Fresh Ideas for a Fun, Festive Easter

(ARA) - If you’re like many American families, Easter is a favorite season for adults and kids alike. Activities like egg decorating and egg hunts help make Easter a time of genuine celebration.

A fun twist on a family custom can help make this year’s event especially memorable, and perhaps even spark a new tradition. For ideas about how to make this year’s Easter fresh and festive, we turned to the “egg-sperts.”

“Kids are naturally creative, so it’s easy to spark their imagination,” says Michelle Soutter of PAAS, the Easter egg color company that’s been a part of America’s Easter tradition for 125 years. “Let them be your inspiration, or use some of these Easter egg decorating tips and Easter activity ideas to get you started.”

For more fun ways to make your Easter celebration a “hop-ening” event, visit www.paaseastereggs.com.

Easter Activities

PAAS suggests Easter activities that let kids practice spelling, adding or being inventive. “We like activities that include the whole family. Kids and adults playing together is a great way to make the day special,” says Soutter.

Family Fun Easter Egg Hunt. Choose a dye color for each person in your family and have them search for all of “their” eggs (you can also make eggs unique by decorating them with stickers, or drawing special designs or writing names on them). For fun the whole family can enjoy, include parents, grandparents and other adults and have the kids hide the grown-ups’ eggs.

“I Can Spell!” and “I Can Add!” Easter Egg Hunts. Decorate some of your Easter eggs with letters or numbers. For the “I Can Spell Easter Egg Hunt,” have kids collect all the eggs that spell certain words, like their names or words associated with Easter. For the “I Can Add Easter Egg Hunt,” total the numbers on the eggs each child collects and the child with the biggest total wins a special prize (give out prizes for the other kids, too).

Easter Egg Roll. You’ll need one Easter egg for each player, a wide patch of grass, big spoons, and “Start” and “Finish” lines. Divide races up by age groups to make it more fun for little kids. Each player gets an Easter egg and a spoon. At the word “go,” use the spoon to push the egg towards the finish line. The winner is the first person to cross the finish line with their egg.

Easter Egg Theater or Fashion Show. Put on a puppet-style play of the Easter story -- or any story you’d like to tell -- with Easter egg characters. Draw faces on your eggs to create characters, or Use PAAS Egg Heads decorating kit, with funny face stickers, felt hats and collar stands. Similar idea: Use a Glamour Eggs kit to create sensational outfits for an Easter egg “fashion show.”

Courtesy of ARA Content

PAAS Easter Egg Decorating Tips*

* Wash hands well before handling eggs at every step, including cooking, cooling, dyeing and decorating.

* Start with clean, cold, hard-cooked eggs.

* For bright, vibrant colors, dye eggs for 20 minutes. For pastel shades, dye eggs for 5 minutes.

* For smooth, even coloring, keep the eggs moving while dyeing.

* Continue to rotate the eggs as they dry to ensure even coloring.

* For extra sheen, rub colored eggs with a paper towel dabbed in vegetable oil.

If you plan to eat the decorated hard-cooked eggs, follow these food safety tips:

* Refrigerate hard-cooked eggs in the carton after cooking if you aren’t decorating them right away. Refrigerate again right after dyeing or decorating.

* Make sure the eggs you color aren’t cracked. If any crack during dyeing or decorating, discard them.

* To keep eggs safe to eat, the total time for hiding and hunting the eggs should be less than two hours. Re-refrigerate the found eggs until they are eaten. If hiding and hunting takes more than two hours, use the found eggs only for decoration, not for eating.

* Use egg dyes that are made from food grade ingredients and are nontoxic, like PAAS Easter Egg Dyes.

* Be sure the labels on any crayons, pens, egg wrappers or other art materials you use to decorate the eggs say nontoxic.

*Sources: American Egg Board and Signature Brands, distributor of PAAS Easter Egg Dyes.