Easter - Arlington Heights,IL

Growing up as a kid I wasn't religious at all. This was a time where we could gather with friends and family to eat and have fun with the kids. I was raised Baptist so every Easter we would have an Easter basket sitting on the kitchen table or in the living room waiting for us. We colored hard boiled eggs the night before and my parents went around the yard and hid them for us to find. Then after that we would get dressed and go to my grandma's for brunch. On where the Easter bunny sleeps, I would tell her he sleeps in a nice cozy cave and comes to visit the little kids everyday at the mall. It's simple easy and believable for kids. lol. I can't wait to start these traditions myself. I am 37 weeks pregnant with my first child as well. :) good luck.

When I was growing up, the baskets were sometimes sitting out for us when we came downstairs and sometimes the Easter Bunny hid them. The plastic eggs were hidden for us to find with small treats and/or money/coins in them. We would go to Grandma's, where the older cousins hid all the colored eggs for the little cousins to find.
For my own children, we put down a "treasure trail" of candy leading to the room with the baskets. We have the plastic eggs hidden, but have not been able to really hide the colored eggs outside because for as long as I can remember, Easter weekend has been cold, rainy, etc. (Even when we lived in Georgia!!) Unfortunately, all our relatives live out of state, so we can't enjoy the fun I remember as a kid finding and hiding the Easter eggs for a large, extended family.
One year, our neighbors were out of town and would be returning Easter afternoon. They asked us to play "Easter Bunny" for them. They called it the Bunny explosion. They put candy...everywhere! The kids ran around finding it all.
Tradition is so important. But, that doesn't mean it has to be exactly the same each time. If you have a basic tradition of baskets, cookies, eggs, church, etc. you can change it up each year if you want or need to. Like I said, I would have loved to hide eggs outdoors, but the weather never cooperated. Sometimes I see or hear of Moms freaking out trying to recreate the exact same tradition for each year. Hey, life sometimes changes things up and you have to go with the flow. Have fun with it!!!
Good luck!

There are just a few things I do that I did as a kid. We do dye Easter eggs...although usually at my moms house, with or without me. My mom does it with them usually during the week before Easter Sunday.
Saturday night they put out their Easter baskets in the living room (they use the same one every year) when they wake up they have to find them where the Easter bunny hid them. Then we do church with my family, with brunch afterward. My mom does a small egg hunt with them. Then from there we go to my IL's for a late lunch with a huge egg hunt with cousins and second cousins.
As a child I remember the excitement of putting our baskets out at night and then the fun looking for them in the morning. And I also LOVED dying eggs.

On March 23 Caitlyn asked this same question Here was my answer..

We leave Carrots (with the greens) for the Easter bunny. In the morning we always found the carrots had been chewed on and the greens left on the floor.

We would use Sidewalk chalk on the front steps to welcome the bunny.

We also collect wall Crosses each Easter. They are inside and outside crosses.

Die Easter Eggs.

Then the Easter Bunny hides plastic eggs around the yard (filled with stickers, temp. tattoos, gold fish, teddy grahams, dry cereal and a little bit of candy). The Easter Basket usually has a bubble making toy and a book.

We always make cascarones.. You know confetti eggs. The bunny hides these for the big neighborhood Easter hunt.

For dinner our neighborhood would all meet for a giant Easter Egg hunt and a cookout.. I have found Easter Pinatas too..

Our tradition is coloring eggs on Saturday. Saturday night we set out a few carrots for the bunny with pictures we have drawn for him. We also set out our baskets and empty plastic eggs (the same each year) so the bunny can come fill them (we save the baskets/eggs each year so the bunny can recycle...recycling is big in our house and my oldest loves that we save our eggs each year to help the bunny out.) Then, after the kids are asleep, we fill the baskets with a chocolate Easter bunny and a small toy or two and fill the colored eggs with small candy/toys(erasers, stickers, etc.)/coins. We "hide" the eggs around the house. Then in the morning the kids come downstairs, go through their baskets and then use their baskets to do the Easter egg hunt. We have a pancake breakfast and then get ready for church. They each get to have one small candy before church, but the rest has to be left in their basket.

We are intrigued with the Rice Krispie egg commercial we have been seeing the last week. So, this year we are also going to make the Rice Krispie bar eggs dipped in chocolate and sprinkles. Yummy.

I think tradition is great, but don't stress on doing the exact same thing each year. As long as you keep the favorite parts going each year, I don't think it matters what order, what time, etc it happens. All holidays are mostly about being with the people you love.

Since you mentioned being Catholic, I thought I'd add a few traditions that we do in order to live the Holy days just before Easter as well...

Holy Thursday - Special roast meal with bread and grape juice. Read gospel account of Last Supper and discuss with family what it must have been like. (Some families recreate the washing of the feet scene)
Good Friday - Fast, abstain from meat. Hours of Noon to 3pm no TV, no electronics and speak only in a whisper....These are the hours Christ suffered and died. (Could attend a service at your church, or print out coloring pages of the stations of the cross.)
Holy Saturday - We decorate the eggs and decorate Easter cookies.
Easter Sunday - Church, and then back home to find clues to hidden baskets taped on the hanging light above our table. Clues to find more clues, then finally the hidden basket filled with treats. The night before the 'Easter Bunny' hid plastic eggs around the house, and after finding baskets, the egg hunt begins. The rest of the day is enjoying all those things that were given up for Lent.....singing Alleluia all through the house.
Traditions are important, and they may change and shift from year to year, but bringing home the real meaning of these holidays is so important when passing on your Catholic Faith to your children.
Happy Easter to you!
sahmatwork
www.familysentinel.blogspot.com

