Where's your Easter Baskets?

A few people have asked and I'm sure more have wondered; where are the girls' Easter baskets? Why don't we do them?

Well, we don't celebrate Christian Easter... we celebrate Ostara/Eostre, to start with. I would have celebrated on Ostara, but I was called in to work and worked all night until almost midnight. (Instead we celebrated all week over each day.) Most modern Easter traditions stem from Pagan practices, (read: all). Now throw in a heck of a lot of commercialism and pressure to do second-Christmas/Yule. So yes, we haven't done baskets for them. Last year my stepson and daughter-in-law made little baskets for the kids with jellybeans, necklaces, bracelets, and foam glasses. That was really cute but they lost interest in like five minutes and wouldn't eat the jellybeans. We did an egg hunt with my oldest (then three) who lost interest in looking after another five minutes and I had to go and retrieve all but one egg. So it was a bust.

Instead, we decided that this year we'd keep it simple. Today me and M made Ostara honey cakes (which turned out delicious), and in a little bit we'll boil the eggs to color later. The whole time we were cooking I was giving lessons on where the food comes from and how thankful we should be because of the sacrifices of the animals. I explained that even though our eggs are free-range, grass-pastured from humanely treated chickens that the chickens still treat their eggs like babies and they get sad when the farmers take them away. Things like that. She didn't end up enjoying the honey but it's a recipe I'll be making again!

We colored eggs and looked at the full moon and did things age-appropriate. We have chalk and bubbles too that we were going to take them out to use, but alas it has rained for almost the entire week! Darn Spring! We spread out our celebration and will have continuous talks about the seasons and celebrating each one. I have no problem making baskets for them in the future, but rest assured it will not be filled with sickly-sweet candy (that they don't like anyways), useless toys that break, or cheap stuffers that are meant to appease them and have nothing to do with the holiday. Oh no. If M and L decide they want baskets next year, it will be filled with something that actually celebrates Spring. A nice book about Spring, some coloring tools, maybe a plant or some gardening tools and seeds, and other varied age-appropriate things (I was thinking a crystal necklace for Maire or finger puppets of baby animals for Lili.)

I'm excited to build new traditions with my kids! It would be easier and nicer if we had our own yard, but until we do... there's plenty of other ways to celebrate.

Ostara Blessings Upon You