Easter Traditions Meet New Easter Activities

The Easter holiday has been around for a long time and is very popular. From the Easter Bunny, to Christ's ressurection, to vacation and of course, no school for a whole week; it means different things to different people. It seems to have really changed alot since I was a kid at Easter time. Back then it was called Easter Break to it's now Spring Break. These days, holidays are so mechanical and automated there is no "fun" about them. The point of the holiday is lost in the hoop-la. Whether the point is religious or family tradition, by the time you deal with the expense part, the gift part, the travel part and the scheduling part, you're asking yourself, "Where'd the holiday go?".

Traditions and memories are a wonderful thing to have in your life.The memories and feelings that a tradition carries is something you can't get anywhere else. From your childhood days, to your children's childhood days, traditions are in the heart of a family unit. Keep the traditions you already have, but why not start some new ones? Often times, just because it was fun when you were a kid, doesn't mean kids these days will enjoy it! Times change and so do people. Keep the ones that are special, of course, but why not start some new ones? If you don't have any special traditions, start some now! If you don't create traditions and memories now, you won't have any later. And usually later is when we value them the most.

So put your old traditions together with your new activities and create new traditions, enhance the old ones or just have fun with your family and friends. To do that, you just need to create new things and liven up the old things. Merge old traditions with new creations!

1. Secret Pal Easter Basket - Draw names at Christmas time or just make the baskets generic (for male or female) content. Set the price limit at $15 (or your choice) Choose a nice Easter Basket, maybe one that can be used as something else "after Easter", for your "wrapping paper". Then choose a gift for the person who's name you drew, or a generic gift that could be for a man or woman and put it in the Easter basket with the "to" (or "man", "woman") and "from" names on the basket. As each person comes to the party, they hide the Easter basket that they brought. When everyone is present, or after lunch, everyone gets to go out and find the Easter basket the "Secret Pal Easter Bunny" left for them.

2. Do a "Special Crazy Easter Parade". Everyone has to wear something bright pink - even the men. The crazier the better! Everybody has to wear the most crazy hat or maybe everyone has to bring a favorite item that they think is the most crazy thing they own and tell everyone about it. This is a great way to include everyone in the holiday as well as bringing alot of laughter and great memories to the day!

3. Creat an "I Remember Easter" video presentation. Someone starts the tape stating the year, the location and just general tidbits about the day. Everyone at the function gets to say something into the camera about their favorite Easter memory. Or maybe something about a special memory of what Easter means to them. Talk about memories of different people in the family. Play it at the end of the day and add as you like, THEN....next year, you play it back and then add more for that year's Easter function! Talk about a year of history! Make copies for everyone!

4. Easter Memories at the table.....cloth, that is! Start a new tradition this year and buy a really nice plastic table cloth. As every sits down at the table, have a few marker pens around and everyone writes a comment, poem, joke or something and then signs/dates it. The rest of the day everyone will have fun reading what was written. THEN next year, you use the same table cloth, with different colored marker pens and everyone writes something again. Keep it up for a few years and you'll have a great table of memories!

5. Make a scrapbook memory album for the holiday. Take photos of everybody, everything, whatever you do throughout the Easter holiday function, and then put it all together to create a family Easter Family Scrapbook. Everyone journal something on a block of cardstock that would be added to the layouts. You can also use any physical mementos you'd like to include. These days with 1 Hour Photo processing or photo scanning, you could take the photos and develope them, and have them to work on as a group at the end of the day. The album can be passed around throughout the year, just make sure whoever has it the day before Easter next year, brings it with them!

6. If you have alot of people at your function, there is bound to be one person that shoulders the brunt of the ordeal. This person usually ends up exhausted at the end of the day and didn't have much fun. New tradition - Assign duties! Whether it be at the last family function or just calls to everyone 2 weeks before the holiday, assign duties to everyone. That way not one person has to do it all! Assign who brings what food. Who brings the entertainment, games or other activities. You can even have someone bring the holiday deocrations and be there a bit early and decorate! If everyone pitches in, everyone has fun! Every year, rotate duties!

6. Create a game called "I Hide, You Find". Get something small and sentimental, a piece of jewelery maybe. Once everyone is present, show the item to all. The first person that has it gets to hide it some place, any place.... but don't let anyone see when or where you hide it. Since the rest of the clan won't know where or when it is being hid, everyone just has to look for it ...constantly - all day! Whoever finds it, can get a prize or a hand full of candy, or the first piece of cake or anything else you might like to have for the winner. Then that person gets to hide the item. And on the game goes throughout the day! Whoever has it at the end of the day is the one that gets to keep that item, or bring an item of their choice to the next family function to play the game again! Now you will have a traditional family game!

7. Start a "Family Journal". Invest in a nice journal writting book - doesn't have to be expensive, just so long as it is sturdy. Everyone gets to do some journaling about their life this past year, their hopes and dreams for the up coming year or just anything they'd like to write. Pass the journal around and everyone gets to write in it. Next year, pull the journal out and everyone can read what was written last year and see how things have progressed and add new things for this year. What a piece of family history this journal will be!

8. Who hasn't gotten one of those Easter baskets with all that candy!!!! Marshmallow to chocolate, hard to soft, juicy to chewy. Candy, candy, candy! Then comes tummy ache, tummy ache, tummy ache and dentist, dentist, dentist!! Well, take that old tradition and elaborate on it! Of course, keep a few things of candy, a chocolate bunny and Peeps - no Easter basket is complete with those two items! But instead of more candy, have things like jewelery, die cast cars, playing card games, canister of play-doh, Silly Putty, or any similar item. Use the same theory you use to fill Christmas stockings! If you use plastic eggs, instead of filling them with candy, fill them with tickets to the movies, gift card to fast food places or just a buck or two. One thing I ALWAYS put in my kids Easter baskets was a travel size toothpaste and new tooth brush! Believe it or not, they thought that was pretty cool! If the person has a hobby, instead of candy, get them the little things that are commonly used in their hobby. But remember, this isn't Christmas or a bithday. We are talking about little things, not large presents or gifts! Just a little something from the "Easter Bunny".

So you see, traditions don't have to be sappy or dull or cumbersome. Make fun new ones! Elaborate on the old ones! No matter what you do, memories will be created. What you do with them, is what determines how important the memories will be to you later on.