Easter Gifts & Things to do
When is Easter?
Easter in 2026 is as follows:
Friday 3rd April: Good Friday
Sunday 5th April: Easter Sunday
Monday 6th April: Easter Monday
I love the Easter time!
Spring has such promise for the summer ahead, with pretty flowers such as primroses, warmer days, the thought of eating more chocolate than usual, perhaps those delightful Lindt Easter Bunnies with the red necklace and little bell round their necks.
When I was at school (a very long time ago), we used to get very excited when the Easter eggs appeared in the shops. For one thing, it meant we could eat lots of chocolate and for another it told us that the Easter holidays were approaching. They were a good length, the Easter holidays. We had 2 weeks, which was enough time to feel you had a break without feeling as though you’d totally lost touch of the stuff you studied in term time.
9 things to do at Easter…
1. Eat chocolate! Of course!
Chocolate Easter eggs always go down very well, and there are the traditional size ones but also the mini ones, handy for groups. Easter chocolates also come in all sorts of shapes, such as chocolate bunnies, chocolate Easter chicks, chocolate coins and chocolate balls. They come in all sorts of flavours, of course, such as milk chocolate, dark chocolate and white chocolate, and some are stuffed full of small choccies whilst others are empty. English Heritage say that the first English chocolate egg was sold by Fry’s in 1873, and Cadbury's followed closely behind them. I used to love the Cadbury's cream egg, until they got too much for my teeth.
The Chocolate Trading Company has some great novelty chocolates, just the thing for Easter!
They've got bunnies, an Easter Bunny Egg Basket, Easter Sheep, Spring Lambs, Easter Chocolate Mini Chicks,
a carrot cruncher bunny and Easter eggs! Hop off to take a look here.
Or how about...
How about these Montezuma's salted caramel milk chocolate mini eggs for £6.00?
They are palm oil free, suitable for vegetarians and hand-made in the UK!
From the RSPB.
2. Have an Easter Egg Hunt
It's an old fashioned game! Place Easter Eggs around the garden for everyone to find! Make sure you count the number found, as much as the number you put out. Please make sure your dogs can’t access these – dogs cannot eat chocolate meant for people, it’s really dangerous for them and you could end up with a big vet bill. There are plenty of treats for dogs which are suitable.
A couple of years ago, I left my mother little Lindt chocolate bunnies - the ones wrapped in gold paper with a little bell and a red ribbon. I put 10 out for her her find - she didn't know they were there. I put one in the fridge, one on her pillow, one by the chair where she normally sits, one in her favourite mug, and so on. She had a wonderful surprise and the bunnies really made her smile! When we spoke on the phone later, I checked how many she'd found so that there weren't any bunnies hiding in places where they might melt and make a mess. I still smile at the memory of her finding the bunnies, and she does too! But you could use chocolate gold coins instead of bunnies!
Many wildlife parks and animal venues have Easter events, such as London Zoo (which has its own Easter Egg hunt), Whipsnade Zoo and Edinburgh Zoo.
Emma Bridgewater has this Mini Egg Treat Tin, just the thing for Easter eggs!
For £7.00.
3. Go for a walk in the woods
Easter is such a lovely time to head out and be with nature! It’s not normally too hot or too cold (who knows what will happen this year!). The Woodland Trust has a list of woods around the country.
4. Do some Easter crafts!
Handy for wet days. Paint eggs, make Easter cards…Baker Ross have a huge range of Easter craft activities for children and adults, including activities for Holy Week, craft essentials and art supplies. They’ve got lots featuring bunnies, as you can imagine.
Baker Ross have these Ceramic Baskets,
perfect for decorating and colouring. For £7.95 for a box of 4.
5. Support local charities
Many charities will have events to fundraise during the Easter period or why not just see if you can visit a local animal charity or sanctuary as a way to give support?
6. What did people do in the past?
They played Easter games! Egg rolling, egg and spoon races, egg dancing, Easter egg hunts, and some very old games such as egg shackling, Egg Lifting or Egg Heaving – English Heritage can tell you more.
7. Find out how Easter eggs became part of Easter!
English Heritage has lots of information about Easter for you, including “Why do we eat Easter eggs at Easter?” and why does Easter's dates change every year? Why was skipping so important at Easter? There are different skipping games you can play, too, to keep you active!
English Heritage have lots of activities for kids
8. Make hot cross buns!
The video here will show you how, or and you could make Saffron Buns the Victorian way – there’s a You Tube video here. We love to have a hot cross bun with butter on it and raspberry or strawberry jam, washed down with a lovely mug of tea! Delicious - especially if you've been out for a walk first and got a real appetite!
9. Get colouring in or reading
If you've got little ones, you could read Peter Rabbit Great Big Easter Egg Hunt: A Lift-the-Flap Storybook by Beatrix Potter, together (for 2 to 4 years) or The Story of Easter (1-4 years) or, for 3-5 years, The Dinosaur that Pooped Easter!: An egg-cellent lift-the-flap adventure . There's the Mr Men Little Miss Easter Countdown: A fun-filled rhyming illustrated book for 3 and up. For 5-7 year olds, there's Where's the Easter Poo?: A Search & Find Eggs-travaganza (Where's the Poo...?) For those aged 5-10, you could look at A Cracking Easter Activity Book For Kids Ages 5-10: Over 60 Egg-cellent & Fun Easter Activities Including Mazes, Word Searches, Colouring, Connect The Dots, Puzzles and Much More! (UK Edition). Older children may like the Easter Activity Book For Kids Ages 8-12 Years Old: Easter 2025 Kids Activity Puzzle Book with Coloring, Mazes, Word Searches, Sudoku, and More! . For older children and adults, there are lots of colouring books - handy if the weather isn't kind!
And for more holiday dates, you can visit the Government’s bank holiday list.