Celebrating Easter Sunday with an Only Child

Sops and I have a confession to make. We are Catholics, (for our sins, ha ha). So, celebrating Easter Sunday is important to us. We decorate the house for Easter Sunday and follow some time honoured family traditions, such as rolling eggs down the hill and hosting Easter egg hunts. We also attend certain church events and services during Holy Week.

Winter is always a difficult period of the year, so it is important to celebrate the Spring time and new life. If you want to know more about The Easter Story and why it is important to Christians you can watch a short video about it here. Otherwise, read on to find out different ways to celebrate Easter with your family.

Arts and Crafts

Easter is a great time to make beautiful things with your child. Whether it is an Easter bonnet for your child to wear at the Easter Parade or painting eggs to hang from your Easter tree, here are some great ideas for you to get crafty.

Easter Bonnet. Easter Sunday should be dapper day in my humble opinion. I think we should all dress up and wear whopping big fancy hats and walk up the ‘Avenue’ like Judy Garland in the film ‘Easter Parade’. This is an opportunity for your child to get creative on a straw hat. Maybe they can enter it into an Easter bonnet competition like this one? Just be sure to have plenty of supplies and glue, lots of glue.

Painting eggs. The tradition of painting eggs dates back to pre-Christian times as a sign of fertility. But has become a symbol of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. They also make wonderful decorations in the house. Try blowing eggs and painting hollow ones that you can use year after year. There a some great egg decorating books available that give really unique ideas. I use this book as a guide. But make sure you use an egg blower. It’s really hard to blow eggs the traditional way, believe me, I’ve tried.

Create an Easter Egg Tree. Trees are a symbol of life. That’s why we have an evergreen tree in our homes at Christmas time. So surely it makes sense to have an Easter tree? I have seen Easter trees in churches decorated with chocolate eggs on Easter Sunday. This can either be inside the house or outside on a tree that is just beginning to blossom. I hung prayer cards in the shape of leaves and some of my old hand-painted Easter Eggs last year. I was rather proud of it, to be honest. Here is a picture of it.

Bake Stuff

Sops and I love cakes and Easter treats, (because we both have a very sweet tooth). But Sops doesn’t like chocolate, which is weird, right? I admit we are not the most confident people in the kitchen (I burnt cabbage the other day). So we tend to watch videos on how to bake things to get it right. Here is a video on how to bake Simnel cake, which is a traditional Easter cake.

Play Games

Easter Egg Hunt. When our children wake up on Christmas morning they see present-filled stockings to unwrap. However, unlike Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny wants them to work for their treats, hence the great Easter egg hunt. Let the children burn off loads of energy before they stuff their faces with chocolates and sweets. That Easter Bunny is very wise. There are a few methods to host an Easter egg hunt, depending on how many children are involved and what space is available.

Here are some ideas on how to host an Easter egg hunt:

1. Clues. Make their little brains work, as well as their little legs, by writing cryptic clues for them to follow. Then hide a basket of goodies for them to find. Just don’t make the clues too hard that they can’t work out, or they will become bored and frustrated.

2. Hide & Seek. Hide a load of eggs around the garden or park and let the little scavengers sniff them out like a pack of dogs. This is a great method with a larger group of children and ample grounds. Remember to count how many eggs you have hidden and so you can audit them once they have all been found.

3. Follow the string. I got this idea from Disney’s ‘The Nutcracker’. Tie a piece of string to something in your house and unravel it all over the house to the place where the chocolate eggs are hidden. This game would work for children with learning disabilities as it is a sensory game and easy to follow. However, you can go all ‘Phineas and Ferb’ on the idea and unravel the string around the whole estate and into other people’s houses.

Rolling eggs

The tradition of rolling eggs dates back centuries. There are mixed theories on its origins. However, it is now commonly known to symbolise the ‘rolling of the stone’ that entombed Christ. People roll eggs in European nations and the United States alike. There is even an annual egg-rolling event at The White House.

I came from a large family with lots of traditions. On Easter Sunday morning my mum would make a little Easter garden with a stone tomb and a mini lamb holding a flag that said, “He is Risen’. She placed all our hard-boiled eggs which she had painted into that little Easter garden. In the afternoon we would drive to the local common and roll our eggs down the hill. The egg that rolled furthest away without breaking won. It was a great fun family event. My brother often cheated and even made an egg capsule so he could use a bow and arrow to shoot the egg down the hill. We never did find that egg.

Watch an Easter Movie

After all the exciting activities you have done on Easter Sunday, you may want to just curl up in front of the TV to watch an Easter Film. Admittedly, there do not seem to be lots of family-friendly films available for Easter. It’s not appropriate to show The Passion of the Christ to your child. I can barely watch that film myself. However, our post Family Friendly Easter Films may inspire you.

Attend an Easter Sunday Service

Have you ever wondered what Easter Sunday is all about? Why is it so important for Christians? Or are you just curious about how Christians celebrate Easter? Well, we recommend you attend an Easter Sunday service. There are many different ways Christians celebrate Easter depending on the denomination they come from. For example, I once went to a Vineyard Church on Easter Sunday and they brought a real-life lamb into the service.

Catholics hold several masses over the last days of Holy Week. It’s called the Triduum because there are 3 important services: Maundy Thursday (celebrating The Last Supper), Good Friday (Remembering the Crucifixion), and Easter Sunday (Celebrating The Resurrection).

The most important service is the Easter Vigil. It involves fire, candles, lots and lots of readings and the occasional adult baptism. Pretty cool eh? Although it is a long service for little ones and does occur at midnight.

The Orthodox Church hosts the best service at the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Christians believe this is where Jesus was buried and rose again. Inside the church, there is a tiny chapel where the tomb of Jesus stands. Priests enter the sealed tomb and there is a holy fire within the tomb, they light candles from the fire and take the candles out to the crowd. Then people light their own candles and share it with other people. It’s chaotic. It’s a massive fire risk, but it is awesome as well and well worth watching.

So what are your family traditions at Easter? Do you roll eggs down the hill or host an Easter egg hunt? Please do share your traditions in the comments box below. Or in our Forum here.

Happy Easter to you all.