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Easter’s On Its Way…Time to Celebrate!

Written by Martha Wegner

Easter is fast approaching, and I have to admit, I haven’t been feeling very enthusiastic. Now that my children are ages 10 and 13, maybe I’ve been doing this Easter gig just a little too long, and frankly, I’ve been getting a little bored. This year I thought we might liven up our Easter celebration a bit. After all, Easter comes along with the first days of spring, promising warmth and new life. Why not shake off our winter doldrums and do something a little creative to welcome in the season?

I’ve perused the Easter books and websites to help. There are some fantastic and easy ways to brighten up your traditions.

Here are some ideas that I can’t wait to try:

Create some beautiful eggs-
How many years have we been dissolving the tablets in water and vinegar, dipping the eggs, and letting them dry? Ho-hum. Here are some nifty ways to jazz up those eggs:

Rubber Band Designs: Wrap rubber bands around hard-cooked eggs, then drop them in the dye. Remove eggs, pat dry with a paper towel and remove rubber bands. The parts of the egg covered with rubber bands will not be colored. Once some or all of the rubber bands are removed, you can drop the egg into a different color dye. (From www.amazingmoms.com)

Marbled Eggs: Place 1 Tbsp of oil into the egg dye. Stir quickly with a spoon and drop in a hard-boiled egg. Pull egg out quickly and pat dry with paper towel. (From www.amazingmoms.com)

Collage Eggs: Use white or craft glue to attach craft supplies such as sequins, buttons, glitter, beads, or stickers (from amazingmoms.com). Or, make a design using pasta, rice or beans on the eggs in the shape of a butterfly, star or flower. Then paint the design. (From Alberta Egg Producers at www.eggs.ab.ca)

Starry Sky Eggs: Affix star shape stickers (available in office supply stores) to the egg. Double or triple the amount of dye for a deeper shade of blue. Dye the egg, and allow it to dry thoroughly. Remove and discard the star shaped stickers. If you want, paint each white star with craft glue and sprinkle with the glitter. Allow to dry. (From Easter Treats: recipes and crafts for the whole family, by Jill O’Connor, Chronicle Books, 2000)

More ideas with stickers: Cheri Sicard, of fabulousfoods.com, uses all sorts of stickers from the stationery department. You can achieve multi-color designs by putting lots of stickers on to a plain white egg. Then peel off a few more stickers with each new color you add to the egg (after 3 colors, the color will start to get muddy, however).

Make an Easter egg tree-
Now that you have those beautifully decorated eggs, why not create an Easter egg tree? It’s fast, fun, and very pretty. (Just note, you must use hollow decorated eggs for this project. “Blow out” the eggs before you decorate them.)
Here’s how to make the tree: Cut a narrow ribbon into 12 inch lengths. Fold in half and tie ends in a pretty bow or in a knot. Use a piece of floral wire or an embroidery hook to pull the folded end through the egg so that the bottom of the egg is resting on the bow. Or, another way to hang your eggs is to make a knot at the end of the ribbon. Thread the ribbon through the egg using a large needle. The egg will rest on the knot. Hang the egg on a branch which has been anchored in a decorative pot, tying the ribbon to secure it. (From Alberta Egg Producers at www.eggs.ab.ca)

Make something for the neighbors-
OK, now we’re ready to spread this new found Easter joy to friends and neighbors. Here are some ideas from Easter Treats: recipes and crafts for the whole family.

Candy Cones: For each cone, you’ll need a 12” square of heavy craft paper (sold at art supply and craft stores). Roll the paper into a cone. Glue the edges together. You can use paperclips to hold the cone together until it’s dry. Carefully trim away the top corner of the paper, leveling out the rim of the cone. Punch holes on either side of the cone, about 1 inch below the rim. Thread ribbon through the holes and tie to secure, forming a handle. Glue lengths of rickrack and assorted ribbons and sequins around the cone. Fill the cone with “Easter grass”, and put candy on top, and perhaps one of your pretty decorated eggs. Hang on your neighbor’s door early Easter morning.

Jelly bean bags: For each bean bag cut a piece of white netting into a 9” square. Cut a length of ribbon 6” long. Place ¼ cup jelly beans in the center of one netting square. Bring the corners of netting together, and tie up the bag with a length of ribbon. You can substitute different candies, such as candied almonds, gumdrops, and gumballs.

Let’s eat cake!
Now for the good part: dessert. I have ALWAYS wanted to make a cute Easter cake for my kids, but my skills in cake decorating are marginal. Finally, I found a recipe that will work. I found it at www.allrecipes.com.

Quick and Easy Easter Bunny Cake:
Ingredients:
• 2 ½ cups coconut, divided
• red food coloring
• 2 baked 9-inch round cake layers, cooled
• 8 oz. Cool Whip, thawed
• assorted candies for garnish (jellybeans, string licorice, mini chocolate chips)

Directions:
• Bake two 9” cake rounds according to package directions; allow to cool.
• Tint ¼ cup of the coconut pink using red food coloring.
• Cut one cake layer to form the bunny’s ears and bow tie. On each side of the cake layer cut an ear shaped piece from the cake by making a half circle cut on either side and leaving a bow tie shape in the middle that is at least 2 inches wide at its middle point. The elongated shapes cut from the sides form the ears, leaving a bow shaped middle piece.
• Leave one layer whole. Arrange whole cake layer in center of cake platter, place half circle shapes on the top pointing up for the bunny’s ears. Place the remaining piece at the bottom of the whole cake layer to make a bow tie.
• Frost with whipped topping.
• Sprinkle center of bunny’s ears and bowtie with pink coconut. Sprinkle white coconut of over bunny’s head and outer edge of ears and bowtie.
• Decorate with candies for eyes, nose, mouth and whiskers. Use red string licorice for the whiskers, chocolate chips for the eyes, nose, and mouth and to outline the ears and bow tie. Use jelly beans to decorate the bow tie.

We are ready. It’s time to celebrate Easter. This year we’ll have beautifully decorated eggs, an egg tree, fun gifts for the neighbors, and best of all, an Easter Bunny cake. I can hardly wait!

Martha Wegner is a wife and the mother of two children. For more of her essays and articles, visit www.marthawegner.us.

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