts. Those aren’t always appropriate to use when decorating your home, however. You may want to create some Easter eggs that can be reused each year for decorations.

One way to create reusable eggs is to blow out chicken eggs. How do you do that? Start by washing the egg and drying it. Poke a small hole in both ends of a raw egg. Poke a bamboo skewer into the egg to break the yoke. Hold the egg over a bowl and gently blow on one end until the contents are emptied into the bowl. Allow the eggs to dry and then you can use one of these four ideas for decorating them.

Beaded eggs

These eggs can be created using blown-out eggs. You’ll also need a glue gun, glue, and strings of beads. Hot glue a string of beads at one end of the egg, then carefully wrap and glue the beads as you go. When you reach the top, you may want to use ribbon and silk flowers if you intend to hang them.

Chick and egg

What do you do if you crack an egg while you’re blowing it out? Make a chick and egg, of course! You can dye the entire shell and then place a small toy chick into the egg. Your family or guests won’t be expecting to see a chick peeking out of the decorations.

Bumpy egg

Before you dye your eggs, try this decoration for an easy, yet different look. Put glue dots all over the egg using a hot glue gun. Try to keep the size of the dots the same, but don’t worry too much if they’re uneven. Then dye the eggs as you normally would and let them dry.

Batik eggs

This idea is similar to the fabric decorations of India. Use a paraffin wax crayon to create a design on the egg. Dip it into the lightest colored dye and then allow it to dry. Draw another design and dip the egg into a darker dye. You can also use masking tape to mask off any area you don’t want to be colored.

There are many other ways you can enjoy the Easter craft of decorating eggs. Think outside of the box or the carton. The depth of your imagination will determine the look of the eggs you create. Remember to have fun as you create your reusable Easter egg decorations.

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The great thing about home-made Easter baskets, besides the cost, is that you can make personalized baskets for each child in your family. Not only can you make and decorate your own Easter baskets, you can also include items that you know your child will enjoy, even if they aren’t associated with the holiday.

Perhaps you’ve found a great empty basket that can be used for Easter during the year. You may even have found several at the end of the season sale at a store nearby. Or you could have found a used basket that someone let go at a yard sale. If the color doesn’t suit you, don’t be afraid to paint them to ensure you have a basket in your child’s favorite color.

Don’t limit yourself to just using the wicker baskets that are traditionally used. You want the “basket” to be unique just like the recipient. Use any container you can find, whether it’s a spaghetti pot, colander, fruit basket, or small milk crate. Your imagination and your knowledge of who the basket is intended for will make choosing a basket or container easier.

Partially fill the basket with grass. Of course, you can purchase the plastic-type grass, but you may want to opt for something that looks more natural. Green crepe paper that has been run through a shredder would be a good option. If you’ve saved the grass from previous years, that would be good to use, too, so you’re also recycling.

Add Easter candy, toys, small books, crayons, cars, stickers, or anything else that will fit in the basket that you know your child will enjoy. Remember not to overfill the basket. You want to have room for a stuffed animal. Bunnies, ducks, or baby chicks are common animals to find in Easter baskets.

Use your imagination when deciding what to include in your child’s basket. Think of your child and what they like. If your child isn’t into stuffed animals, why not situate their favorite doll or action figure in the basket instead?

Wrap the completed basket with colored cellophane and tie it up with a big ribbon. This will keep the dust out of the basket, and make it more of a production for them to open it on Easter morning.

Easter is a great day to shower your children with love. A home-made Easter basket will do more to let them know that you love them than a store-bought one, and you’ll save money on it to boot.

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Who will you invite? If you’re planning a neighborhood Easter egg hunt, you’ll need considerably fewer eggs than if you’re planning a large-scale hunt. However, if you’re doing a community Easter egg hunt, you may need more space for the egg hunt.

What ages of children will be involved? You’ll want to have this information for a couple of reasons:

1. To know how much space you’ll need
2. To know how many areas you’ll need marked off
3. To determine how many eggs you’ll need

Determine where you’ll hold your Easter egg hunt. Consider holding it in your yard or several yards, at an unused parking lot, a local park, a soccer field, or a high school football field. The larger the area you have available to you, the larger the individual hunting areas can be.

How soon do you start advertising? You’ll want to start advertising a minimum of three weeks before the event, but possibly as much as four weeks. For a neighborhood hunt, you can create flyers which are given to each home in your neighborhood. For larger egg hunts, consider placing them at grocery stores, local places of worship, and doctor’s offices. Include on the flyer a form for the parents to fill out and get back to you the week before the hunt. This should include the parents’ name, how many children will attend, and what age groups they’re in: 0-3, 4-6, and 7-9.

