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Oh, Easter Bunny. Thank you for creating such a tedious tradition for moms and dads everywhere of stuffing a million plastic eggs with candy, stickers, and cheap tiny toys. As if filling a basket with fun, entertaining, and sugary treats weren’t enough of a challenge for us, we have to make and hide plastic eggs too. Also, thanks for the added bonus that no matter how difficult of a hiding spot you find, the hunt is always over in less than 20 minutes. So, thanks. *End Rant*

A Modern Day Easter

Okay really, I’m not an Easter hater. I just don’t *love* the modern day traditions of over-sugaring children for every holiday that comes along. Easter has always been a tough one for me. We don’t do candy in our house, so that meant I had to dedicate a day to making a million not-so-sweet treats to stuff into tiny plastic eggs. To make matters worse, lots of these things were not shelf stable, so they had to be stored in the fridge overnight. The next morning I had the pleasure of getting up at the crack of dawn to stuff and hide them all. Bleh.

Now I realize I have a lot of self-imposed inconveniences there, but that’s just how we roll in our household.

Nevertheless, stuffing eggs is still the worst. One year I stuffed all the eggs with stickers… that backfired. I’m still picking colored egg stickers off the back of books and other random places young kids like to hide them. Last year I did a mix of tiny toys and homemade sweets. Once a month had passed and I was done stepping on these small toys, I realized that wasn’t a good solution either.

So What’s Next?

This year I have gone in a different direction. I bought a large number of sanded and unfinished wooden eggs. I spray painted them all with a white primer and let them cure for a couple days. In the evenings since then, I have been breaking out some brushes and painting them. I have 3 kids, so I bought 50. I used to do a dozen per child of the plastic eggs, but now I don’t have to worry about filling them so they can have more to hunt for. The beauty of this is that once the eggs are painted, they are infinitely reusable! Stress-free Easter prep from here on out!

I am 100% convinced that this is the best way to go. Wooden Easter eggs will simplify this holiday by:

Being able to hide the eggs the night before (or even days in advance if your kids are young enough).
Not having to figure out what to fill them with.
Prevent fights over who has found the most, and having to fair share so they all have the same number of eggs (so they can have the same number of treats)
Being able to hide the eggs inside or out (and nothing will melt inside of them)
Not stressing over that one last lost egg. It’ll turn up eventually – and NOT covered in ants.
Once my kids are older and out of egg-hunting age, they can be used as springtime decoration.
When my kids have kids, they can be passed on to them to use or have as childhood mementos.

What About the Other Easter Traditions?

Coloring Eggs

Yes, we will still color eggs. I hard boil eggs and then let the kids dye them. We keep hard boiled eggs in the fridge on a regular basis anyway, these ones will just be more artistic!

Easter Baskets

Yes, we will still have Easter baskets too. I won’t be spending nearly as much time making sweet treats this year, but I’ll be sure to do a couple small ones. Every year the kids get a book, coloring book, and small set of crayons, markers, or colored pencils (we go through a lot of art supplies in our house). The rest of the basket I like to theme for summertime and outdoor activities. I usually pack them full of stuff like:

Sidewalk chalk
Bubbles
Sunglasses
Hats
Clothes
Water Shoes
Beach toys (buckets, shovels, sieves, etc)
Jump Ropes
Summer clothes
Swimsuits
Pool toys
Water Balloons
Sandals

There is a lot of work that goes into making holidays special for your children. Don’t let it jade you against loving these special occasions. Despite all the effort that goes into it, you are creating lovely memories for you and your family to hold forever. No one will hold it against you if it’s not perfect. Chances are, the only person the result is not perfect to is you! Do what you can, then sit back and enjoy the moments.

I wish you all an incredible Easter holiday!