Hatching a Plan for New Easter Traditions

local mom shares some fun tips you won’t be able to egg-nore

Stephanie Sirek |

My favorite things about any holiday are family traditions. We’ve continued the traditions that my husband and I had as children (and created new ones!) with our four kids. Below are three of our family’s favorite Easter traditions:

EVERYONE GETS A SPECIFIC COLORED EGG

In our house the kids are between the ages of 2 and 9, and being “fair” is always a topic of discussion. I realize that we need to teach our kids that life is not always fair, but Easter is not the day I want to fight that battle with arguments over who received more eggs, who gathered them more quickly, or who didn’t get the egg they love. Instead, I assign a color of egg to each one of the kids. This way everyone gets the same number of eggs. Plus, I can hide the bigger kids’ eggs in harder spots and not worry that they will get the little kids’ eggs when I leave them out in plain sight. If they do come across an egg that is not “their” color, they know to leave it where it is and continue looking. I also let them know how many they are looking for so they can keep count and know when they are done. (This also helps with finding any forgotten eggs in June!)

POINTS INSTEAD OF CANDY

Ahh … yet another holiday filled with sugar. With chocolate bunnies and Peeps in baskets, my kids are on sugar overload by the time they are ready to crack open the eggs. “Life as Mom” blogger Jessica Fisher wrote a post about using a point system instead of candy. Each egg had a number in it, and after the egg hunt was over the kids counted up their points and redeemed them for prizes. I thought this was a perfect idea to help reduce the amount of candy. I used dollar-store items, leftovers from birthday goodie bags, and things I had stashed away throughout the year. I laid out the prizes and assigned a point value to everything. After they found all their eggs, we tallied up their points and they went “shopping.” They loved being able to choose what they wanted, and I loved not having a ton of leftover candy.

This year I’m going to sneak in a little math. Instead of giving them a point value, I’m going to write math problems they need to solve to calculate their points. My first-grader will have some basic addition and subtraction problems, while my third-grader will have multiplication and division questions (such as 3 x 3 = your point value).  Here is Jessica’s blog post if you want to get some prize ideas or see how she used “yolks” instead of points: lifeasmom.com/a-different-kind-of-easter-egg-hunt.

BASKET SCAVENGER HUNT

My kids love to do scavenger hunts and think it is fantastic the Easter Bunny has given clues leading them to their baskets the last couple of years. There is one clue laying out where they will see it right away, which then leads them all over the house to find their baskets. The clues can be simple (“Where do you take a bath?”) or rhyming (“Hmm, you’ve found another clue, just keep looking whatever you do! The next clue is hiding next to the butter and cheese. Or by the milk and eggs, whatever you please!” – thanks to darlingdoodlesdesign.com for that one.) I traced an oval cookie cutter onto construction paper and cut them out. Then I searched Pinterest for clue locations. There are tons of witty bloggers who have already done the work for you and are willing to share their ideas (and sometimes free printables). One year I wrote out the clue locations on the ovals and another year I printed free clues and attached them to the ovals along with some cute bunny stickers. This year I might write them on Post-It notes since Easter is early this year. (It’s March 27, in case you need to mark your calendars!)

You can make this creative and elaborate or simple and easy. That part really doesn’t matter. What matters is that the kids are going to always remember when the Easter Bunny gave them clues to find their baskets. Someday it may be a tradition they do with your grandkids.