Kids, Easter and Eggs

DD is only 15mo at the moment and we're not planning to do anything special this year.
DH will be working all weekend (as usual).

I've grown up in a christian home and have nearly every year gone to a dawn service on Easter Sunday.
We never had the Easter Bunny and DH and I have decided that our kids won't either.

Also, we always did an Egg Hunt, as most kids do.

Due to DD's health issues chocolate is a huge no-no for many years to come.

We are going to teach DD the Christian interpretation behind eggs (which is a huge step, considering DH is athiest).

1. What age did you start 'celebrating' Easter with your little ones?
2. Do you have an alternative to chocolate eggs??

I was raised Catholic, big new life theme, church etc... but my parents did the easter bunny too. Dp is an atheist. (LOL, I just remembered..I always used to swear that the easter bunny lived in the moon! I would point him out to everyone and even now, I have shown my neices and nephews! No idea where it came from but it does kinda look like a bunny head in the moon sometimes! hehehe)

I wasn't big on DS getting chocolates for the first two years, we go away with family camping over the break, we organise a big egg hunt, will be even more exciting this year as DS will be right into it!
I'm pretty sure my SIL's gave ds egg cups and spoons, fluffy bunnies etc..

I make cookies for everyone, don't buy choc at all, also make marshmallow bunnies and marshmallow pops (bunny heads and chicks)

We have three kids in the familythat can't eat chocolate (or egg for that matter so biscuits are out) so normally we have minimal chocolate eggs and stick to marshmallows, jellybeans, and lollipops, that sort of thing for the kids.

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as an alternative to eggs/chocolate we are going to do board games or one toy they will share. they might get a small basket with one egg in it but otherwise will get a 'family game' we can all play and enjoy as a family. :)

Dd is 15 months and this is her second Easter. Last Easter she got a book called "My first Easter" and it tells the Easter story. She also got a little softie lamb as a symbol of Jesus (the lamb who was slain). We go to Church palm Sunday, good Friday, Easter Morning etc. This yr she will be getting a softie bunny, not a Christian symbol but she won't be eating chocolate. We will explain the eggs as gift giving in recognition of God giving his only son, Jesus giving us the most special gift, redemption etc.

My girls celebrated easter after they turned 1 so probably 14-15 months old I guess. We aren't religious at all and we do the Easter Bunny thing. We generally have a trail of bunny feet to a stash and an Easter egg hunt.

No alternatives to chocolate in our house - the is no alternative as far as my girls are concerned, it is pretty much their favourite sweet thing so they do get to have it at easter as they don't get it very often. In addition though they do tend to get pyjamas, a craft activity and a trinket like a mug or something.

We're not religious so Easter in our house is all about the Easter Bunny. Moo's first Easter he was given a soft bunny and a book about bunnies. Last year was his 2nd Easter and we gave him a couple of books about the Easter Bunny, a few cars, craft activity as well as a small chocolate bunny in a little basket.

We are atheist, we do a low-key Easter bunny/egg hunt thing. In the past both sets of grandparents have gone completely over the top with chocolate eggs for the kids which we (as parents) weren’t comfortable with. So, we asked them to buy them winter pyjamas at Easter instead. Now they have way too many sets of winter pjs but they are much healthier and more useful than chocolate Easter eggs. :D

I was going to suggest pyjamas too. We do have chocolate, mostly for the enjoyment of the egg hunt out in the garden. In the past we've hidden the same eggs a number of times because the kids enjoy it so much. Last year I found a set of plastic egg decorations so we hide those now. Other easter activities include making and icing biscuits, and decorating and dying real eggs. We went through the motions but neither of my girls have really got until 2+ years.

Being from a Polish family (Mum's side) we have always coloured eggs - we usually do this on Good Friday and display them. Before breakfast on Easter Sunday, we select an egg (hard boiled of course) and have a competition to see who has the champion egg (kind of like conkers). Then an adult peels their egg and cuts it into pieces and we all share by eating a small piece of the same egg (we can eat our own, too, but we start with a little piece of the one family egg). I am not sure if this is all true Polish tradition, but Mum did it as a kid and we have continued it.

