Easter Hits, Misses & What Actually Made It Magical

Easter (and holiday’s in general) have a way of bringing out our inner overachiever…the Pinterest-perfect baskets, the coordinated outfits, the fancy brunches that seem better in theory than in execution. Looking back on years of Easter hits, misses, and one very memorable basket collapse, the real magic was never in the production. It was in the chaos, the laughter, and being present.

It’s fun to think back to when the kids were younger and Easter was a major event in our household. If I could tell my younger, more frazzled self one thing, it would be this: you don’t need to make it a full Martha Stewart production to bring the holiday magic.

What “Magical” Actually Looks Like

Something I inherently knew but didn’t fully adopt until much later: kids don’t need elaborate. They need excitement and surprise. The bar for holiday magic when they’re little is delightfully low…a basket filled with goodies, a hunt with plenty of hidden eggs, and parents who are actually present and having fun right alongside them. That’s the whole recipe.

It just took me a few years (and some humbling misses) to truly believe it.

The Hits

Our more simplified Easter formula consisted of:

• The basket reveal. Every year, the excitement of digging into that basket never got old. They would get a mix of new storybooks, treats and things to play with.
• The egg hunt. We did a mix of plastic eggs (filled with money and little surprises) and hard-boiled eggs (often hunting in the rain thanks to Oregon spring weather).
• Fun-shaped plastic eggs from Target. New shapes each year made it feel fresh without much extra effort on my part.
• Keeping the tradition alive longer than expected. Our kids loved Easter so much and just like Christmas, the Easter Bunny kept showing up well past what most people would consider “age appropriate.” Mia was in high school before we finally retired the baskets.

The Misses

Oh, where to begin.

The Fancy Golf Club Brunch Era. For several years, I convinced myself it would be lovely to get everyone dressed up and head to the golf club down the street for their Easter Sunday brunch extravaganza. The brunch had incredible food, sometimes a grand ice sculpture, an Easter Bunny photo op, the works. And I loved picking out the Easter outfits, I really did. But getting kids dressed and out the door on a holiday morning? Pure chaos. Pure stress. By the time we arrived, I needed a nap just to recover from getting to the brunch.

Pinterest Perfection Syndrome. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE a good Pinterest board. But in hindsight, I probably spent a few too many early Easters trying to make everything look Pinterest worthy. The exhaustion was real. The appreciation from my kids? Minimal. They could not have cared less about the aesthetics.

The Sibling Negotiation Drama. When my son Dylan entered the egg hunt picture, let’s just say things got… competitive. His older sister Mia, ever the strategist, convinced her little brother that the hard-boiled eggs were way more valuable than the plastic ones. Dylan, the trusting soul that he was, went all in on the hard-boiled eggs while Mia swept up the plastic ones loaded with money and surprises. (To be fair, they always consolidated their findings and split everything evenly in the end but not before Dylan’s basket gave out entirely under the weight of approximately 26 hard-boiled eggs. Mega tears ensued and we had a redo of the egg hunt that year).

The Simple Easter Playbook

Here’s what I’d tell my younger self and suggest for busy working parents of young kiddos:

• Focus on the basket and the hunt. That’s where the magic lives for kids. Keep everything else simple.
• Skip the fancy outing if it stresses you out. A relaxed brunch at home in pajamas will be remembered just as fondly. Probably more so.
• Let Target do the heavy lifting. Build on what you have instead of buying all net new each year. Add a few cool-shaped eggs, basket stuffers that encourage play and reuse. It doesn’t have to be all candy or trinkets that don’t last.
• Release the Pinterest board. Your kids are not judging the aesthetic. They are judging how fun you are to hunt eggs with.
• Keep the tradition going as long as they’ll let you. It goes faster than you think.

Presence Over Perfection

While I don’t miss all of the prep and planning, I do miss those epic egg hunts. I miss watching them tear into their baskets. I miss the pure, excitement of kids who believed in a little holiday magic. I’m so glad we were present enough, especially in the later years, to actually soak it in.

However you’re celebrating this Easter…whether it’s big or small, fancy or pajama-clad, I hope you find your version of the magic. And if things don’t go perfectly? Even better. Those are usually the stories you’ll be laughing about for years.

Happy Easter. 🐣

Thanks for reading and sharing! xx