Spring 2020: A Few Fun Ways to Celebrate Easter at Home This Year in Des Moines

Spring 2020: A Few Fun Ways to Celebrate Easter at Home This Year in Des Moines

Find 2021 Easter events and activities here.

This year’s Easter celebration may look a little different than years past. Just because all the large public Easter egg hunts and bunny visits are cancelled, doesn’t mean you still can’t have a little Easter fun at home.  Whether you want to spend an afternoon decorating eggs with your little ones or perhaps start a new family tradition with an egg race, here are a few ideas to get the kids engaged in Easter fun at home.

Here’s 11+ ideas to celebrate Easter with your kids at home this year:

Get Creative When Decorating Your Easter Eggs

If you don’t have a traditional PAAS Easter egg dye kit at home, no worries, there’s more than one way to decorate an egg!

  • Chalkboard Eggs: Paint hard-boiled eggs with black chalk paint, let dry.  Then decorate with chalk.
  • Fingerprint Easter Eggs: Have your little ones use their fingers and some paint or an ink pad to make cute designs on the eggs.
  • Kool-Aid Easter Eggs: Use packets of Kool-Aid to make bright colored eggs.
  • Nail Polish Easter Eggs: Make marbled Easter eggs with nail polish and water. 
  • Watercolor Easter Eggs: Use a spray bottle and create some pretty speckled eggs.

Read Some Easter Books

Gather the kids and curl up with a good book, especially if Easter falls on a rainy day this year. Here’s a few of our family’s favorite books about Easter, bunnies, and spring:

  • Guess How Much I Love You? By Sam McBratney
  • Make Way For Ducklings By Robert McCloskey
  • Max’s Chocolate Chicken By Rosemary Wells
  • The Golden Egg By Chronicle Books
  • The Night Before Easter By Natasha Wing

Track the Easter Bunny

Kids can track where E.B. is at as he makes his way to your house with this fun on-line Easter Bunny Tracker.  You can also sign-up to get personalized email messages from the Easter Bunny during Easter!

Purchase Easter Goodies from Local Shops

Make Easter a little sweeter by picking up a few treats from a local chocolate shop.  All of them are offering pick up, carry out, delivery and/or shipping service. Please be sure to call ahead or place an order on-line.   

  • Beaverdale Confectioners: The chocolate bunnies in our featured photo are from this creative shop in Beaverdale. In addition to chocolate bunnies they have several other Easter goodies, like chocolate dipped Oreos, Peanut Butter Cups, Salter Caramel Bunnies and more.
  • Chocolate Storybook: You can find handcrafted chocolate Easter eggs and bunnies plus malted milk balls, Cotton Tail Cotton Candy, pre-made Easter baskets and more at this candy shop in West Des Moines.
  • Chocolaterie Stam: Stam has a great selection of Easter candy and chocolate including traditional Easter treats like Easter candy baskets, chocolate Easter eggs and rabbits.

Take Your Easter Egg Hunt up a Notch

Easter egg hunts are classic, but this might be the year to make it a bit more challenging (read…stretch it out) and take your typical hunt up a notch.

  • Color Coded Easter Egg Hunt: If your kids are older or need more of a challenge than just hunting for eggs, assign a different color to each of your kiddos. Hide the oldest child’s eggs in more difficult hiding spots, and so on. Then, have them race to see who can find all of their eggs first.
  • Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt: Cut out paper eggs. Write clues on each egg, so that egg #1 leads to egg #2 until they arrive at the final grand prize (perhaps their Easter basket or chocolate bunny). 
  • Messages in the Easter Eggs: Fill plastic eggs with coupons that your kids can redeem at a later date or create a fun Easter egg fitness hunt, where you include exercises for your kids to complete before they can search for the next egg.

Spring 2020: A Few Fun Ways to Celebrate Easter at Home – dsm4kids.com

Attend an On-Line Easter Service

Area churches have been offering on-line services, since this whole coronavirus mess started. Easter will be no exception.  Visit your congregation’s website or social media to find what time they will be live streaming on Easter Sunday.  If you’re not part of a congregation, but would like to find a local Easter service, you can find a list of Des Moines area church’s on DMARC’s website.

