26 Fun Family Easter Traditions to Start With Your Baby or Toddler

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The best family Easter traditions to start with a baby or toddler. 26 kid-friendly Easter traditions for families to enjoy every year!

When this time of year hits, there are plenty of clues that Spring is just around the corner. I revel in lighter nights, more seasonable weather, and the influx of green from the trees. And it reminds me that Spring is just around the corner.

And with Spring comes Easter. It’s a holiday that seems tailor made for kids and families to enjoy. With plenty of fun in a season that is filled with a chance to get outdoors and enjoy!

There are eggs to be found and Easter baskets to be filled. And of course, plenty of chocolate to be eaten! Not to mention decorating eggs, or having a special visit from the Easter bunny. Indeed, there’s a lot to enjoy during this fun holiday.

If you’ve got a baby or toddler at home, Easter is the perfect time to create memorable family traditions.

It’s a chance to teach your kids that the true meaning of holidays is spending time together. And of course, it’s a chance to have a ton of family fun!

If you’re ready to create new memories and make this time of year extra special, keep reading! Below you’ll find my ideas about different family Easter traditions your whole family will enjoy.

25 Fun Easter Traditions for Families

Below, I’ve curated some of the best ideas and things to do at Easter time for your little ones. From arts and crafts to baking and making -there’s a lot to keep families busy!

There’s bound to be something you’ll love doing together to make special memories as a family. And some may become an Easter tradition that your kids look forward to every year. 

While Easter is a typically religious celebration, it can also be a joyous celebration of the arrival of springtime.

Even if you aren’t religious, or belong to a faith that doesn’t celebrate Easter, you can still enjoy the beginning of the new season, which brings together new life and chocolate!

Easter Family Traditions Your Toddler Will Love 

Easter Egg Hunt

There’s nothing more fun than an egg hunt! Watching as the kids go wild searching for the eggs the Easter bunny has hidden is great fun. It’s one of the most common Easter traditions, and with good reason – it’s so much fun!

One of the most common egg hunt strategies is to fill plastic eggs with candy or small toys. But if you have very young children, it’s fair to worry about too much sugar and choking hazards.

If you want to limit Easter candy, why not fill each Easter egg with tokens. After finding all their eggs, your little one can swap the tokens for an Easter gift or an Easter basket at the end of the hunt. (This is the most adorable easter basket I’ve found)

For particularly active kids, you could also fill the Easter eggs with challenges. One egg could ask for jumping jacks on the spot, and another could tell the, to hop like the Easter Bunny!

Or you could hide these super cute surprise carrots, which are a fun alternative.

Also keep in mind that little children can sometimes find Easter eggs hard to spot. In this case, try tying pretty pastel balloons to the eggs, so make sure they don’t get lost!

Easter Scavenger Hunt

If you want to change it up a bit, a scavenger hunt is a fun idea. It’s also a nice activity to organize for the neighborhood once the traditional egg hunt is done.

Use things around the house and garden, and make it as easy or complicated as you like. Great ideas for a Spring themed scavenger hunt include things like:

• Find 2 things that are yellow
• Collect three different types of leaves
• Spot 5 different colors of flower
• Count how many different bird calls you can hear

Bigger kids can have a written list. Smaller ones could have pictures to help, or be told each item to bring back! 

If you’re not feeling creative, you can find a print-at-home Easter Scavenger Hunt on Etsy!

Night Time Egg Hunt with Glow in the Dark Easter Eggs

One cool variation on the traditional Easter egg hunt is to do it at dusk, instead of Easter morning!

Because of the darkness, you’ll need to create glow in the dark eggs, and perhaps have some mini flashlights, too.

Glow in the dark Easter eggs are easy to make. Simply put a mini glow stick into each plastic egg case, and you’ll see them glow! You can buy the pieces separately, or get them as a set.

Make it challenging if you have multiple kids by having them look for specific colors.

Or limit different children to different parts of the garden or yard.

Bake Easter Cookies

Baking cookies during a holiday is something I can always get behind. I have plenty of memories doing so with my own mom!

If you’re not a natural baker, pre-made sugar cookie dough is a surefire hit. Get your kids’ help roll it out and cut out Easter themed shapes.

There are plenty of cute cookie cutters to choose from. Pick up some bunnies, Easter eggs, or spring flowers, and then decorate them as a family, using a piping bag, frosting and sprinkles.

Whether you bake them yourself or use pre-made dough, you and your kids will have fun together with this fun Easter pastime.

If you stick with a pastel color scheme, they’ll be beautiful enough to add to any Easter basket!

Make Easter Cakes

Easter baking can be as difficult as your kitchen skills allow, from simple no-bake treats, to a lush and delicious carrot cake (because, of course, that’s the Easter bunny’s favorite!)

For those with smaller children try making chocolate Easter nest cakes. Simply melt chocolate with a small amount of butter and honey in the microwave until it is all melted (do it in small time durations as it can quickly burn!)

Then stir in some dry rice crispy cereal, (or cornflakes or dry chow mein noodles – depending on your preference or what’s in your cupboards!) until it is fully coated in the chocolate mix.

