Good news: the Easter Bunny is not under a stay-at-home order and will be delighting children with treats this weekend. Bad news: just about everything else about this Easter will be different, thanks to the global health crisis that has most of us staying home. But different doesn’t mean less than. Here are some ways to create a memorable Easter at home.
Keeping Traditions Alive
If you have Easter traditions, try to find a way to continue them. Thanks to technology there are many options for connecting with others. Perhaps a virtual Easter egg hunt with your favorite cousin takes the place of an in-person one this year. If you always make a certain meal try to find the ingredients and cook it. Or ask family members for recipes you typically eat when visiting and recreate them. If you always wear cheesy Easter hats get on Amazon and order some, and if they don’t have them, make them yourself. Cling to traditions but be flexible and creative in how you execute them. And take lots of photos so you’ll remember this year when you did all the same things … just a bit differently.
Making it Special
One of the difficulties of staying home all the time is creating a sense of occasion. For many of us, that is usually achieved through visits to restaurants, religious services, travel or other in-person experiences. The challenge this year is to create an occasion to look forward to and savor in your home. The key to this is to make this day different from every other day. If you usually wear PJs every day then, by all means, get dressed (or if you get dressed every day, wear your PJs for a change). I can see the wisdom in getting dressed as you would for a special occasion.
Make or purchase special foods. Many local restaurants are offering special family-style Easter dinners. Even small changes make a bit of difference. Look at this as an opportunity to treat yourself and your family, pick or purchase fresh flowers, spend time creating a bunny trail for your children to enjoy come morning. There are so many easy ideas on the internet, Google and get going. It’s not too late!
Celebrating with Family and Friends
Due to the need for social distancing celebrating holidays with family and friends requires more creativity this year. The obvious option is a video call with loved ones. You can make this even more fun if you plan a theme, perhaps a bunch, with everyone around their respective screens eating their eggs and bacon and showing off what they made.
If you live within driving distance of loved ones you may be able to pull up in their driveway, wave or honk your horn, or share well wishes as they stand 6 feet from your car, I’ve recently heard this referred to as a driveway party. Many city residents don’t have driveways, but a window party is a similar idea, traveling to someone’s home, waving, holding signs and/or talking through the window. Be thankful for the technology that allows us to share photos in seconds and video chat for hours, make an effort to connect with others and your Easter will be enriched.
Easter Services
Many Christians attend religious services during Holy Week leading up to Easter and of course on Easter Sunday. This year nearly all in-person religious services are suspended. It can feel demoralizing to consider celebrating Easter without attending a religious service but again, thanks to technology, there are options. Many congregations are live streaming services. Do some research into what is available for your denomination; a good place to start is your local church. Make plans to participate in the service, be in front of the TV, dressed and ready, with your Bible if you’d like, at the appointed time and take the experience seriously, as you would an in-person service.
There are many great ideas online for engaging more fully in online religious services and bringing aspects of the Easter celebration into your home. Praying as a family and supplementing services with religious books and films can also add to your experience. Easter is, after all, about sacrifice, so this seems an ideal time to embrace ours with love, while we eagerly await the return of the light.