Once you have an idea of the ages of the children who will come to the egg hunt, break the area into three areas. You’ll then be able to determine how much space you need for each age group. Having a separate area for each age group will keep toddlers from being run over by older children.

Purchase 10-15 plastic eggs for each child who will attend. Of course, if you can get all parents in the neighborhood to help buy and fill eggs, it will be less expensive for you personally. You can also ask some other parents to find the prizes. Place change or $1.00 bills in other eggs. Plan to have extra eggs for those children who didn’t RSVP.

Fill them with age-appropriate candy. Keep these separated so the smaller children won’t get hard candy they shouldn’t have. You’ll also want to have up to five prize eggs per age group. For prize eggs, put a coupon in with the candy that they can choose a prize from several. You may also want to give each participating child a ticket to try to win a large Easter basket.

Don’t forget to decorate the egg hunting grounds. Have snacks and drinks available for the children, parents, and anyone working the hunt. As you can see, figuring out how to organize a fun Easter egg hunt isn’t difficult, but it will take time to ensure the children have a great day of Easter egg hunting.

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One thing your family might enjoy is taking a walk outdoors at a park or in your back yard. While you’re enjoying the outdoors, pick up sticks, rocks, or other objects which you can create three-dimensional nature art with. Children will enjoy using sticks to make a mouth or rocks for the eyes. The found objects can also be used in a nature display. Please note it’s important not to take bird nests out of the trees or take wild animals from their habitat.

Dye and decorate Easter eggs together. There are some parts of the process which will require adult supervision but the decorations themselves can be done by the children. See which child can come up with the most unusually decorated eggs.

Spend time together as a family to come up with the menu for a great Easter family meal. Ask everyone who is able to cook to prepare one dish. One person could prepare the meat course, someone else a vegetable dish, someone a salad, and someone else a dessert. Don’t forget to have someone prepare a special beverage for the meal.

Easter is considered a Christian holiday. You may want to attend a local religious observance or spend time as a family learning more about the holiday.

Share what you have with a family in need. This may mean opening your home to invite them to Easter dinner or making Easter baskets to take to the family’s children. If you help a family in need to make their day special, your entire family is more likely to remember the day.

Encourage the children of the family to help make decorations. Use the decorations for your home and if you have extras you can give some to grandparents, aunts and uncles, and other family. You may also want to share some with the family in need so they have something to decorate their home.

Has the family lost a loved one recently? Take a little bit of time out of your Easter Sunday to visit their graves. Specifically talk about your loved ones and remember the good times you had. Your family may decide to make this an annual part of their holiday.

Host a neighborhood Easter egg hunt rather than simply having one for your own family. Ask other families in the neighborhood to help by either purchasing the plastic eggs, providing candy, or providing refreshments for the event. The hunt may become a favorite part of the neighborhood’s celebration of Easter.

These tips for frugal and memorable Easter family fun are by no means the only things you can do. The easiest thing to do would be to ask your family what would make the holiday more memorable for them. Then take the time to make those activities happen.

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Rather than focusing on the Easter candy the children will receive and eat, focus more on spending time with family. This is one way to celebrate Easter more meaningfully. Visit family members you may not have seen lately, especially those who may be infirm, in a retirement home, or a nursing home. Pick up an elderly family member and take them with you to religious services.

Most people realize that Easter is a religious holiday. For Christians, this means they attend either a sunrise service which symbolizes when Jesus was thought to have risen from the grave, or they attend a religious service later on in the day. The point is that they gather together as a family to commemorate Jesus’ death and resurrection on their behalf.

After church services many families have Easter egg hunts for the children in the family. Of course, many communities and churches offer Easter egg hunts the Saturday before Easter, but that doesn’t preclude your family from having their own. Children will often prefer the egg hunts their own family puts together over community events.

While the women in the family are preparing the Easter meal, the men of the family could go outside and hide Easter eggs for the children. Don’t let them make all of the eggs too easy to find; have them place some in harder places for the older children. They may also want to add a few coins to some of the eggs to give the children an extra surprise.

Food is such an important part of most holidays, and this is true for Easter, too. Try to plan the meal around foods which are traditional to your own family. Perhaps there used to be a particular dish which everyone looked forward to each Easter. Find the recipe and make that dish. Not only will it provide nourishment for your family, you can also use it to recreate an old tradition.

