We’re hosting Easter again this year, as we have for the past 10 or so years. A casual invitation to friends on Easter Day since my in-laws were in town had a great attendance and I realized, well maybe we should try it again? And we just kept doing it! Since Benjamin and I don’t have family in town we are a bit more flexible. Sure it’d be nice if we got invitations (and we do and have) but we love to host and since we love to shower our friends with love by hosting, that’s what we do! We are honored our friends would want to spend time with us on a family holiday but there is also no pressure as we know its a busy day for all.
I wanted to share what we’re doing this Easter so you can plan yours, be inspired to host, and get an idea of our format. I have past posts of Easter and buffet set up inspiration and a setting the table post as well.
Send the invitation via Paperless Post, my favorite digital invite company, so classy and pretty!
First, we go to church on Saturday night or early Sunday for Easter service to give us time to prepare for our company. Yes we host on Easter Day. Benjamin has suggested earlier but the truth is, I want to celebrate on Easter Day with those who have the time and want to celebrate with me on that day! It’s not just to have a party for the sake of a having a party.
This year’s Easter Day schedule:
1 PM : Potluck lunch and kids crafts
2 PM : Egg Hunt – this year we are not filling the eggs with candy – let me tell you more!
Potluck format – casual, store bought is fine.
Some times you have to do a potluck especially when people are bringing their families, that’s a lot to feed. We used to take care of it all for years but once the kids got bigger and weren’t interested in our pizza delivery from Dominoes (listen, they deliver on Easter and the kids used to love it), well, it just got a bit harder and costly with feeding 25 people.
So, we request everyone brings a side or dessert if they plan to come to eat together. We handle the drinks and main course which will be sandwiches or a meat. We’ll probably have cookies too, because why not! You can order sandwiches from the catering/deli at Safeway ahead of time on their website.
I also suggest store bought or take out is fine. I don’t want my friends to feel like they need to slave in the kitchen if they don’t have time or desire. I want their presence over perfection any day. I make note of that in the invitation too so they know. The whole point is to gather on the Lord’s day, this is not a styled shoot.
I also say use the paper plates if you want, cute ones of course so it’s an easier clean up. When it’s over 12 people and not a sit down and more buffet style, I think paper plates are fine! But if you want to use nice plates, and do the dishes, go for it!
Kids crafts – egg carton animal crafts
The kiddos are getting bigger, wahhhhh, but also yay because I love seeing them grow up. I have had ripped out coloring pages from an art book and laid them out with markers but guess what, that’s not enough now.
Half the kiddos are tweens, not 5 years old anymore. I have been overwhelmed with so many different ideas and thoughts on glitter glass being dangerous, a hot glue gun also being dangerous, and cost of ornaments and if they are the right size… well I found something!
These egg carton crafts on Pinterest seem perfect. I need to find the source (looks like it’s a workshop in Ontario) but it seems like there’s a lot of varieties of them so here are some of the images:
I found some instructions here on some other variety and this made so much sense on making the ears attached to the head but if you’re doing long ears, you’ll have to make them separately.
I think for time’s sake I’ll make the head and ears and paint them and glue them down with hot glue. They can add the eyes or make the oval or anything else they want to do with the markers. Should keep them busy and make the cutest keepsake. I love handmade!
I’ll also print out some of these as examples so they can be inspired and have a few examples too!
Moving forward I don’t think it’s necessarily a need to preoccupy older children as they need to learn to socialize and preoccupy themselves but it is helpful and fun to create an are where they can create or do something! You could even just have a ton of craft things out and inspiration and let them run wild with imagination. Careful on the egg dye, paint or hot glue gun unless you have a teen there who can help and monitor.
A prize for eggs, Egg hunt like Chuck E Cheese
The kids also don’t want that much candy anymore and I felt kinda bad giving them so much candy then sending them back to their mom and dad haha! Benjamin and I used to fill the eggs over the years, then the past 3 years I needed help because cost of everything was going up, and the egg candy fulfillment process was too much for me solo so I asked my friends for help and they came over with candy and we would spend a night filling them up and I would have dinner! It was great quality time and I was SO thankful they chipped in to help out they really are the best.
Recently I saw an idea on Instagram to use eggs like tickets and have a Bunny Market!
Go the store and buy 3-4 of the same thing a few of them, and put them in categories like the value would be 1, 2, 3, 4 eggs and they can go to the bunny market and pick out what they want to exchange their eggs for!
This way you can have all different kinds of prizes and it’s not all candy. You can have candy and maybe have the value low like 1 or 2 eggs.
For the older kids, we need to figure out a few things like let’s say there’s 3 basketballs. You have to turn in your entire basket first (minus 5 eggs so you can use it on candy). That way it’s not a specific number but you want that big prize, then you’re really saving you WANT it and this way the older kids who sometimes get more or less (because they know it’s less important to them) can still get something they like.
What do you think? Do you have some fun plans for Easter? I love to gather and this is the last year we’re having an egg hunt as the kids get bigger. We will continue to host I the future we think, but it will maintain to be a brunch style and hang out and have kids crafts. It’ll be a day to gather and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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