Then spoon the chocolate covered cereal mixture into muffin cases and press two or three candy eggs into the top.

Be careful with the candy eggs with very young children, as they could be a choking hazard.

Paint Easter Eggs

We all like to get messy! Painting Easter eggs is something the whole family can enjoy, from the smallest to the biggest.

There’s also a ton of ways to adapt this activity to make it more suitable for all of your kids.

Older children can paint real eggs. Simply boil them for 15 minutes and allow them to cool before painting.

Acrylic paint works best, as it sticks to the shell. I find that using a tube from a toilet paper roll is handy to balance an egg on while little fingers get to work! And if you want to do finer details, acrylic paint pens are a great choice!

If you want to do something different, older kids will also love these egg tattoos (or these egg tattoos)!

For younger children, you can give them markers to draw on the eggs, or get them to paint on paper. Draw an egg shape for toddlers to decorate.

With really little ones allow them to go crazy with the bright pastel colors of spring and create an abstract masterpiece on paper. You can then cut the paint-splattered paper into egg shapes for other cute Easter crafts, like an Easter egg bunting, or Easter cards to send to family and friends with a cute egg on the front!

Easter Olympics

If the day is fresh and sunny, it’s a perfect time to get the kids into the garden and be active! Start a new tradition of crazy races in your garden that the whole family can join in with.

Why not try an egg-and-spoon race, where you have to balance an egg on the end of the spoon and walk as fast as you can to the finish line.

You could also try the egg toss, where you aim to throw an egg as far as you can – without it cracking!

Little ones could become the Easter bunny themselves  (why not have them wear a pair of bunny ears for the full effect!) and have a hopping race. Make them hop around the garden to the finish line. 

Host an Easter Egg Roll

While the most famous egg roll may be at the White House, you can still enjoy this most famous of Easter traditions at home. This simple race is great for developing coordination for little hands (as well as being super fun).

Simply take a hard boiled egg (or maybe use some of the ones you’ve painted earlier!). The aim is to push the egg across the grass of your yard to the other side.

Races can be fun between siblings, and you can make them fair by giving children different sized spoons or letting younger ones have a head start!

Make Easter Baskets

Making an Easter basket is one of the most traditional of activities. You can make them from paper, leaves with willow, or use other recycled materials to make an eco style basket!

Or you can buy an Easter basket (or regular basket), and fill them with toys and goodies to give as a present.

And your kids can also take their Easter basket on egg hunts too – to hold all of the eggs they find!

Decorate an Easter Tree

A fun family Easter tradition you can start in your home is decorating an Easter tree. Rather than the large bushy evergreen tree of Christmas, Easter trees are more minimalist and are super easy to make.

Simply gather some large sticks while you are on a family spring walk – ones with lots of branches and no leaves are the best.

Spray paint these sticks with a white-colored paint (and add a sprinkle of glitter if you’re feeling ambitious!) and leave them to dry. Once dry, organize them in a slim glass vase filled with pastel-colored gravel, plastic eggs, or anything else that will provide sturdy support.

Once the Easter tree is made you need to add decorations!

Kids can have so much fun making Easter decorations, you could hang egg-shaped salt-dough decorations, or even just paper shapes.

Easter trees also make a great centerpiece for your family dinner on Easter Sunday 

Create Easter Crafts

As well as the Easter baskets and painting Easter eggs, there are a ton of other crafts you can try with your kids.

From making masks in the shape of an Easter bunny to chicks that appear from cracked eggs.

Kids love expressing their creative side, and they can glue, cut and craft so many activities for some family fun. 

Make Easter Marshmallow Peep S’mores 

S’mores are delicious all year around, but turn them into one of your family Easter traditions and give them a fun twist but using marshmallow peeps!

These chick shaped mallow treats already come in bright Easter colors so your s’mores will be special for spring! Your kids will chirp in delight at these sweet treats!

Make a Special Easter Breakfast

On Easter morning, there’s no better start to the day than having a lovely family breakfast. Why not make it special with a unique Easter breakfast for kids.

Try adding food coloring to pancake mixture to make fun Easter pancakes that your kids will love! Or make pancakes in the shape of an Easter Bunny’s face. Add some cute Easter tableware to make it extra special!

Or have eggs in many different ways. Poached, scrambled, boiled, fried – whichever you way prefer.

Easter Countdown

If your child gets very excited you can help them to count down the days until the Easter bunny arrives by making a cute countdown calendar.

One option is an egg countdown. You can number the eggs for a countdown. Inside each little egg, you can put a small candy or a little message for the day. You could place a note inside each egg from the Easter bunny!

This is a craft to do for the build-up to Easter, and can be reused every year once you have made it with your little one! 

Alternatively, you could do an Easter book countdown calendar. Decide how many days you want to count down, and then wrap the same number of Easter, spring or gardening themed books in Easter themed wrapping paper. Each day, your little one can unwrap a book that you can read together!

Plant Some Easter Flowers

Getting green-fingered in the garden is great all year round, but springtime is the time to celebrate the fresh and new. Planting flowers to add a splash of color will brighten anyone’s day, and is a nice way to spend a few hours on Easter weekend. And a kids gardening set is a great Easter gift, and an alternative to candy-filled Easter baskets!

