Eggs-quisite family fun!

You can make home-made hot cross buns or try making empty tomb rolls (or cheat and make empty tombs out of large easter eggs). You might like to get outside and build a resurrection garden or look up recipes to finish all the extra chocolate. Easter is a time of joy and feasting. Are you looking for ideas for celebrating Easter with your family? Look no further. I’ve got you covered!

Egg hunt with a twist

This is a variation on the traditional egg hunt. Participants follow a series of clues, taking them to different parts of the house, which finally lead them to a basket of chocolate eggs. The difficulty of the clues will depend on the age and ability level of the participants. You can also use picture clues for the very young. I find sticky notes work well for this activity.

A single game might lead participants from the kitchen to the trampoline, to the laundry, to the garden tap, and back inside to the living room to find the treasure. You may need to stock up on extra sticky notes, because I’ve found children often want to design treasure hunts for each other after doing this once.

If your family watches Bluey, you might have seen this game before. If your family doesn’t watch Bluey – they should definitely watch Bluey. That show is awesome. I don’t care if you only have teenagers. You all need Bluey in your life!

Big family catch-up

I have family in America. My grandmother’s sister married a GI and together they had six children. These cousins have gone on to have their own children and grandchildren. As a family, they have claimed Easter, rather than Christmas, as the best time for their whole-family catch-ups. It’s a brilliant idea because there is far less competition in your calendar and you don’t need to negotiate with the other side of the family about whose turn it is. Consider choosing Easter as a time to catch up with your extended family, or perhaps those friends you’ve been meaning to connect with for a while.

Omelette bar – choose your fillings.

For this one, you provide a variety of fillings on a tray to choose from. Various cheeses, bacon bits, spinach, roast pumpkin, capsicum, sliced-up twiggy sticks, sundried tomato and anything you want to clear out of your fridge. Participants choose their fillings and hand to the Omelette Master (let’s face it: the Omelette Master is you) who uses a large jug of whipped-up eggs to create an omelette made-to-order. Just like in a five-star hotel!

I’ve tried to convince my children that Omelette Morning is the same amount of fun as a Pancake Morning but I’m not sure they are convinced!

Easter Fire

The Easter fire is an important part of the vigil Mass. You can also celebrate Easter at home as a family by building a bonfire, or a fire in the fireplace or outdoor fire pit. There are a lot of activities you can do with a wood fire. Chestnuts are in season around Easter time, if you’d like to experiment with roasting them. Toasting marshmallows is always fun, as well as making s’mores with marshmallows, dry biscuits and chocolate. These days, you can buy special crystals from mainstream shops to make the flames change colour. Or you could have a go at making damper or toast. A campfire is always festive and an Easter fire reminds us of the light of Christ.

Stations of the cross

Depending on where you live, the Easter season is often lovely weather for a walk. This activity is especially good for Holy Week. Choose an enjoyable place to walk and plan your route. It might be by the beach or through parklands. You might like to use your maps app on your phone, or go old-school and use a street directory.

Next, choose a number of stopping places along the route. Stations of the Cross traditionally have fourteen stops, but you can choose as many as might fit the attention span of your children. Even three or four stops could make for a nice devotion. You’re not going to be audited on this! At these stops, read a line of scripture and say a short prayer. Perhaps finish with a picnic of hot cross buns.

Co-opting Christmas

Christmas is such a hectic time. I always regret not doing all of the fun Christmas crafts, recipes and activities that I so carefully pin to my Pinterest boards. This year, I plan to rebrand these as ‘Easter activities’. Who says you can’t decorate Easter biscuits or make Easter paper chains? What about an Easter wreath? I might even make a gingerbread church all ready for Easter Mass!

There are so many ways to enjoy Easter with your family. Or, you might like to scale things back, keep it simple and just focus on enjoying each other’s company. The important thing is, Easter, even more than Christmas, is a time of great celebration and joy. Don’t forget to relish it!