12 Easter Traditions That Make Us Nostalgic

In many families Easter just isn’t as big of a deal as it was when we were kids. There was so much fanfare around the big day and just thinking of it makes us feel warm and fuzzy. From the Easter egg hunt to the Easter baskets to the big family dinner that always followed it was really important day. Did your family do these Easter traditions?

12) Easter Egg Hunts

In some families (mine included) the Easter egg hunt was staged by the parents and was a massive undertaking. The adults would wake super early to hide the eggs all in and around the house and we could have Easter dinner until the kids found every last one of them. This was good incentive to find them since a forgotten hard-boiled egg would be pretty ripe in about a week if no one found it.

11) Pastel Dresses

Easter was the time to get a new outfit and special new Sunday best shoes. Little girls were dressed in pastel dresses, often with some kind of lace collar, and then white or black patent leather mary jane shoes. Hair bows, flowers, or an easter hat usually completed the look.

10) Chocolate Bunnies

These little guys were once completely ubiquitous around Easter. The favorite thing when we were little was bite the ears off of a hollow chocolate bunny then and then fill it with milk. You’d eat and slurp together in a messy, but fun ritual.

9) That “Straw”

The plastic straw for the Easter baskets seemed to get into and into everything in the house. But, just like tinsel at Christmas, it added to the fun of the holiday.

8) Picking Bouquets of Daffodils

Nothing quite says Ester like the blooming of daffodils all around the neighborhood. A bouquet of these delightful buds on the table really made it feel like Easter and it was almost always the first daffodil bouquet of the year.

7) Potato Salad

With Easter dinner, it was common in many regions of the U.S. to also serve potato salad. It really does go well with ham! We had it just about every single Easter it seems and usually there was some leftover for later in the week, too.

6) Picture Time

Either on Easter or in the weeks before a picture with the Easter Bunny was always an interesting event. Usually kids cried, but it was still a fun time.

5) Cadbury Cream Eggs

These little confections always remind us of Easter. Back then they really weren’t around all year and there were no Halloween or Christmas versions of the candy. They were a treat you could only get at Easter. Malted robin’s eggs and yellow Peeps also get honorable mentions.

4) Jelly Beans

To round out the Easter baskets, we used to get tons of jelly beans in ours. Stuck to the plastic straw would always be an assortment of jelly beans. Since we didn’t really eat them other times of year, they became a very Easter-specific candy.

We hear that some kids got M & Ms in their Easter baskets instead!

3) Deviled Eggs

Along with the plethora of hard boiled eggs at Easter, we also plenty of deviled eggs, too. Easter and deviled eggs just sort of go hand in hand.

2) The Easter Beagle

Watching It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown was another all time favorite Easter activity.

1) Ham Salad

Making ham salad with leftover ham from Easter dinner was one of the best things about the days that followed Easter. There’s just nothing quite like it!