Getting Ready for Easter!

Happy April, everyone! I can’t believe that a new month is here, and that Easter is already next weekend. Despite my careful advance planning, holidays always have a way of springing up on me (see what I did there?) While I’m a traditionalist at heart and I love honouring time-worn holiday traditions, I also love finding new ways to celebrate each year. So today, I thought I’d share a few ideas for Easter decorating, cooking and entertaining with you all. Hopefully they give you some fun ideas for your own festivities! Whether you’re hosting family or friends, or just keeping things simple with a low-key celebration, I hope you’ll find these ideas helpful. And I’d also love it if you shared your own Easter traditions, recipes and/or hosting tips with me too – I’m always looking for inspiration!

Let’s start with one of my favourite subjects: décor! Regular readers of my blog will know that I love decorating for any holiday, and Easter is no exception. In general, my home décor style tends towards bright colours, pastels and florals, so Easter is actually one of my favourite holidays to decorate for. I’m a firm believer that holiday decorating doesn’t have to be expensive, time-intensive or over-the-top. Here are some small spring-y touches that I added to our home this year. Decorating took me less than an hour, and several of these were budget-friendly finds – think Dollarama, Amazon and HomeSense.

Our entryway is one of my favourite places to decorate for holidays. The hall table (which is actually a shoe organizer from IKEA) provides the perfect blank canvas for adding some fun holiday flair. The white wood bunny and “happy Easter” sign are from HomeSense, the little house cutout is from Dollarama, and I got the small ceramic bunny from an Easter market in Vienna several years ago.

While I love a wreath on the front door, I’m also partial to indoor wreaths, and the mirror over our hall table (which I got from HomeSense years ago) is the perfect spot to show off a wreath. I can’t take full credit for this lovely wreath – it was started by Tania’s mom, and when she gave it to me, I added some of my own touches. The glittery eggs and faux flowers are from Dollarama. When Easter is over, I store this wreath fully decorated in a large plastic bag, so that I can simply take it out and hang again next year – no need to redecorate.

Tania is Ukrainian, so pysanky (traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs) always have a place in our decorations. I love the intricate patterns on these – you can tell they were crafted with love by expert artisans. I’ve tried making my own pysanky with Tania’s family and let me tell you, decorating these is an art and it’s hard… I don’t even dare share the tragic photo evidence of my ‘creations’! The adorable bunny succulent pot is from one of my favourite stores in the Distillery District: GW General.

Instead of wasting money (and storage) on different throw pillows for each season and holiday, I use the same pillow inserts and just swap the covers! I got this set from Amazon last year, and it was just under $25 for four pillow covers. These ones are currently out of stock, but a simple Amazon search will pull up lots of equally cute (and affordable) options.

This bar cart was a “hand-me-down” from Tania’s brother and sister-in-law, and it’s one of my favourite surfaces to decorate for any holiday. The wooden sign, bunny, speckled eggs, pink bowl and silver mint julep cup are all HomeSense finds. The glittery eggs in the mint julep cup are from Dollarama – they come on skewers and are typically used for wreaths and other crafts, but I love throwing some loose ones in a cup for a fun little touch. I also put out my vintage crystal candy dish, and tossed some chocolate eggs in there for hungry Easter bunnies.

Tania and I both love to entertain, whether we’re hosting a large group for a pizza and wine night, or just having a couple of people over for dinner or brunch. One of my favourite things to do is set a beautiful table, and holidays provide a great excuse to do so! Last year – when I was still living in my Toronto condo – I had Tania and my parents over for Easter brunch, and I had so much fun putting the table together. I started with this adorable blue and white spring tablecloth that I got from HomeSense (classic blue and white is my favourite colour combination…it never goes out of style!) As a centerpiece, I placed some blue hydrangeas in a vintage ginger jar – a fabulous find I snagged at the Aberfoyle Antique Market. The pink linen napkins are hand-me-downs from my mom, the blue stemware is from Tania’s mom, the wicker napkin rings are from HomeSense, and my plates are Roscher bone china, also from HomeSense (seriously… what would we ever do without moms and HomeSense!?)

The bird’s nest “place cards” were my favourite part of this table setting. I dyed hard-boiled eggs using blue food colouring, and wrote everyone’s names on them with a gold Sharpie. Then I placed them inside blue ramekins filled with preserved moss I picked up from Dollarama.

If you’re looking for another fun Easter egg craft, why not try DIY marbled indigo eggs? I made these a couple of years ago using this tutorial and couldn’t believe how pretty they turned out, and how easy they were to make… would you believe the secret ingredient is blue nail polish?? (Just don’t eat them -these eggs are for the eyes only!)

Last but not least… I couldn’t do an Easter post without talking about food! If there’s a time and a place for cute desserts, it’s definitely this time of year. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to Easter-ify any dessert of your choice: just add Mini Eggs! These Funfetti Sugar Cookies from recipe blog A Classic Twist are always a huge hit. They’re made with rainbow sprinkles, rolled in shredded coconut and topped with Mini Eggs. If you love soft, cake-like cookies, you will LOVE these.

Another one of my favourite Easter desserts is coconut cupcakes, topped with – you guessed it – Mini Eggs! (I swear, Cadbury doesn’t sponsor this blog – I just really, really like Mini Eggs.) You can make your own coconut cupcakes – I haven’t tried this recipe yet so I can’t personally vouch for it, but The Preppy Kitchen has never done me wrong. But you can also take the easy route (like me) and use a box mix. The toppings are the real star of this dessert anyways!

This year, Tania and I are having my parents over for breakfast the Saturday of Easter weekend, and the menu will be super simple and casual – but yummy! I’ll be making blueberry baked oatmeal (always a crowd-pleaser) served with a fresh fruit salad and buttermilk biscuits – I prep these ahead in large batches and freeze them, so that they’re easy to pull out and bake whenever needed. Homemade biscuits can’t be beat, but making them from scratch can be messy and time-consuming, so I prefer to do it this way. The less time I can spend in the kitchen “the day of”, the better. And of course, the real main dish of any Easter meal always ends up being chocolate – and we have more than enough of that to go around!

If you’ve made it to the end of this post, thanks for sticking around – I hope that it’s given you some fun ideas for your own Easter celebrations! How are you planning on celebrating the holiday this year? Do you have any favourite traditions? I’d love to hear them!