Easter has always been a bloody good public holiday in my eyes.
I’m not even vaguely religious so for me as a child, it meant two things; namely time off school and shitloads of chocolate. A breakfast of hot cross buns, an Easter egg hunt in the back garden maybe, and probably a meal with extended family were traditionally how we would spend Easter Sunday.
As an adult I looked forward to it for the time off work (two bank holidays in one weekend, and it’s not the middle of sodding winter. Kerching!)… and the chocolate, of course. By the end of Easter weekend I am usually about 65% Malteser and I make no apologies.
But now that I am old(er) and have my own children, it seems that Easter has morphed something else.
‘What are you getting for your children for Easter?’
I’m not asking; this is something I’ve seen mums on parenting forums ask recently and it’s left me a little… huh?
Of course, there are and have always been kids who can’t or won’t have chocolate – poor sods – and in these cases a little gift in place of a traditional chocolate egg is nice, but it seems now that it isn’t the exception but the rule.
Apparently Easter now means presents for everyone.
Shops are, of course, jumping on the bandwagon proudly proclaiming that they are stocked with perfect Easter presents for your children; because all children should be spoiled with a vast plethora of lamb- and chick-themed gifts that they don’t need.
Pinterest is bursting at the seams with thousands of the to-be-expected Easter crafts and bakes (which obviously, we won’t be doing) but also ‘ideas for your child’s Easter basket’.
Easter basket?
Wait, what?
I didn’t even know this was a thing.
It isn’t a thing. I don’t want it to be a thing.
My children, mercifully, are young and at the moment they don’t know any different. We will stick with a small chocolate egg and hope that their grandparents don’t go too mad, and if they do then we are here to shoulder the chocolately burden on their behalf because we area good and loving parents.
It does however concern me though that when they’re at school, it will become expected that rather than a day to spend as a family, Easter will just become another commercial gift giving day.
I can see it happening now…
An Easter list will be sent to the Easter Bunny, who children will visit in an Easter grotto in their local garden centre (‘Is it the real Easter Bunny mum? Is it?’). They’ll go to bed on Easter Eve hoping that the Bunny will come and bring them an Easter basket of gifts while they sleep, which they’ll leave underneath the Easter Tree. They’ll be sure to leave out a carrot for him before they go to bed. And whiskey, he likes whiskey does the Easter Bunny.
You might think this is just the rambings of a slightly unhinged and sleep deprived parent but I HAVE SEEN WITH MY OWN EYES Easter wreaths (Waitrose, if you’re interested), Easter decorations, Easter crackers and get this… Easter trees.
ACTUAL EASTER TREES.
Like Christmas trees, but decorated with eggs. I swear I’m not making this up.
That is waaaaaay over the line.
I like an excuse to eat chocolate but if you have an Easter tree, you need to have a word with yourself.
Why can’t anything be simple any more? Why as parents do we have to turn everything into a competition, an additional expense, and stress ourselves out in the process?
Why can’t we just say NO, dig our heels in and refuse to buy into this commercialisation of what should be a lovely family holiday? What is wrong with a flipping chocolate Easter egg?
Oh, and while I’m on the subject of Easter-themed rants, why can’t we have Hot Cross Buns all year round?
Haha! No gifts or baskets here, they don’t even get a big egg from us we just do little eggs and chocolate bunnies in an Easter hunt – that’s their lot! I have to confess to having an Easter tree though BUT it’s not a new Pinterest inspired thing, it’s a very old German tradition from when Mr Mostly lived in Berlin when he was a kid! Please don’t hate me!
Hmmm OK that seems like a good excuse…. although I am still totally BAH HUMBUG (or whatever the Easter equivalent is!).
…I’d just like cream eggs and hot cross buns all year round. Agree, this is just another date for us mums to feel disorganised for!
Well said, totally agree with everything you have just said. My 4 and 6 year old will most defo not be getting an easter basket, ever!
Completely agree. I have also seen those posts and yikes, do they turn on you when you admit you are getting one chocolate egg for each daughter AND NOTHING ELSE. When did Easter become “Christmas Lite”? I’ve seen nutters buying iPads and consoles! In total our Easter comes to £7.98 (2 X Easter eggs and 2 packs of Poundland chocolate eggs for Nanny to do an Easter egg hunt with). Oh wait, £8.98. Forgot the Hot Cross Buns.
ALL the hot cross buns. That is a tradition I am totally OK with.
I grew up in Germany where an Easter tree is traditional, so we have always had one. I love it. It’s just a few twigs with a couple of decorations! We just go to the woods and collect a small pile of twigs and put them in a jug. They’re beautiful!
Nobody warned me that school sends home so many lists of “please can you make and bring in for Easter…” things either!? I don’t think we’ll have time to write letters to Santa in December this year. We’ll be too busy starting on the Easter bonnets and egg decorations to make sure we’re prepared for Eastmas! #blogcrush x
I totally agree! We never made a big deal of Easter when I was a child. I don’t think we even did Easter Egg hunts unless we happened to go out somewhere to do one. I gave my daughter a tiny chocolate bunny that I got given the week before at a business exhibition!! My sister in law has an Easter tree but she is Dutch and it is traditional there – and when I say tree, it’s just 3 willow branches in a vase with about 6 plastic eggs hanging from it as a bit of a table centrepiece – so I’ll allow it!
And congratulations, someone loved this post so much they added it to the #BlogCrush linky! feel free to collect your ‘I’ve been featured’ blog badge 🙂
I’m with you on this. I recently saw that cosmetic manufacturers were starting to offer Easter gifts as well, a bit like cosmetic advent calendars, only you’re counting down to Easter! Nuts!
We don’t do an Easter tree either and my kids get so much from others, we usually get them a small egg ….. if I don’t eat it one night 😏 but my Mother in Law gives presents at Easter and says “that’s their Easter” or “I’m just giving them money for their Easter this year” ….. this isn’t a thing surely 🙈 she does the same at Halloween too 🤪
Easter Baskets are an American thing, and not a new one either. Had them growing up in the 80s and my parents had them too. The trade off is giant chocolate eggs aren’t a thing, and you wouldn’t get a chocolate egg from your extended family, you get candy in your Easter basket and that’s it. You might have a chocolate bunny or Cadbury creme egg in your Easter basket but none of this nonsense of every random relative coming around with a giant chocolate egg.
I think it depends how/where you grew up. I am in my 40s and easter baskets were always a thing when I was a kid and we were not well off. We had a bunny or chicken stuffed animal, an egg and maybe a colouring book in a basket. We made Easter bonnets and decorated boiled eggs. Trees and wreaths have also been around for centuries, mainly in places like.gwrmany and Scandinavia. Easter is traditionally a pagan festival that’s where bunnies, eggs etc all come from and that ties into a lot of the tree decoration (it’s done for most festivals throigh the year) just the same as how we came to decorate Christmas trees and yule logs. None of this is ‘new’ but more Importantly none of it is mandatory either. Celebrate how it works for you.