With spring comes Easter, a Christian holiday celebrated on a Sunday in early spring. It’s a time for families to gather and celebrate, after their Church services. The celebration generally includes a traditional meal of ham, yams, rolls, and fruit salad, followed by an Easter egg hunt for the children in the family and games of some sort for the adults.

The Setting:

-Decorate with light colors or pastels: pinks, blues, yellows, greens, and light purples.
-Construct a centerpiece of fresh tulips and daffodils in several small vases, varying in size.
-Fill small pastel baskets with miniature chocolate eggs or coins for a sweet take home treat for your guests and place between vases, to add to centerpiece, if desired.
-Drape pastel streamers across chairs, window frames, and even doorways to brighten up the party area

The Activities:
-Weather permitting; hide plastic Easter eggs filled with coins and chocolate candy outdoors for children to discover.
-Engage the adults at the party by playing yard games such as croquet, volleyball, horseshoes, badminton, or corn-hole.

The Food:
Most Easter dinners consist of more tradition foods, but feel free to prepare anything your family loves for your party.

-Ham
-Yams/Sweet Potatoes
-Rolls
-Spring greens salad
-Sugar snap peas
-Baby carrots
-Fruit salad with colorful mini-marshmallows

Egg Hunt Tips:
-When hiding Easter eggs, also try a few small toys and individually wrapped candies (chocolate bunnies, etc) to add more excitement to the hunt.
-If you will be hiding hard boiled eggs, make a note of how many you hide as well as the general location they’re in so you won’t have an unpleasant surprise waiting for you in June!
-If the weather does not permit an outdoor egg hunt, simply move the party inside, or wait until the day of the party to dye eggs. Glitter glue, paint pens, and small craft items like pipe cleaners and rickrack add a new dimension to decorating.

The Cake:
No Easter party is complete without a festive cake! Here’s a very simple recipe that is always a crowd pleaser:

2 boxes strawberry cake mix (use 1 box for a single layer cake)
2 cans white icing-any flavor
1 pkg shaved coconut
Green food coloring
Marshmallow bunnies or chicks
Jellybeans
12” round cake pan (or any size you’d like to use)

Bake cakes according to package directions: cool

Place bottom layer cake onto pedestal or serving dish and ice the top only with white icing. When finished, placed top layer on top of icing.

Ice entire cake with white icing and set aside.

In a bowl, combine coconut shavings and 1-2 drops of food coloring. Mix, adding more coloring if desired until grass-green color is achieved. Sprinkle over top of cake.

Decorate with marshmallow bunnies/chicks and jellybeans.