When it comes to Easter, every family has its own treasured traditions and ways of celebrating together. A traditional Easter walk, egg rolling, Easter egg hunts or marzipan Pokémon figures (?), we asked parents and children to share their favourite Easter memories.
“When I was a child we always made Easter baskets the day before Easter Sunday. I have very fond memories of the kitchen table covered in lengths of cardboard and glitter and tissue paper and my mum in her element with all of us vying for the most elaborate basket. Now I do the same with my three kids. They love it, but I have to admit I have a new-found respect for my mum keeping so calm and serene. Last year we had a tearful scene when my three-year-old daughter Poppy’s basket got waterlogged in wet grass and all her egg finds tumbled out of the soggy bottom.” Melissa
“I love hiding Easter eggs in nooks and crannies round the garden and then having to give the little ones a ‘helping hand’ and lots of hints about being warmer and colder. It’s amazing how two-year-olds can walk past a bright Creme Egg again and again. I always get a treat or three days later when I’m out in the garden.” Jane
“We always make a chocolate Easter cake with every inch of the iced top covered in mini eggs. My children also love making Easter egg nests with cornflakes and melted chocolate, decorated with even more eggs, of course.” Kim
“My dad was an Easter Bunny at our primary school fun day and made children cry in terror in his all-in-one with massive rabbit head, lolling tongue and mad starey eyes. It was more Donny Darko than Mr Fluffykins - and hilarious to us.” Milla
“We always go for a big Easter walk with families whose kids go to the same primary school. Last year there were over 40 of us and the children were in heaven - pockets of chocolate and friends to run around with.” Natalie
“We live in the country and the last few years we’ve had a big bonfire on Easter afternoon. There’s something spellbinding about a bonfire and my children love it.” Tom
“We used to make Easter marzipan figures on Easter eve. It started with cute bunnies, then we went through a stage of making Pokémon-style characters with their own powers and when we hit our teens, we still loved doing it, but my mum used to despair of the phallic symbols. I can’t ever remember us eating them. They always tasted disgusting.” Rex
“Last Easter I gave my two-year-old son a chocolate teddy bear, which he loved. After lunch I asked him if he wanted some and promptly broke a piece off whereupon he shrieked in horror,‘You’ve ripped the head off my new toy teddy’. I genuinely didn’t realise he didn’t know it was chocolate. He recovered once he understood he could scoff it, thank goodness, and now it’s one of his favourite stories.” Carolyn
“We have the same two families to stay over the Easter weekend and we have a huge egg rolling competition. I boil saucepans of eggs and then the children paint them with poster paints. Once they’ve dried, we head outside and roll them down a hill with prizes for the fastest and most indestructible. In recent years, after many variations of the race it’s descended into a big egg throwing frenzy with the sensible ones (mums) scurrying inside. Some of the kids are now at university but they still insist we have egg rolling, the big babies. I love that they have this shared tradition.” Becca