I just asked my 6- and 8-year-old boys where the easter bunny sleeps. My older one sid, "Behind the tv." Not what I expected! I'd say, in his bunny hutch! WHich is not at the north pole with Santa but is certainly out in a magical field somewhere, or a farm... You just have to get creatve with these answers (and remember what you answered in case it comes up again). Just wait til tooth fairy time: My little one wanted to know what she looked like and asked her to leave a portrait. Can you imagine the teeny tiny note and portrait my computer provided? How about that clip art picture? Now he tells everyone that HIS tooth fairy is blonde with no nose! So anyway, traditions... In my house we always colored eggs and then on easter "eve" the Easter Bunny would hide baskets and a few small gifts around the living room for us to find in the morning. BUT these things could only be found if we had washed out our eyes!! The gifts were never wrapped but each had a ribbon in a different color, one for each child. We knew what our color was because when we woke up, the first ribbon was tied to our bedpost or our glasses. We got books, underwear, jump ropes, my first pair of panty hose, new white gloves, umbrellas (this was the 70s). My boys will be getting baskets with MINIMAL candy, and their gifts are slightly more extravagant than the stuff I used to get, but I buy them that little stuff all the time. And then later on my mom hides the eggs (you can't hide those overnight nad expect to eat them later.) She sometimes hides those plastic eggs with a bunch of coins in them, which my kids love.

LOL about where the bunny sleeps! Too cute. But regarding the tradition, honestly, you make it whatever you want it to be. Yes, there are certain established traditions, but as far as I'm concerned, there are no rules. Same thing applies to Christmas, really. In my family growing up, Christmas Eve was always a big party with my aunts and uncles, with Christmas Day reservered for our immediate family. Now that I'm an adult with my own family, and most of my cousins are too, we've peeled off and gone on to do our own thing on Christmas Eve. Our tradition now is for the Eve to be our little family's private celebration - we let the girls open one gift, always an ornament for their collection, and then get in our jammies, make popcorn and watch a Christmas-themed family friendly movie before they go off to bed. We then open gifts Christmas morning and see the family in the afternoon. This is a big departure from the tradition I knew as a kid! But I love it and I love that it is OURS. So do whatever works for you! Your familiar traditions can be your guide, but in the end, there are no rules.

I place our baskets at the front door like he left them there. You could leave out a carrot and then make it look like he ate a little bit of it.

We get together with our friends, they live out of town. The night before we all decorate and color the eggs. The adults fill the plastic eggs w/out the little ones knowing. This year we are making an easter bunny face cake and rice crispy treat eggs that the kids can decorate too. Before the kids go to bed we tell them the easter bunny has a lot of houses to go to and hopefully we'll get to see him when he gets to our house. We have to wait for other family/kids to get to the house so the easter bunny always comes late. We make breakfast in the morning all the while the kids want to know when the easter bunny is coming and they constantly look out the window. When everyone gets there, there is so much distraction that the dads are able to go out back and hide/place the eggs all over the yard and place the kids baskets out for them. They are quick at doing this. They come back in and ask the kids if the easter bunny has come yet. This gets them to look outside and see and they are so excited because the easter bunny did come. They are sad for a moment because they missed him again but happy that their house didn't get missed. We then spend a long time outside getting all the eggs and eating candy and playing with their new toys. They have a blast. Target has a bunch of great stuff in their $1.00 section right now. Enjoy it and have your camara ready for some great pictures.

As for where the easter bunny sleeps, we've told our kids he sleeps with santa.

As far as I'm concerned, there's no "right and wrong tradition". Unless there's something from your past that you desperately want to do for your kids, create new traditons for your new family! A "tradition" is basically something you do every year and it makes you and the kids happy!

Whatever you do, just enjoy these special days with them. Believe me, they go by very fast!!

S., Cape Town, South Africa

There is a trail of plastic eggs to follow to find the basket
there is only ONE candy item in their basket - a high quality solid chocolate ester bunny
we color eggs - but we use the eggs raw, they work just as good and that way you can have the kid do a dozen and still be ok
after we are done with Easter Dinner (well, when his mom lived in town, now it's just a whatever meal) then we would come home and give the girls a bath - in the bath were all the plastic easter eggs. My older daughter is almost 11 and refuses to give up this tradtion. I have had to modify it and only have some eggs in there - we currently have over 500 plastic eggs (I do daycare, so really, honestly I'm not totally whacked, lol)

As a child, I remember coloring the Easter eggs with vinegar and food coloring. We did not ever hide them outside but my IL do. (I don't approve and I actually HATE it but my husband loved it as a child so we do it.) I remember always using the same basket. It was filled with a little candy, a toothbrush and toothpase and a toy or book. We would get our basket on Saturday so we could focus on Christ's resurrection on Sunday. Now, we have a little egg hunt with plastic eggs for the dhildren. This year, its going to be on Saturday, March 27 because my great-neices will be with their father Easter weekend. Easter weekend we will be at MIL the children collecting colored Easter eggs. As they collect the eggs, they give them to Grandpa. When Grandpa gets a 12-18 he goes to the front yard to hide them. When the children find most of these, he'll go to the backyard. I am getting to the point that I'd rather not go. For some reason, this just bugs me.