Easter these days has become the festival of rabbits and chocolate. It’s celebrated with a long weekend down the beach, while kids consume sick-making quantities of sugar filled eggs.
What many of us have forgotten is that Easter predates both Christianity and sugardemic marketing. It is the ancient European festival of spring, when pagans welcomed the return of summer after the harshness of winter: hence all those egg and rabbit symbols.
To truly make Easter a family fun day to enjoy, we suggest a quick family discussion about the real meaning of Easter. You don’t have to be religious to do this. The idea of respecting and celebrating new life is one that goes hand in hand with the idea of health.
Try these fab ideas for making Easter truly fun for your kids – without the added sugar:
1. Egg dyeing
Kids love the messy fun of making decorated hard boiled eggs. They make any room look cheerful and festive in the leadup to the big day. Best of all, you can eat them afterwards!
2. Easter egg hunt
In Australia, an outdoor hunt for chocolate eggs might be more fun for the ants than for your kids. To reduce the amount of sugar, you could use decorated hard-boiled eggs or wooden eggs. You could also consider using hollow plastic eggs (available at most supermarkets) and insert a variety of surprises inside; for older children, hiding puzzle or Lego pieces that need to be collected in order to complete the set can be a good challenge that keeps them busy. Include clues in your egg hunt to make it more fun.
3. Easter bonnet
Recycle an old hat into a creative wonderland! You could add special touches like these cute pompom chicks or other simple craft ideas.
4. Egg games
Depending on the age of your kids, there are many fun Easter games out there. You could try egg rolling, or egg and spoon races. A homemade pin-the-fluffy-tail-on-the-Easter-bunny game could provide hours of fun.
5. Easter traditions
Why not get in touch with the history of Easter and check out what Easter traditions people around the world might once have observed, before the sugardemic made Easter all about harmful calories? Traditional German egg tossing, anyone? Or how about a medieval Dutch egg dance?
6. Easter fruit platter
A creative Easter fruit arrangement would be a great way to spend fun time with your kids and enjoy some healthy treats at the same time.
How does sugar compare to tobacco? A teaspoon of sugar or one cigarette will not harm you. But over time, the habit can be fatal. Unlike Big Tobacco, Big Sugar deliberately targets children. And added sugar has become so pervasive within the food environment that we can't avoid it even if we wanted to.