Spring favorites like daffodils and tulips can be planted from bulbs, or you could make a flower bed. Hanging flower Easter baskets is another nice idea – use smaller bedding plants and watch them bloom.

Use a local gardening guide to check the seasonal plants for your area, and the best time to plant them.

Leave a Carrot for the Easter Bunny

Bunny bait! Just as you leave out cookies and brandy for Santa, you need to leave a carrot for the Easter bunny. Kids love this Easter tradition and it can be the last thing they do before sleep on the night before Easter Sunday.

You can even get a “Carrot for the Easter Bunny” plate to leave a carrot and other treats on Etsy!

Wear Easter Pajamas

When the Easter bunny is coming during the night, it can an exciting time and may be difficult to fall asleep, so wearing new pajamas might help!

Everyone looks cute in pajamas, and bunny ones make little ones look even more adorable.

If you want something really fun, The Tot sells color-in pajamas from UK company Selfie Clothing Co. Their bunny PJS are adorable, and come with fabric markers so your little one can color their PJs!

Take an Easter Family Photograph

Like many holidays, Easter is about making memories. So make it one of your Easter traditions to have a family photograph taken together.

Take it as an opportunity to dress nicely (maybe wear new Easter clothes!) and make a memento to look back on every year. They also make great gifts for grandparents or relatives.

Often malls have an Easter bunny that you can have a picture taken with, but if not, take it outside and get a snap outdoors for a fresh feeling.

If you want some cute Easter photo outfits for Baby’s first Easter, MeriMeri has some adorable options.

Read the Easter Story

We all know that Easter is a religious tradition, so reading the Easter Story is one way for children to learn the origins of Easter celebrations.

You can also find some Easter, Bunny and Spring themed story books to share together, too. Sharing a book with a steaming mug of cocoa before bed is an Easter tradition that everyone in the family can get on board with!

Gifting a spring-themed story is also a great idea for the little ones of friends and families, who may not appreciate EVEN MORE candy or chocolate!

Celebrate the Earth and New Life

Of course, as much as Easter is about egg hunts and Easter baskets, it also coincides with Spring, and the associated burst of new life.

Talk to your kids about how Spring is a time of new life, and of renewal, and help them celebrate nature and stewardship over the earth.

Some simple ideas toddlers can help with include creating a birdseed feeder and hanging it out in your yard, doing something to make your yard more bee-friendly, or cleaning up littler from your local neighborhood.

Get Active on an Easter Walk

After a huge Easter breakfast or Easter dinner, or too much sugar after an egg hunt, head out with your family on an Easter walk, reminding your kids how important it is to stay active, and how fun it can be to get active as a family.

Easter Bunny Footprints

I have fond memories of a child when my parents made Santa footprints near our Christmas tree, and love the idea of doing the same with the Easter Bunny!

You can make a simple bunny feet template out of a tinfoil baking tray (draw feet shape on the botton of the try, and then use a knife to cut out the shapes). Then use a sifter or strainer and some white flour to create Easter bunny feet as a trail for your toddlers to follow!

Easter Bunny Houses

As a prelude to Easter, a fun ideas is to twist the tradition of Christmas gingerbread houses into something that will work for Easter!

One simple way to make Easter Bunny Houses is to use empty and clean milk cartons as the base of the house. Whip up some royal icing, and then glue graham crackers onto the milk carton, covering the entire carton and using two crackers to form a roof.

Your little one can then decorate the Easter Bunny house with Easter candies.

Letter from the Easter Bunny

Little kids love getting snail mail on a normal day and from a human sender. But when that letter comes from the Easter Bunny? Prepare for some excitement!

With the advent of Etsy, there are plenty of sellers creating Letters from the Easter Bunny. Many are editable, downloadable templates, so you’ll be able to personalize it for your own child.

Or if you’re crafty, you can make it yourself, or print it at home on Easter themed printer paper.

Visit a Farm or Petting Zoo

Along with celebrating nature and renewal through a bird feeder or neighborhood litter clean up, one of my favorite Easter adjacent activities with kids is visiting a local petting zoo for a first hand look at baby goats and chicks!

The weather is finally a bit nicer, and after a long winter it’s so delightful to see little kids sheer delight at cute baby animals.

Play Dress Up

While we can hope for beautiful spring weather when Easter hits, it’s equally possible you’ll have to contend with rain all day. In which case, you need to keep the kids busy.

Dress up is an obvious choice, and I love the range of cute Easter themed dress up costumes that are available these days!

MeriMeri’s Sherpa Fleece Bunny costume is a surefire hit, and Little Adventures has an adorable baby lamb costume. For something more subtle but equally adorable, check out these bunny ears and pompom tail!

Final Thoughts on Favorite Easter Traditions

We hope you’ve enjoyed our round-up of fun family Easter traditions and we hope you can partake in a few of them to create some really enjoyable memories with your family and little ones.

We hope our ideas help to make Easter one of your favorite holidays and maybe some of these things on our list can become special activities that you can do every year!

If you enjoyed this post, share it with other families and friends to help them develop some fun and new Easter traditions.

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