Celebrating Easter
With a Twist
 Easter is one of those holidays that has rich meaning for many people. Those who follow Christ celebrate his resurrection; those who don't, enjoy celebrating new beginnings signified by the coming of spring. This year, try adding some untraditional twists to your traditional celebrations!
Easter Brunch...instead of Easter Dinner
This works well if you have an early Sunday morning church service. SignUpGenius gives you all the tools you need to organize the brunch and invite guests.
- Find some make-ahead recipes so you don't have to spend all morning in the kitchen.
- Decide if you want a breakfast-y or lunch-y brunch.
- Make an international brunch...choose one country or pick several.
- Have a pot-luck brunch and invite other family members or friends to bring their favorite dish.
- Have a brunch cook-out. Look for some good breakfast-on-the-barby recipes.
Make your Easter brunch even easier with these spring brunch potluck ideas!
Easter Egg Hunt
Try out these creative ideas for spicing up the traditional egg hunt.
- Nighttime egg hunt. Arm your kids with flashlights and sent them out at dusk or at night to find eggs.
- Color code the eggs. To assure that the eggs are evenly distributed, assign each child a certain color egg to hunt down. Or give them a number for how many of each color to find.
- Let the kids hide the eggs, and you hunt for them.
- Have a bunny parade before the hunt with kids dressing in bunny costumes.
- Make it a treasure hunt. Create a map that represents your house or yard and mark positions of eggs on the map. Make the map look like a pirate's treasure map.
- Make words. Paint a different letter on each egg and have the kids create words with the eggs they've found. A boggle hunt!
- Put notes in some of the eggs, either love notes from you or instructions for them to do something fun while they are hunting.
- Put each person's name on one egg and the person who finds their name first wins a prize.
- Invite neighborhood kids and families; use SignUpGenius to organize the celebration.
Observe Lent
Lent begins Wednesday, February 22 and ends Thursday, April 5. Here are a few ways to observe this reflective time.
- For a young child, spend a few minutes each day doing something to focus on God. Listen to the birds sing, look at the moon each night, and talk about God's gifts.
- Make a 40-day lent calendar with your kids. Put an activity for your kids to do each day.
- Have each family member choose a 40-day Lenten sacrifice. It can be anything from sweets to Facebook to TV to soda.
- Each day, have your kids write a note to a family member or friend--a real handwritten letter with a real stamp!
- Read a special book with your kids like The Tale of the Three Trees by Abgeka Elwell Hunt or The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.
- Plant seeds in a cup and watch them grow over 40 days.
Raise money for a family in need using SignUpGenius Payments!
Give to Others
Easter provides another great opportunity to show your kids how to give.
- Put together an Easter basket for friends with goodies.
- Make and deliver an Easter basket for shut-ins with things they would need or like.
- Serve at a mission for Easter dinner.
- Have your child donate a few pennies or nickels or quarters each day of Lent and give the money to a charitable cause at the end.
Try one of these service project ideas!
Easter Crafts
Although traditional coloring of Easter eggs is always fun, why not try some new ideas?
- Make an Easter-egg wreath
- Make a jelly-bean necklace
- Decorate an Easter hat
- Decorate hard-boiled eggs like "Mr. Potato Head"
- Make egg-animals with hard-boiled eggs and cotton, yarn, pipe cleaners, etc.
- Cut, paint, and decorate Easter cards
There are so many ways to celebrate Easter, you simply can't lose if you use every opportunity to make memories with your family.
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