Lots of Activities to do with Your Kids at Easter.
I rarely need an excuse for a party or some kind of celebration, especially when there are children involved. So, Easter in our house doesn’t pass by without a bit of a fan fair! There are of course the usual traditions of gifting chocolate eggs and making a simnel cake (a fruit cake topped with marzipan). However, there are lots of other ideas you could do to keep the kids busy at Easter and perhaps adopt a few as family traditions.
Easter Egg Hunt
I love an Easter egg hunt, perhaps even more than my daughter (Lily) does! Last year I tried to mix it up a bit with some handmade decorated eggs, so I wasn’t just hiding chocolate eggs, otherwise Lily would be eating her body weight in chocolate! Lily was as excited to find the non edible eggs as the edible ones, although this year I sense the chocolate ones may be more in favour.
There’s a great selection of Easter egg hunt items these days, which makes it all super easy. Waitrose usually sell a box of chocolate eggs specifically for eggs hunts, which I particularly like, as they are larger than the usual mini foil covered eggs, which can be a choking hazard for little ones.
The Easter egg hunt signage and other Easter items from Meri Meri are fab and if your kids are a bit older, they might like this easter scavenger hunt from Your Party Games.
Decorating Eggs
When I was a child, I remember decorating real eggs with my mum. We would pierce a small hole in either end of the egg and blow the contents of the egg out into a bowl (to be used later to bake cupcakes), so we were left with a hollow egg to decorate. Alternatively you could use hard boiled eggs, or you can buy plastic, polystyrene, ceramic and papier maché eggs; check out Baker Ross and Hobbycraft for eggs to decorate and egg decorating kits.
You could also create an Easter tree and decorate it with the pretty eggs you’ve made or make them part of you egg hunt.
Easter Baking
There are lots of fun things you can bake at Easter time with the kids:
- Easter cookies.
- Chocolate nests filled with mini eggs.
- Simnel cake: traditional cake in the Uk that goes back centuries. The cake is typically made with a fruitcake base and is topped with a layer of marzipan. Traditionally, it is decorated with 11 marzipan balls on top, which represent the 12 disciples minus Judas.
- Chocolate eggs: Using a plastic mould.
- Hot cross buns: These traditional Easter buns are spiced and contain raisins or currants. They are marked with a cross on top, which represents the crucifixion of Jesus.
Carrot cake: Carrots are a symbol of Easter and a delicious ingredient in cake! A classic carrot cake is topped with cream cheese frosting and decorated with a few edible Easter decorations like mini chocolate eggs or carrots made from marzipan.
Easter Crafts
I love a bit of Easter crafting!
- Colouring in sheets: you could have a competition to design the best egg.
- Bunny ears headband: Cut out bunny ears from paper or felt and attach them to a headband.
- Easter basket: Make an Easter basket out of paper, card, or even a paper plate. Decorate it with Easter-themed stickers or drawings, and fill it with eggs from the Easter egg hunt.
- Egg carton chicks: Cut apart an egg carton and paint the individual cups yellow. Add eyes and a beak to create cute little chicks.
- Bunny finger puppets: Cut out bunny shapes from felt or paper, and glue them onto a lollipop stick or a finger puppet base.
- Easter wreaths: Use a paper plate or a wreath base (from Hobbycraft) and get the kids to glue on Easter-themed decorations such as plastic eggs, bunnies, and chicks.
- Handprint chicks: have your kids make hand prints with yellow paint and once the paint has dried they can add eyes, beak and feet to create a chick.
- Egg carton flowers: Cut off the individual egg cups from an egg carton, paint them in bright colours, then attach green pipe cleaners and bundle them together to create a bunch of flowers.
- Make a colourful papier mache Easter egg and fill it with Easter treats.
You could also put an Easter twist on some other crafting ideas from my blogs Craft Activities for Children’s Parties and Eco-Friendly Craft Activities for Children’s Parties.
Easter Games
There are lots of games that you could give an Easter twist to:
- Pin the tail on the bunny
- Egg and spoon race: Give each child a spoon and a decorated hard-boiled egg. Set up a race course and have the kids balance the egg on the spoon while racing. The first one to cross the finish line without dropping the egg wins.
- Bunny hop relay race: Divide the kids into teams and have them line up. Give each team a large carrot. The first player on each team holds the carrot between their legs and hops to a designated spot, then hops back and passes the carrot to the next player. The first team to complete the relay race wins.
- Easter bingo: Create bingo cards with Easter-themed pictures such as bunnies, eggs, chicks, and flowers.
Eco Easter
If you would like to make Easter a little more planet friendly this year, here are a few ideas for you:
- Use natural dyes for egg decorating: Instead of using artificial food coloring, try using natural dyes made from ingredients like onion skins, turmeric, and beetroot.
- For your easter egg hunt, rather than using individually wrapped eggs, you could make little paper packets from leftover wrapping paper and pop a couple of unwrapped eggs in and seal it ready for hiding.
- Make your own Easter decorations: Instead of buying new decorations, create your own using natural materials like branches, flowers, and leaves.
- Give eco-friendly gifts: Instead of giving traditional Easter eggs that come in a lot of packaging, give gifts that are eco-friendly like potted plants or seed bombs.
Happy Easter and enjoy the egg hunting!
