Easter Traditions & Activities with Kids

Easter is a fun holiday to celebrate with so much opportunity for learning and fun. There are endless ways to celebrate before and during and after, with things like plastic eggs, themed activities, books, and, movement. Easter traditions can be both big and small. I love celebrating any holiday with my family. What I do not enjoy is the stress of taking a toddler to several holiday events in one day. Which always lead to skipped naps, a grumpy toddler, and tired parents. So in addition to fun activities with kids during the Easter season, this post is also about having boundaries with holidays and to also enjoy the holiday that you see fit for you and your family and lifestyle

Easter Themed Activities for Kids

Dance Party

In my “Not so Terrible Two’s” blog post I talked about Dance parties being a fun way to get energy out and to just have fun. As a family we enjoy Dance parties frequently. My son loves music. One song that Luka has loved for a long time is “Hop Little Bunny”. There are several versions out there to listen to. You can interact with your child by hopping like bunnies and singing and dancing together with this song or other similar ones.

Easter or Spring Themed Books

Another fun way we prepare for our coming Easter traditions and Spring in general is to read books about it. We love The Little Blue Truck Springtime (Amazon). Also, Construction Site, Spring Delight (Amazon) which has little easter egg surprises in it. In my blog post about our favorite books for toddlers, I talked about how reading is a special way to share themes and educate our children.

Read in different voices with different tones, be silly, and enjoy reading time with your kiddos. Taking the time to read with our kids is a simple way to teach them. Use Easter and Spring books you have on hand. Also, the library is an amazing way to get books that are themed specifically for Easter or any holiday. You can get books about Easter, Spring, Bunnies, Chicks, etc. It is a really fun way to prepare and learn about the holiday with your kiddos!

Easter Celebrations

Boundaries with Family during a Holiday

Holiday celebrations with extended family have always been a bit overwhelming for me personally. Before having our son, we would go to all the family events back to back to back in one day. After having our son it became more and more challenging to make it to all the holidays. Between nap schedules and our own sanity, it just began to feel like we couldn’t even enjoy the day off . This often made any type of holiday feel more like a chore instead of a time to enjoy.

After my son turned two, my husband I decided that boundaries were necessary with extended family gatherings. So for Easter this year we are holding a firm boundary of doing whatever we want. This relieves the pressures of running to three separate family events in one day.

This was a hard choice. But ultimately our goal is to be super present with each other on the holiday day. The point of me telling you this, is that it is okay to to do your own thing on a holiday. It does not mean you do not love your family. It just means that you care more about your own inner peace. Also, if you are a working mama like me, you want to soak up the your entire day off with your husband and child.

Our plans include hiding eggs for our son to look for on Easter Morning, a fun homemade brunch, and an easter basket for Luka too. I am so excited!

Easter Egg Fillers for Toddlers or Young Children

For the eggs, I am also a little bit non traditional here for our Easter traditions. We do not plan on decorating hard boiled eggs, but maybe in the future. I will be filling plastic Easter Eggs. The ideas I am going to be using for egg fillers this year are for the plastic eggs and include:

• Written out affirmations on paper
• Stickers
• Yum Earth Lolipops
• Annie’s Organics Fruit Snacks
• Magnetic letters or Numbers
• Finger Puppets
• Socks
• Mini Play dough or fill eggs with actual playdough inside
• Mini Dinosaurs or mini animals
• Puff Balls
• Themed band aids
• etc., the possibilities are endless

Right now my son is only two and half. So, we will likely fill many of the eggs with mini dinosaurs we have already. Plus we will use Stickers, his favorite yumearth lolipops, puff balls we have leftover from crafts, etc. Not everything has to be new. Get creative and lean in to a few new things or a few things you already have.

Easter Basket Inspiration (Both Practical and Fun)

As far as gifts for our son, we purchase the Lovevery play kits during the year for him. These kits are an educational investment. But, other than that we try to be both practical and intentional about what we bring into our home. So I like to stick with the below basics:

-Something to Wear

-Something to Eat or a treat he normally does not have around

-Something to play with or an activity

-Something to Read

-And sometimes a few wild card items that are usually practical or special

Additionally, I never stick to the theme of the holiday. For example, my son is really into the show “Spidey & Friends”. So we bought a “Spidey & Friends” outfit for his “something to wear” . We also were in need of a new cup/water bottle. So, buying a new one was practical and it just so happened we found a “Spidey & Friends” water cup.

For the something to eat we got him some Yum Earth Lolipops which are his all time favorite. We will be using some of them to stuff into the eggs and some for his basket. I also picked up some cute fruit strips that were themed for Easter with little bunnies at Target.

For his something to play with or an activity, we went with some jumbo crayons and a “Spidey & Friends” coloring book. Luka is really in to coloring books right now so this was perfect for the activity part of his basket. We also added in a bubble blaster because Luka loves bubbles. It is justifiied as an activity because my son could play with bubbles outside for hours.

For his something to read I ended up picking up two books at Marshalls. Sometimes they have great book options for super affordable prices. One of the books, is an ABC book. It has words and letters on it with indentations to trace the letters with your finger. So I was sold on this one because we are working hard on our ABC’s right now. Additionally, we are getting ready for poddy training and I had seen the “Pottysarus” book online as a good book to teach or model poddy training. So we are going to try it out. Dinosaurs are a win for Luka too.

The point of an Easter basket for our Easter traditions in my opinion is to bring joy and excitement. I remember getting Easter baskets growing up and my parents made them so fun and intentional. I hope to bring that same memory for my son and future children. When we gift things to our son, we air on the side of practicality, a little bit of fun, and lean heavily into what he currently is enjoying. We should never feel pressured to gift certain themed items just because that’s what Easter Tradition says to do, or any holiday for that matter. Doing what works for you and your family is very important here.

Easter Holiday Your Way

In short, enjoy the Easter holiday. Remember to stay in the present moment with those you love. It is okay to have boundaries with what you decide to do. Also, it is okay to do Easter traditions differently than before. Stay present and enjoy all the beautiful and sweet family memories with your kiddos.