With Easter just around the corner, Easter Bunnies around the world are at a loss about what to do. And, with a “stay-at-home” directive in several states in the United States and many countries around the world, how do you celebrate Easter with your family in your home? No public Easter egg hunts, no public Easter bunny photo shoots at your local mall, and church services on hold – adults everywhere are struggling to keep from falling down the proverbial rabbit hole while juggling many new challenges. To top it off, what do you tell your young children who don’t understand? Even the lingo is a new language with phrases like community spread, social distancing, and flatten the curve.
While I don’t have the answers to any of your children’s questions (or even answers for adults), I can suggest what to do on the days leading up to Easter and how to celebrate Easter as a family. While this Easter may be different than past Easters, it’s a chance to create different memories but still have a special day at home. So, how do you create new memories for a stay-at-home Easter celebration? By incorporating a few or all of these tips into the days leading up to Easter and on Easter Sunday, too.
Celebrate Easter Before the Big Day
Start the festivities early by enlisting your family’s help in doing several stay-at-home activities together to get ready for the big day. If you don’t have the supplies necessary to recreate some of these activities, use these ideas as inspiration, and create your own using what you have on hand.
Dye Easter Eggs
Just as you and your family have done in the past, dye Easter eggs. A few days before Easter, hard boil eggs so that they are ready to decorate the next day. Then, dye them with Easter egg dye. If you don’t have Easter egg dye on hand, use food-safe food coloring that you have in your pantry for cakes, cupcakes, and cookies.
Not a fan of Easter egg dye or food coloring? Heather at Mommypotamus shares a post that teaches you to dye eggs using natural ingredients.
Afterward, be sure to refrigerate the dyed eggs until you are ready to decorate them.
Decorate Easter Eggs
On Friday, gather all family members together to decorate the eggs. Paint stripes, swirls, or dots on them or plaster them with Easter stickers. Add sparkle with glitter.
Papier-mache’ your eggs with scraps of colored paper, flowered napkins, or scrapbook paper. And, use the sprinkles you have in your pantry to decorate the eggs, too. Make a food-safe papier-mache’ glue with this recipe.
Remember: If you want to make your dyed Easter eggs into other recipes, don’t decorate some of them with things like paint, glitter, and glue, but instead set aside some to eat later.
Make Easter-shaped Cookies
Dig out your Easter and Spring cookie cutters and celebrate Easter by making Easter cookies with the kids. Decorate them with frosting, and if you have cookie decorating gel, let the kids make them “special.” No decorating gel? No problem! Use sprinkles instead. Don’t eat all the cookies as you bake them; save enough for Easter and save enough for your cake. What cake? This cake…
Celebrate Easter and Make an Easter Cake
Make a 3 or 4-layer cake. Use a cake mix or make it from scratch. Make a plain vanilla cake or a carrot cake. Make your family’s favorite cake. Put it on a special cake pedestal and frost it, making the sides smooth. If you have the equipment (a piping bag with frosting tips) and know how to make swirly piles of frosting, go for it. If not, no worries! Just edge the top of the cake with Easter candy. Then invite the kids to pick their favorite cookies from your decorating project and place them on the sides of the cake. Voila! A beautiful Easter cake!
Color Your Own Easter Placemats
Print as many of these cute FREE Easter Bunny coloring pages as you need for placemats. Have the kids color them and place them on your Easter table. They can also write their names on these placemats, which can double as place cards.
Make Your Own TP Easter Bunnies
Start saving the cardboard tubes of your toilet paper rolls now. If you have a family of four or more, you will have several ready to decorate for Easter. Have the kids get out their crafting supplies and make TP Easter Bunnies for the Easter table.
Print Easter Decorations
Don’t have Easter decorations? Or want something new for this year but can’t shop for them? Print your Easter decorations. Use this FREE template to print as many as you need and strategically tape them in different areas around the room. Or, just use a refrigerator magnet and display it on the refrigerator.
Celebrate Easter and Let the Kids Decorate the Easter Table
Now that you have new decorations for your Easter table, let the kids help you decorate. If you have Easter decorations stored from past years, add to your table decorations and home décor. Make your home especially festive this year. And, those cute Easter and Spring cookie cutters you used to make cookies earlier? Put them around the table, too!
