A Less Chocolate Easter
Easter is a time of hot cross buns, family lunches, Easter egg hunts, the Easter bunny, chocolate, chocolate and did I mention chocolate? As with any holiday or celebration it is easy to go over the top. Especially for the little ones. But how much chocolate do we, and they, really need in one day? If they aren’t allowed to eat it all in one go, in one day or even in one week, why provide that much sugar in the first place? Now don’t get upset, I am not by any means suggesting that Easter be chocolate free. That would be sacrilegious. But surely there are other options and ideas out there to create a special tradition or memory that keeps the chocolate to a minimum and the takes the memories and the fun to a maximum.
In my attempt to find out what else can be done for Easter, I asked my patients about their traditions, searched Pintrest and social media and tried my luck at my own imagination. Below is a list of my favorite things to do besides throwing/hiding eggs all over the house and yard. I hope you find a tradition that replaces some of the chocolate with fun games, funny memories, healthy competition and laughter. I am looking forward to this year and the smiles on her face with the new games and adventure. Happy Easter!
- Easter egg BINGO. I have attached a PDF of the BINGO card I made up for an activity this year. I simply bought some inexpensive plastic eggs of different colours. Then the kids have to find the hidden eggs to make BINGO. When BINGO is achieved, they can turn the found eggs in for a medium/large size chocolate egg or bunny. You can download the PDF of the one I made at the bottom of this newsletter.
- Treasure hunt with eggs filled with money. One father told me that even though his kids were all adults, they still had an Easter egg hunt every year. But now the eggs were filled not with chocolate, but with money. There was a golden egg that was filled with a $50 note. It is not hard to guess which egg the kids were hunting for! With younger kids, silver and gold coins can be just as exciting. You could even fill them with stickers, balloons or ribbons, etc.
- Scavenger hunt for clues. Inside each egg that is hidden is one word that is part of a bigger clue. Once all the eggs have been collected, the pieces of paper are arranged into a sentence that tells where the final large egg is. The key here is to hide the big eggs in a place they won’t see while running around looking for the smaller eggs and also to remember how many eggs with clues you hid.
- Make the final treasure include 1 large egg and a movie, book, stationery, gift voucher or the ever popular set of pyjamas and slippers.
- You can do an egg hunt at night and put glow sticks inside the eggs before you hide them. This is also a great time to have a family movie and enjoy some laughter and cuddles together. Maybe with everyone wearing their new pyjamas!
- Have some balloons along the egg hunt that have a few chocolate eggs added to them and blown up. In order to get the chocolate, the kids need to find a way to pop the balloon. Sitting and stepping on being the most readily available way to access the chocolate with little waiting time. You could even hide some up the swing set, on the monkey bars or in a tree to make them climb a little bit.
- Slime it up!! There are hundreds of recipes for various types of slime and most kids like it. You could put the ingredients in the eggs or an egg shaped container and they can make the slime at the end. Or you could make a large batch of slime, put it in a big bowl or bucket and make them grab the eggs out of the slime for their prize/clue/chocolate. Make sure your eggs are solid and don’t have little holes on the ends. This could prove messier than desired.
I hope these ideas have given you some new ways to make Easter and fun time with family and helps you create traditions that will keep the family close and make amazing memories.
Happy Easter!!