Easter is often seen as a time of rebirth. What better time to celebrate the holiday and welcome spring by planting a few trees, flowers, or perennial plants in a part of your yard dedicated to Easter. Welcoming spring in this way, as well as recognizing the images of rebirth associated with the holiday, may become a treasured family tradition.

Families are often running in many directions during the week. It’s during holidays such as Easter that they are able to come back together. When deciding how to celebrate Easter more meaningfully, try to include all members of the family. Tradition may be important, but it’s the people we share our lives with that truly make celebrating the holiday meaningful.

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Who says an Easter basket has to be in an actual basket? Find a toy pail or box with a lid which will be usable after the holiday has passed. Using odd containers also makes filling them much more fun.

Chocolate bunnies are almost expected during Easter. You may choose to buy one bunny for each child in your family but there’s no reason you have to purchase a lot of candy to fill a basket. You can also make your own Easter food baskets for children to enjoy, including some of the following:

* Rice cereal treats made with marshmallows. Use colored marshmallows to change the taste. You may also want to dip them partially in chocolate as an added surprise

* Easter cookies in the shape of eggs, chicks, bunnies, or crosses. Decorate the cookies with icing, sprinkles, and candies

* Hard boiled eggs which have been dyed

Rather than putting toys into the basket, why not give the children something educational? When you find inexpensive books your children will enjoy throughout the year, store them in a closet. Then you’ll have them available for other gifts when needed as well.

Many small children enjoy coloring, so coloring books and crayons might be a good choice to place in their Easter basket. These can usually be purchased from discount or dollar stores for around a dollar.

Bubbles are also a good choice for children’s baskets. You can purchase bubbles for little money but you can also make your own with 1 cup dish soap (Dawn or Joy are most often used), 12 cups water, and 3/4 tablespoon glycerin which is available at most pharmacies.

Candles made from eggshells are popular with older children and teens. Poke a pin hole in the small end of an egg and then a larger hole in the larger end. Blow the egg out of the shell, clean it, and then let it dry. Put tape over the pin hole, pour melted wax into the larger hole, and then place a wick into the wax. When the candle has solidified, peel away the egg shell.

Write or find a beautiful poem to let your child know how much you love them. Print it onto springtime scrapbooking paper or use calligraphy to write it out on parchment paper. Place it into a handcrafted frame.

There are many ways you can find or make frugal Easter gifts for your children. It’s not necessary to buy the pre-made baskets which are so expensive if you use a little bit of creativity. You might be surprised to find your children actually prefer home-made baskets instead.

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Center pieces

Center pieces can be as simple or as elaborate as you want them to be. A simple center piece might be a decorated Easter basket, a single flowering potted plant, or a bowl with pastel colored candies. Add some plastic eggs, colored ribbon, or Easter grass and you’ve created a simple center piece.

For a more elaborate center piece, place upturned bowls, bricks or other items to the center of the table to give it different heights. Place a table cloth over these items and then place several flowering potted plants on top of them. Spread colored glass and Easter grass around the plants to add even more interest. If you have small ceramic or toy bunnies, you may want to add those, as well.

Home-made place cards

Ask your children to make place cards which have each guest’s name on them. They can also use plastic eggs with names painted on them. For fun, help the children make cookies of typical Easter shapes. Decorate the cookie with the guest’s name. Not only will they know where to sit, they can enjoy the cookie later.

Flower arrangements

Easter lilies, hyacinths, daffodils, and tulips are common flowers in early spring. Many Easter lilies have a strong smell so you may not want to place them in the dining room as they may be overpowering. Vases of flowers spread throughout the home may be nice and will bring the beauty of springtime indoors.

One flower arrangement you may want to try is to place several daffodils and crocuses in a large pot. Stick a small tree limb with several branches into the center of the daffodils and then hang tiny Easter eggs on strings on them.

Table settings

If you’re not accustomed to using your good dishes very often, Easter is a perfect time to bring them out. In fact, why not go all out when it comes to your table setting? Use the good china and silver wear; your family will enjoy seeing them being used.

You may want to invest in some chargers to place under your plates. This will dress up your table settings. They can be used any time you want to dress up your table, whether you bring out your good dishes or not.

If you’ve never decorated much at Easter, you might want to use these Easter table decorations ideas or come up with some of your own. With the variety of flowers and traditional symbols available there are so many options you can come up with. Have fun decorating and celebrating the holiday!

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