Celebrate Easter Sunday on the Big Day
On Easter Sunday, make your stay-at-home day extra special by creating unique recipes for each meal. You don’t have to create a full-on Easter dinner (unless you want to), but instead make each meal a little special by recreating these simple breakfast, lunch, and dinner ideas. Plus, don’t forget to have an Easter egg hunt either inside your home or your backyard, if you have one.
Make Bunny Butt Pancakes
Celebrate Easter and make these easy Bunny Butt Pancakes! Buy pre-made frozen pancakes in both the regular size and the mini size. Dollop chocolate hazelnut spread strategically on the mini pancakes to make feet and scoop a dollop of softened butter or cream cheese for the bunny’s tail. If you want to make your bunny butt pancakes a little healthier, substitute a slice of banana for the tail. Or, make it really special and scoop a small dollop of vanilla ice cream for the tail. Why not? It’s Easter!
Have your Easter Egg Hunt
If you are having your Easter egg hunt in your house to celebrate Easter, hide eggs after the kids have gone to bed on Saturday night. When the kids wake up, let them open their Easter basket before breakfast. Then have breakfast as planned and start the Easter egg hunt. Be sure to count your eggs before hiding them. Several times I have found Easter eggs in my yard long after Easter has passed because I hid them too well in the bushes!
Make Easter Lunch Special
When the kids have settled down from all the excitement of Easter, invite them to help you make lunch. If lunchtime is still several hours away, that’s okay. Preparing the bits and pieces of these adorable sandwiches ahead of time just means that lunch will be a breeze!
Using a large round cookie cutter, cut out rounds from several pieces of your favorite bread. Use those same cookie cutters to cut out matching slices of American cheese for the chicks and use Mozzarella or Provolone cheese for the rabbit. Slice bits of red bell pepper for the chicks’ feet, beaks, and feathered head and more American cheese for the wings or thinly sliced radishes for the wings. Use sesame seeds for the eyes or dollop black food-safe gel on for the eyes.
For the rabbit, cut slices of bread for the ears and cover them with sliced deli ham and a bit of the Mozzarella or Provolone cheese. Slice more radish bits and pieces for the cheeks, nose, teeth, and bow. Again, use sesame seeds for the eyes or black food-safe gel. Place on plates or a platter or a cookie sheet, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until all of you are ready to eat lunch.
Here’s another idea for Easter sandwiches…
With this version, you don’t need to cut the bread in circles, but use whole slices instead. Cover one sandwich with a slice of deli ham and the other sandwich with a slice of cheese. Use a knife or appropriately sized cookie cutters to “carve” the cheese and deli ham into various rounds and ovals; place them strategically around the two sandwiches to create the bunny shapes. Cut out ears from the cheese and use thin pieces of fresh chives to make the grass and whiskers and use half of the cherry tomato for the bunny’s tail. Again, place the sandwiches on a plate, platter, or cookie sheet, wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to eat.
Play Easter Games
After lunch, let the kids play Easter games. You can play, too! Print this FREE crossword for the kids. Either cut off the answers after you print this OR black them out with a magic marker. No peeking for the littles!
If one game isn’t enough, I have two more FREE games for you. Just print as many as you need and have fun!
Make Pizza for Dinner
Not just any pizza, but a bunny face pizza! Make it easy on yourself by buying two pre-made crusts – one regular size and one mini pizza size. Cut the mini pizza in half for the ears and “sculpt” it a bit to get the curve right. Use pre-made pizza sauce and top with your favorite things. Don’t forget the cheese, then bake as usual in a preheated oven per the instructions that are on the package of the pre-made crust. One pizza not enough? Make two! Or, make individual pizzas for everyone using smaller size pizza crust. Get the kids involved and have them help with the toppings.
Read a Book or Watch a Movie
Serve the cookie-decorated carrot cake you made on Saturday for dessert. Manage the kids’ sugar rush by settling them down for a movie or have them read to you. Pick a book or movie that has an Easter theme or a bunny theme. A favorite book in our family is Beatrix Potter’s classic Tale of Peter Rabbit. One of my fondest memories is of one of my great-niece’s reading it to me. She had just learned about it in school and excitedly volunteered to read it to me! So precious!
Celebrate Easter
In this unsettling season of uncertainty, I hope that you and your family will take some time to celebrate Easter and enjoy family time together.
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Tootles,
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Great ideas! Easy to do and fun too!
Thanks, Dawn! I had fun putting it all together!