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The Easter holiday is right around the corner. Whether your family likes to spend time in church, hunting eggs, or gathered around a table of delicious Easter foods, we all want to focus on what really matters, quality time with friends and family. From decorations, to food and entertainment, there are inexpensive ways to host fantastic Easter celebrations with the people you love.
Host an Easter Potluck
Food is the heart of every good celebration. With a potluck, all your guests can bring their favorite Easter dish. This cuts your costs and everyone gets a chance to share a piece of their personal Easter traditions and try new dishes. Make sure all your bases are covered (we don’t want six pans of mashed potatoes here —no matter how good they are) and you can fill in the gaps with a few select dishes of your own.
Go for Finger Foods
Is your Easter usually a bustle of activity with friends and family chatting in all corners of the house? Keep your food on the light side and focus on fun, colorful finger food options for a menu that keeps everyone satisfied but still allows them to mingle. Think deviled eggs, colorful platters of fruits and veggies, even a sliced Easter ham with some buns and trimmings for casual yet delicious sandwiches would suit this low-cost celebration perfectly.
Celebrate With Breakfast
If you’ve always hosted an Easter dinner, why not mix it up this year and go for an Easter breakfast? Your guests can gather around mouthwatering dishes of eggs, ham, hash browns, and even homemade hot cross buns (raisin free if necessary). Serve it all up with hot coffee or fun mimosas and you have an inexpensive start to a beautiful day of quality time.
Bulk Up Your Chocolate
You can have all kinds of delicious Easter treats without splurging on big chocolate bunnies or expensive pre-assembled baskets. Hit the bulk bins for inexpensive bundles of small chocolates and fun colorful candies. Use these to fill plastic Easter eggs or scatter colorful wrapped chocolates for your egg hunt or as decorations that your guests can snack on!
DIY Your Treats
The three treats that disappear fastest at our family Easter are all inexpensive, simple recipes. Easy to make Jell-O eggs are most popular. Rice crispy nests filled with jelly beans and sugar cookies in fun Easter shapes are also favorites, and these can double as festive party favors for your guests.
Mix Up Your Hunt
The classic Easter egg hunt is a hit with children and adults alike. There are many ways you can create a fun hunt for your guests at little cost. Buy a bulk selection of different size chocolates (wrapped is best!) and hide them all over the place for a keep-what-you-collect style hunt; have each hunter gather a specific type of candy; hide your dyed Easter eggs and declare whoever finds the most the winner of a big chocolate bunny. Get creative with your hunting challenge!
Build Your Own Baskets
Assemble your own Easter baskets or build a big basket to be the grand prize of the Easter egg hunt. Get your baskets from the local craft or thrift stores at a fraction of the cost and decorate them yourself. A little bit of spray paint or some fun ribbons and tissue to line the inside instantly spruce up an old basket and make it Easter-worthy. Fill them with inexpensive treats like chocolates, stickers, colored pencils, bouncy balls, and other small items.
DIY Egg Dye
Whether you’re a dye die-hard that spends hours on an intricate design or you prefer a quick dip and dye approach, egg dyeing is fun and inexpensive for the whole family. Just gather cups for dye, food coloring, spoons to remove eggs from the cups, and rags to dry your eggs on. If you do this ahead of time with your family you can use the colorful dyed eggs as decorations for your Easter meal or in your egg hunt.
Check the Local Listings
Spending time at home with loved ones is wonderful, but there are often tons of free local activities taking place that could be just as memorable to take part in. Check your local papers or do a little internet research on what activities are going on in your local area. Let your guests know you’ll be hitting up some new, fun celebrations in your city. You may even score a free photo with the Easter Bunny!
