Starting New Easter Traditions

Holiday Kiddo, Real Life : Dottie

This was the Peach’s first Easter.  Proper Easter, I should say–where we actually celebrated Easter and tried to make it a special holiday for her.

I love family traditions. They make the holidays so much more special to me.  Of course I have many special traditions that we are just beginning to form with the Peach. Traditions from my own childhood that I am so excited to introduce her to over the next few years—like special cookies and oranges in Christmas stockings. But Easter? Well, I needed a bit of inspiration there.

Of course, we are did the Easter egg hunt—filling those pastel plastic egg with jelly beans and other goodies for her to find.  (When did those become so popular? We didn’t use them when I was growing up!)

And the Peach had a blast dying eggs Saturday. I went old school and used Paas. That vinegar eggy smell brought back so many memories.

But I wanted more. So, I decided to try add few new ones to the mix and see if they stick.

New Easter Tradition #1: Easter Brunch with home-made bagels

I know crazy sounding, right?  But it is not as hard to do as waffles or even pancakes in my book.  Actually a lot easier than I thought and great for kids since they get to roll the dough into balls and make the actual shape.

Most of the work happens while the dough is resting, so it really isn’t too insane.   Start ’em at 8AM and finish ’em by 10AM. And the Peach loves smoked salmon. Go figure!

New Tradition #2: Deviled eggs and peeps s’mores

I remember never liking Peeps as a kid and letting them sit and turn into hardened marshmallow blocks in my Easter basket. And I love watching work associates bring Tupperware bowls of those multi-colored eggs to eat for a quick breakfast every day the week after Easter. Or watch those colored eggs linger in the side of the fridge for at least a week. Sigh!

Well, let’s make quick work of both those issues with the annual adult snack/dessert while child is napping–or heck–share it with ’em! Who doesn’t love deviled eggs?  And just add some chocolate eggs to the peeps over s’mores and voila–instant awesomeness!

New Tradition #3: Watching “Here Comes Peter Cottontail”

I know I’ll get to explaining the religious aspects of Easter to the Peach soon enough, but until then, I just want her to get excited about the Easter Bunny. And what better way than though the magic of  stop motion animation of Rankin Bass and his Easter special, “Here Come’s Peter Cottontail.” Starring the “voices” of Danny Kaye, Casey Kasem and Vincent Price, I had just as much fun watching it as she did! But I must admit, the Peach was a wee bit afraid of old Iron Tail, and cuddled next to me, so we’ll see if she wants to watch it again next year.

What are your Easter holiday traditions? I’m always looking for more!

13 thoughts on “Starting New Easter Traditions”

  1. I’m dying to know how to make homemade bagels! I’m trying to think…at Easter egg hunts when I was a kid, we used dyed ones at home (yes! that smell!) and then at the huge family all-cousins-running-like-bunnies-in-competition Easter egg hunt, we used plastic ones. My great uncle who was a Multi-Millionaire (unfortunately didn’t leave me anything in his will) would always put a hundred dollar bill in one of the plastic eggs. Can you imagine how as little kids, we fought to find that?? It was crazy. A hundred dollars is a lot in 2012. In the 1970’s to a little kid, it was truly like a trillion dollars. We called him “Daddy Rabbit”. I think that was about our only Easter tradition besides waiting for the Easter Bunny to come. : )

    1. WOW….um…..WOW!!!!!! The $100 uncle??? Amazing! I think we hunted real eggs. And then for our easter baskets. I’m guessing that unfound eggs stinkin’ up the yard was the reason people started using the plastic ones. But Daddy Rabbit….WOWZA!!!!

      1. I’d like a Daddy Rabbit to score me a $100 bill.

        I really dig the plastic eggs! Totally makes sense. We actually found a few opened eggs by the time we took the Peach out to look for eggs. I guess squirrels like chocolate too!

  2. In the past we have hosted an easter brunch that was super fun (and on my little music mix is always, of course, “Here Comes Peter Cotton Tail’! Since Wolfie’s bday fell on the same weekend we just had some of our pals over for a hike and BBQ (and slap dash egg hunt!).

    So HOMEMADE BAGELS?!?!?!??! Do tell!!!!! You are amazing.I have to do that with Wolfie. I’ll be #1 Super Mom in his eyes!!! Needless to say he happily hunted his eggs and then gave away all the candy inside.
    Sigh.

    1. Wolfie would totally get a kick out of making the bagels. I highly recommend it! I used a recipe from the book, Make the Bread by the Butter by a friend’s sister. They were really good! The difference is using whey instead of water to give it that tang and using high gluten flour–that is what makes them chewy. I’m more than happy to make you a xerox and give it to you, lady!

  4. oh my word. my two year old, violet, is absolutely convinced that’s a picture of violet eating a peep up there.

    for the last year or two, i tried dying brown eggs with natural dyes. they came out rustic looking. but, since we’re mostly vegan around here, i decided to start buying one wooden egg per child and letting them paint them. this year, the easter bunny snuck in and took them away while they were drying. he left behind a cocoa powder foot print and a few pieces of cabbage and carrots. then, the eggs show back up during the hunt.

    i also purchased a vintage copy of charlie and the chocolate factory and managed to leave it behind. so the easter bunny left that at our house for oliver to find upon his return.

    for the rest of their hunt, i have a half dozen pysanky, two sets of wooden nesting eggs, and several of those cardboard german easter eggs filled with gummies, fruit strips, and stickers. they each get a chocolate bar and, this year, a tiny basket with a tiny chocolate rabbit and eggs.

    i like this bagel idea. i wonder if it’s easy to make easter soft pretzels…

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