I don't know... DD likes chocolate (she only gets it very rarely from her grandparents) but we don't want to spoil her - my nieces and nephew go into chocolate frenzies and it gets pretty ugly. We'll probably give her a small egg, but a nice gift to mark the occasion. Mum always gives a small egg and a nice new outfit for winter. We did Santa so we'll do the Easter Bunny too. I like a little magic :) FIL does a massive Easter egg hunt, and maybe this year DD will be able to participate?

In terms of the meaning, last year she was only tiny, but I still read her the bible stories surrounding Christmas (because I had to explain who Jesus was :)) and Easter. I'll do the same again this year. MIL tends to pray over her and tell her how much Jesus loves her so she is getting a type of religious education pretty early and regularly.

You could hide some kind of plastic openable egg (think kinder surprise or microwave egg cooker) with gifts or vouchers inside the eggs. So they still get the fun of the hunt but not the chocolate eggs.
Can your DD eat real eggs? If so how about decorating some together or making blown eggs.

i was going to suggest decorating some hard boiled eggs with your DD. i've also seen some lovely hand made things around by WAHM on FB - baskets/containers with plastic eggs filled with playdough, special bibs, tshirts etc. there are also some lovely books around.

we're not religious but do celebrate easter/the easter bunny. DS was probably 9 months old for his first easter & we didn't celebrate it with him but he was given some soft toys from grandparents. this year he'll be 2 & 9mths and i've ordered a handmade felt basket so he can do a little egg hunt. he's also really into dinosaurs so i got him a pack with 2 small chocolate eggs & a dinosaur money box (he also has a fascination with money boxes :lol:).

Thanks for all your stories and suggestions. :)
DD is still pretty little and won't understand Easter this year.
Yes, she can eat real eggs so maybe we'll just stick to that. I like the jelly bean/lollies idea, but DD can't have any kind of lollies.

I might grab some paints and paint some eggs for her.
PPixie: DH's family is Dutch and they always colour eggs for Easter. It's a really big deal, apparently. :)

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You could hide some kind of plastic openable egg (think kinder surprise or microwave egg cooker) with gifts or vouchers inside the eggs. So they still get the fun of the hunt but not the chocolate eggs.
Can your DD eat real eggs? If so how about decorating some together or making blown eggs.

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You can buy these. Hunt around. We're thinking about doing that in the future, but this year, we're giving DD a carrot. And she will be thrilled. We might also make a carrot cake or something.

We didn't celebrate Easter with DS last year, but we will this year (he's nearly 2 now). I don't believe in making it and expensive occasion, all about presents and chocolate, but it should be a special time to celebrate. I have found DS a gorgeous wire egg cup with feet. I also saw silicone-type ones that look like the bottom half of little chicks. I'd like to do an easter egg hunt, probably with those plastic openable eggs (which I'll put little chicks, Easter pictures, stickers and MAYBE a small chocolate egg or two inside). I've seen heaps of gorgeous little easter baskets that would be great to put the egg hunt goodies in. We've also asked our extended family to forgo the chocolate... my mum is going to bake bikkies with him and has also bought a couple of toy cars which she'll put inside a couple of those pavlova eggs she's kept. Boiled eggs are a favourite atm, so we'll probably decorate/colour a few and have a boiled egg easter breakfast. Also, we'll do some other easter craft - maybe an easter bonnet or an easter basket (made out of cardboard that he can colour, add stickers and then fold up).

While hunting around for alternative easter things, I also saw dinosaur eggs and egg fossil things - the National Geographic shop was great, probably for older toddlers and children though.

One of the shops I was in today had utterly gorgeous papier maché eggs that broke into 2. I was almost tempted to buy one and I never do anything for Easter (except eat hot cross buns).

In our home, we do the following, our DD was two on Monday:
* Set up an Easter corner with bunnies, baskets, chicks, and our Easter crafts. We don't buy anything, unless its from the two buck shop. Its all old toys found in the bottom of the toy chest or 2nd hand :)
* We do lots of Easter crafts, dying eggs, grassy egg-head, decorate Easter biscuits, paper-mache pinatas etc etc ....google is very helpful ;)
* We are also going to plant a little Easter garden for the bunnies, and will plant some carrots too amongst the flowers :)
* Reading lots of stories, and colouring Easter posters ($4 at Woolies for a HUGE A3 poster book with tonnes of posters to colour and explore!!)
* We practise "hunting" and "hiding" and "hopping"
* Singing lots of bunny songs and hopping like bunnies everywhere, including Woolies ;)