Get Dressed up for Easter Brunch or Lunch

Just because you’re at home doesn’t mean you can’t put on your Easter bonnet, get dressed up and enjoy a nice meal. You can make brunch together and involve your kids in the kitchen by making some delicious items for your Easter feast. Or, if you’d prefer for someone else to do the food prep, here’s a few places in Des Moines where you can get some Easter take out:

  • Gateway Market: This downtown Des Moines grocer and caterer offers several takeout and delivery options.  Order from their regular menu or check out their catering options to make your Easter meal extra special.
  • HoQ: Easter Brunch is a tradition at this East Village farm-to-table restaurant and this year is no exception. They’ll be offering brunch for take-out only on Sunday, April 12 from 10:00 am to 12:00 noon. Their two-course brunch will include a pastry assortment for your first course, and choice of two entrees.
  • HyVee: This local supermarket chain offers many Easter brunch, lunch or dinner options for Des Moines families seeking a catering option. Contact your local store to place an order.
  • Gilroy’s: This West Des Moines restaurant is offering their popular Sunday Brunch – To Go.  You can call them for Curbside Pickup on Sundays between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm. They have eggs, bacon, sausage, mashed potatoes, salad and assorted desserts on the menu.  In addition, you can order their bloody mary mix or take home Moscow mule kit.
  • The Club Car Restaurant: Take your Easter Dinner To Go from The Club Car in West Des Moines. Orders must be placed by Thursday, April 9th and it feeds six to eight people.  Each meal served with meat, rolls, and a pie.  Choose three sides. 

Video Chat with Loved Ones

Even though we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean we have to be a part!  If you would normally spend the day with extended family or friends, set aside some time to give them a call or video chat with them.

Play Some Traditional Easter Games

Play one of these good old-fashioned outdoor games as a family after your Easter egg hunt or Easter brunch is over!

  • Egg and Spoon Race: All you need are eggs (hard-boiled are the least messy) and metal or wooden spoons for each participant. Hold the egg in the spoon and run as fast as you can without dropping it. Race individually or relay-style.
  • Egg Roll: Similar to the Egg and Spoon Race, instead of holding the egg up in the air and running with it, the egg is on the ground and you use a spoon to roll it to a designated spot as fast as you can.  Again, this can be an individual or relay activity.
  • Egg Toss: Divide into pairs and stand an arm’s length away facing each other. Each pair should have one egg.  The player with the egg tosses the egg to their partner. If the egg is successfully caught, the partner holding the egg should take one step back to increase the distance between them and their teammate. Anyone who drops their egg is out of the game. The game continues in this manner until only one team has successfully thrown their egg back and forth without dropping it.

Spread Some Easter Cheer

Have your kids perform a random act of kindness this Easter and do something nice for an elderly relative or neighbor. You could put together a gift basket or make cards. Kids can fill plastic Easter eggs with nice notes, or the cards can say things like, “You’re egg-cellent!” and “Sweetest neighbor ever.”  Of course, be mindful of social distancing and if a gift basket or card aren’t appropriate, your kids could make a sign to hold in front of a nursing home window or sing a song through the window. You might need to get a little creative to make this a SAFE, fun and meaningful activity.

Watch an Easter Movie

Once you’ve done everything else, you might be looking for a movie the kids can watch to wind down at the end of the busy holiday. With that in mind, we’ve rounded up some great Easter movies for kids that are currently on Netflix:

  • Peter Rabbit
  • Hop
  • Joseph: King of Dreams
  • The Story of God with Morgan Freeman
  • VeggieTales in the City
  • The Gospel of John
  • A Shawn the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
  • The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
  • Duck Duck Goose
  • Jesus: Countdown to Calvary
  • Christopher Robin
  • If I Were an Animal

 

 

Do you have any ideas to add to our list? Please share them in the comments below!

And, remember, parents set the tone for all holiday celebrations. We may not be celebrating with friends and loved ones this year, but Easter can still be a special and memorable time at home!

 

Featured photo used courtesy of Beaverdale Confections