Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Celebrating a Family Easter

By Kristen Thorpe

Easter is usually a time of great celebration and family fun but it can also be a huge source of stress for those in charge of planning the Easter dinner. Whether you already have your own Easter traditions or not, the following tips and ideas can help make your Easter weekend easy and fun.

You'll want to put up some decorations to set the holiday theme. Whether you choose to add eggs or Easter bunnies, bright sunny colors or calm pastels is up to you. You can dye your eggs at home with a combination of vinegar, food coloring, and boiling water. Once you've mixed the color batches in different cups, simply dip your hard-boiled eggs in for perfect results. It's easy and much cheaper than buying a kit!

Since colors are a real mood-maker, you can add lots of wonderful touches to you home with a few basic decorations. Place some Easter baskets on various tables throughout the home and add some pastel streamers across a room using a ceiling fan or hanging light as the center. You can also pick up some attractive and inexpensive items such as stuffed bunnies and chicks or silk flowers to add additional theme and color.

Don't forget how wonderful Easter egg hunts are for the kids, no matter what the weather. You can choose to hide them inside if it's rainy or out in a garden on a sunny day. Instead of hiding real eggs, consider purchasing a bag or two of plastic eggs that you can fill with special treats like candies, stickers, and small toys. You can even use them for the grown-ups too to add fun to the seating process. Just write numbers on the eggs with matching numbers under chairs and everyone will be seated according to the egg that they find.

Figuring out the menu is probably a big stress factor and one of the most important tasks as well. Keep it simple with some favorite dishes and don't be shy about asking your guests for help. And be sure to check the menu with all of your guests to make sure that no one has any specific food needs or allergies to take into consideration.

Ham has become the traditional staple of a great Easter dinner. Slow cooked spiral-sliced glazed ham with pineapple slices is a great main course. You may also consider cooking a turkey - it's not just for Thanksgiving! Many large families will have two or three different main course meats to choose from. Don't be afraid to try something different.

When it comes to the side dishes, you'll usually want a potato dish, a vegetable or two, perhaps a casserole mix and of course, some biscuits. Your guest might like making their favorite dishes too, so take advantage of their offers if they make them and cross one of your dishes off the list. They'll be happy to be participating and you'll be happy with less work to do.

The key to a successful Easter celebration is to remember to keep the fun in mind. You don't have to do it all for it to be a great day. It's important that you all get to enjoy spending time together. Traditions are neat but you can always make up some of your own and start new ones. And the kids will love you just for remembering the chocolate and jelly beans.

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