To think it’s easter not christmas?

Easy way to sort that out.

Cook up some rabbit for lunch and when done, ask them if they “enjoyed the Easter bunny”. Will be the last year you have to do the madness again.

This is lovely.

We focus on the stuff that is meaningful for us which is the spring based stuff so for us easter is:

• a walk out in the woods
• a modest amount of easter eggs
• daffodils/spring flowers on the table
• roast lamb

And generally lots of spring vibes, we often go to the garden centre and choose seeds/plants etc on Easter weekend

I did buy mine one of those stupid surprise eggs each (Fairycorn and a car one) because they get so much chocolate from family that I didn't want to add to it.

We used to get a chocolate egg when I was a kid. We also got an outfit for mass, but that wasn't a gift, as such. We'd go shopping with mum a couple of weeks before Easter and have to try on all the outfits she liked. We didn't actually have much say in what we got! It would then hang in our room until Easter Sunday, when we'd wear it to mass, and then we'd wear the same thing to mass every Sunday until we either outgrew it or got a new Sunday outfit at Christmas. If the Easter Sunday best still fit, it was downgraded to everyday wear. If not, it was passed down to someone else in the family (I was the only girl in our house, so my stuff was passed to cousins). This was in the 90s.

It's very much a Catholic thing to celebrate Easter . But we also commemorated Lent . So for the whole time we did observe a form of fasting and fish on Fridays and encouraged to give up things like alcohol , smoking and for children sweets. So Easter was traditionally the breaking of that deprivation and chocolate eggs were to be looked forward to. And were placed on a basket.
From Holy Thursday ,Good Friday the tone was somber as if in mourning. Easter Sunday Mass was a joyful day to celebrate the risen Christ and bright new clothing was worn to church that day . Hence Easter bonnet as women used to wear hats or covering to church.

Now if course , chocolate and treats are so easily available that I think the ante had to be risen . Social media has a lot to answer for . And the availability of Easter decorations in shops etc.

The reason there are now so many opportunities to be parted from your money is that people are willing to be parted from their money. If all families declined to participate how long would these new 'traditions' last? No point complaining if you're a part of the the problem.

I'm afraid if you plaster photos of your family on social media then you are inviting judgement, good and bad. You cannot have it both ways. I prefer to keep my children's lives private out of respect for their privacy.

When they are adults they can choose to post photos of themselves on the internet. That is not my right to make that choice for them just to get attention.

Absolutely. Other mums from school posting mountains of chocolate eggs for their kids, new outfits, balloon arches. I think I've gone mad.

My two had a fight about finding the plastic eggs I hid in the garden and got one small egg each. We've only just finished the chocolate from Christmas so the last thing we need is even more of it.

I don't recall special clothes for Easter but on the North West we had new clothes for Walking Day a bit later in the year. Each Church would join in a procession with their banner, Mothers' Union, possibly a brass band and the children of the Sunday school in their Sunday best. It was held on Whit Monday I think for the CE churches and on the Friday for the Catholic churches, we liked it because friends, neighbours, family would dash out of the crowd to give you money, usually a 6d piece or a shilling if you were very lucky!

But you could just focus on your own child instead of spending time looking for people to judge on social media?

I’m 64. Always got a new outfit for Easter and a book or two as well as eggs.

I agree! My DD’s school have shown them a video and told them the Easter bunny comes and does an Easter egg hunt for you. DP bought some small wrapped eggs and has gone off to work leaving me to do it all.

The problem is that it becomes competitive, children look down on others who don't get all the presents, or if they're on the "losing" side they feel inferior or as if their parents have let them down. And the reality is that all we are doing is falling for a commercial initiative, it doesn't make Easter any more special.

I suspect people who throw money at Easter presents will be out moaning about the cost of fuel next week, because it never occurred to them to reign in the spending a bit.

I think it's one of the pitfalls of modern life. Almost everything has become commodified! Suddenly there are holiday themed pyjamas, blankets, snack holders, drinking cups etc and then we find ourselves putting it all online 😀

My MIL and SIL bought my children a gift bag of eggs and clothes and toys all wrapped up like it was Christmas. I was like why?! None of us are religious and never done Easter presents before. Also just had birthday and Christmas recently so don't even need anything new!

So if people are treating it like a second Christmas, I guess it means I can spend the day getting pissed.

Sign me up.

In my 60's now, and what this is showing me isn't particularly this one festival getting more consumerist but the proliferation of occasions where Children get given gifts.

In the 60's & 70's, there was Christmas with gifts from the wider family, birthdays with gifts from close family, and Easter with eggs & spring related things like chicks & bunnies from parents and maybe anyone you were visiting or were visiting you.

Now there seems to be more and more occasions - XMas eve boxes, Christmas stockings that have more in them than we used to get for under the tree gifts as well as them getting big gifts, Easter gifts, birthdays much bigger than they used to be, this "Boo box" thing (first I've heard of it). As a pp said, Valentine's Day used to be a card, flowers and a meal out, Advent Calendars were paper and card with nothing behind the doors except a picture.

I can understand parents wanting to give their children nice gifts, but this is getting to the stage where there seems to be an entitlement that children get gifts at any excuse rather than being taught any form of constraint.

It was always a good time to replace any damaged outdoor toys or get any that they needed. So they did get eggs plus usually a new bat and back, something for the sandpit etc..

Because the focus of the moment you're plastering all over Insta isn't your child, it's attention. That's quite sad really.

“It is (&was) pagan befire the Christian's hijacked it.”

Bingo! Mumsnet never fails to deliver, and has really excelled itself this year which the usual rhetoric.

As a religious Christian festival Easter has always existed for 2000 years .
It's the commercial aspect that has changed.

I mean, I've done an egg hunt but haven't posted anything on socials. So you're wrong.

I agree.

You can always tell when people do things just for show because they plaster it all over SM.

Why would anyone feel the need to post a photo of their child with all of their Easter gifts. If it’s posed with multiple gifts, then you know it’s purely to try and impress people on the internet - why not a photo of them eating a bit of chocolate or just playing naturally.

This. It would never have even existed.

@backagainohdear I'm not religious but was.
In the church , Easter is of more significance than Christmas, It shows Jesus rose from the dead and gave everyone the promise of everlasting life.
The story of his death and the rise from the dead is considered more important than his birth.

It was never meant to be commercialised but of course the consumer society has made it that.

Years ago, all anyone got was hand decorated hard boiled egg. If that.