In this post I’m sharing my favorite Easter ideas for kids for whimsical tablescapes, crafting, and baking!
“At the heart of every family tradition is a meaningful experience.”
Easter is undoubtedly one of my favorite times of the year. One of the best things about the holidays is being able to share family traditions with my own children. I love adding childlike whimsy to our yearly traditions, decor, and dishes to make our children feel apart of our celebrations.
I’m excited to share with you today Easter activities for kids of all ages, toddler to tween.
CRAFTING WITH EGGS
Dying eggs is a favorite among families, but would you believe that we’ve never died eggs? It wasn’t something that my own mother did with me and to be honest, I’m a little scared of the dye which is funny coming from a perpetual crafter.
Instead, we paint eggs as our Easter tradition. I love to bring the kids into the kitchen and paint paper mache eggs. Its so fun to see the creativity they put into their eggs.
We use spray paint in flat or matte to coat all the eggs at one time and then use paint brushes with acrylic paint to add our designs and details.
Decorating your eggs is a perfect change to let your creativity run wild! You can decorate your eggs by painting roses, daisies, stripes, zigzags, a garden scene, polka dots, the possibilities are endless.
Once the eggs are decorated, you can use them around your home for decor in many ways
- String them up to create a garland
- Gather them in a bowl for a collected look
- Add them to a porcelain egg crate for display
- Nestle them in your potted plants
The best part is that these eggs will keep year after year. What special memories to look back on!
Can’t find paper mache eggs? No problem! Last year we weren’t able to find paper mache eggs so we used our egg cookie cutter to cut out paper eggs. We, first, colored different patterns on our paper with sidewalk chalk and then traced eggs onto the colored paper. Once they were cut out, we used a hole punch to string them up and we added them to our mantle. The kids had a blast with just a few items we already had in our home.
KIDS IN THE KITCHEN
Creating special holiday-themed treats has become a guilty pleasure on mine. I mean who doesn’t like bunny-shaped cookies or chocolate eggs? I guess the teacher in me has always loved themes and celebrating every little holiday the calendar holds.
Baking in general can be time consuming, especially if you are making your desserts from scratch as we do in our kitchen (Many food allergies over here!). So, I like to stick to simple desserts that I know the kids will enjoy creating, but don’t take hours to complete.
There are endless possibilities to spin classics for an Easter themed, such as
- Bunny Bait, an Easter themed trail mix with pastel colored M&Ms, bunny animal crackers and Easter-shaped marshmallows
- Egg Nest Cheesecakes, using the non-bake cheesecake pudding and some Easter Egg Chocolate candies
- Easter Egg Parfaits created with chocolate pudding, brownies, and crushed Easter Egg Chocolates
- Bunny Cookies made by using a bunny cookie cutter and sugar cookie dough
- Egg Rice Crispy Treats made with peeps ad using plastic Easter eggs are the mold
- Easter Bark with white chocolate and Easter sprinkles
Really, you can turn any dessert into an Easter themed treat! Themed desserts are one of my go-to’s for Easter ideas for kids!
When the Easter baking items hit the shelves at your local Target, Walmart or Grocery Store, I stock up. I typically snag the Easter marshmallows, Easter sprinkles, Spring cupcake liners, a few new cookie cutters in Easter shapes and the M&M Easter Egg Chocolates. These items can be used in multiple desserts and they will sell out quickly.
We’ve made several Easter-themed desserts for home and school. They’re always a big hit with the littles!
CREATE A CHILDREN’S TABLESCAPE
Growing up there were only two children in my family, so naturally, we sat at the big table with the adults during holiday meals, but with our own family today we have 7 grandkids that share meals on holidays. That’s a lot of kids and even more adults to fit around a table. Sometimes conversations can be stuffy for children and the fear of spilling something can be overwhelming.
Create a children’s table! Set a table just for the kids! Any time we have the children eat together, giggles and smiles are all around. At times, their laughter has even drowned out our adult conversations and left us wondering if they’re having more fun than us!
For Easter, create a story-inspired tablescape. I took the beloved classic Peter Rabbit and created fun child-friendly decor to be enjoyed by our littles. I made sure that the items in the centerpiece were not breakable and would pique interest. Adding real vegetables, such as cabbage, carrots, and kale to a wooden crate along with our stuffed bunny made for the perfect centerpiece resembling Peter Rabbit in Mr. McGregor’s Garden. I even added our wooden play food from our play kitchen for the children to pretend to eat and cutting while sitting at their table.
Our paper products had images of Peter Rabbit to solidify the theme and add color to your tablescape.
The table runner was craft paper with a garden scene half completed with crayons. I set baskets of crayons around the table for the children to finish drawing in the flowers and insects that they might see in a garden.
Creating a special place for your littles to enjoy their meal is sure to make lasting memories. I can’t wait to create new tablescapes each holiday from childhood classic stories.
EGG HUNTING
A long standing tradition in our family is the annual egg hunt! My husband and I grew up hunting for eggs every Easter so naturally this tradition carried over for our own children.
Every year we hold the annual Egg Hunt at my in-laws. The wives keep the children inside and busy while the men head out to hide the eggs in the backyard.
This is the most looked forward to tradition we have not only for the children, but also the parents. I love to see them searching for the perfect egg, hoping the contents are something magical!
We have a wide range of ages in our family so stuffing the eggs and creating a fair and balanced egg hunt can be tricky. If you are looking for some tried and true tips that we’ve used for years, you should read my EASTER EGG HUNT IDEAS post. It’s full of egg stuffer ideas from toddler to tween and how to make sure the division of eggs is fair with an added “teamwork” aspect!
Including children in our yearly traditions, decor, and dishes has made the holiday memories so special to our children. I hope these traditions give you inspiration to make your Easter just as special!
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BAKING FOR THE HOLIDAY? TAKE A LOOK AT THESE RECIPES!
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- Heart-Shaped Cake, but make it a bunny!
