To not do the Easter Bunny?

[Supermagicsmile]

All the mums in DD's class seem to be doing it in a big way. They were talking about it at a party at the weekend and now I feel really guilty that we've never done it.
Dd is old enough to ask so I also feel bad as I don't have an explanation for why when she inevitably asks why she didn't get a visit from the Easter Bunny when everyone else did.
What would you say? Would you cave and just do it so she's not left out? I don't have any real opposition, just never grew up with it so haven't done it for mine either.

We don't bother. Can't say my kids feel they missed out!

We are having a few friends over for lunch and I will do a chocolate egg hunt for the little children. And some of the older teens. And a few adults want to play.

I won’t be dressed as a bunny though. Have I failed as an Easter Host?

TittyGolightly
DD is 7. There are 4 eggs here left from the last 2 years. I’m not buying her any more till they’ve gone!

How on earth has chocolate managed to survive longer than a day in your house? I'm impressed.

I think the presents thing started for us when the dc were too young for chocolate. So we bought a little outfit. Then second babies came along and there was the pressure to make it 'fair'. Last year dd2 was three months old and got 8 white chocolate eggs from family. Lots of comments like 'I know she can't eat them but I couldn't leave her out'. Except from mil who was adamant she'd be fine with a tiny bit! Obviously, DH ate them all. Easter is very commercial. I'm not religious at all but I do think it has gone a bit mad. I blame social media - the pressure to buy everything to 'make memories'. I'm not judging anyone btw- I'm as guilty as the next for succumbing to it, even though I don't post much on SM, I am still heavily guilted/influenced by it.

We never did the easter bunny. Eggs came from whoever they came from.

Although mine get tend to book tokens or vouchers because DH's family is absolutely massive and they are all kindly very generous which meant one year the 3 girls (my 2 and Dsd) got 25 eggs each. It was the same with selection boxes at Christmas - we still had a bag full of sweets left from Christmas at Easter that yet. So DH's aunt suggested they do £1 or £2 voucher instead then the girls could buy eggs if they wanted one or something else (apparently not giving anything wasn't an option despite my suggestion!)

How on earth has chocolate managed to survive longer than a day in your house? I'm impressed.

I know. It’s bizarre. DD loves chocolate, but apparently not if it’s egg shaped! 🤔

I am an Aussie and I have never met anybody who does not do the easter bunny

Same, and same!

The Easter Bunny comes in the night and then on Easter Sunday morning you go out and hunt for eggs with your siblings/cousins. Usually in the back yard, but if you’re staying at the beach for Easter, he has been known to hide them in the sand dunes.

I’m in my 40s, and it’s been thus ever since I was a child. Certainly not new or trendy here!

None of my friends "do" the easter bunny.

The bunny is a symbol, may appear on packaging, stories etc, but not as a chocolate egg giver- and certainly no nest.

A German here. In Germany the Easter Bunny hides eggs in the house or garden and the children search. Large eggs are presents for adults, children get bunnies, chicks and little eggs and have a basket.

When DD was small she got a gift and 3-4 really small eggs as my mum tends to go overboard. When she was older we went to National Trust Easter egg hunts but for us they are just not the same.

I have done little tea parties for friends, did some craft and hid some eggs for them to find.

Now I. The mature age of 10 DD still gets a gift and still hunts for chocolate on Sunday morning. I wouldn’t miss it in the world.

I have adult kids but I did for them what was done for me by my Grandparents when I was small.
The Easter Bunny used to deliver the Easter Eggs (from family - no eggs from the bunny). It was just like a delivery service.
I used to put the eggs on the dining table just before I went to bed for the kids to find in the morning.
Zero effort really.
Some years they might have 3 or 4 eggs each other years just 1egg. Depending on if any relatives had dropped eggs off before Easter or not. Sometimes they would give them to the kids themselves if we were seeing them over Easter.

The Easter Bunny was a magical and mysterious figure to me in my childhood. Although it was mentioned there was no imagery and what it looked like always remained a mystery. Still does

The Easter Rabbit/Bunny is apparently an ancient tradition (so I was told by my nana as a child) and something she experienced as a child too. Anyone that "does" the Easter Bunny thing tends to do it their own way. It's alot looser in what to do and expectation than say Father Christmas.

Easter is/was fairly low key in our home. The Easter Bunny was just another childhood mythical magical being. A bit like Tooth Fairy and Jack Frost. I did used to make sure my kids understood the meaning behind eggs at Easter though.

My adult/late teens are home for Easter this year. I will joke and say "wonder if the Easter Bunny will come tonight?" As a light hearted tradition thing. I will put out their one egg each on the dining table for then to find when they get up the next day too.

We have never done the ‘Easter bunny’, we have Easter egg but not delivered by a bunny (they are bought and gifted by me), do kids actually beleive that a giant fluffy bunny brings them eggs? It’s more insane than Father Christmas (at least he’s human).

Never had the Easter bunny when I was growing up either, if we did I would have probably found it really funny and unbelievable. We always got gifted eggs by family.

We've never done the Easter Bunny as a real thing either. I used to hide foil jostled eggs in the garden but the kids knew I had hidden them and would often then have fun rehiring them and making me search. When they were small it was quite cute as they'd just rehide the eggs in exactly the same places. No idea how rabbits got involved in the Easter thing

Easter eggs have always been gifts from people for us. We do an egg hunt, set up by people.

I did have a lovely book as a child about the Easter Bunny bunnies, there was more than one) delivering eggs to children. I enjoyed the story but didn't think the bunny was 'real like Santa'.

The Easter Bunny is a hare - which are native to Britain and Europe - and hares getting horny, as well as eggs, are symbol of fertility, new life and Spring and have been for millennia. We all know that, surely?

Just think about the similarity between the pagan goddess name Ostara / Eostre, oestrus and Easter.

A quick click on Wikipedia tells me 'Ēostre is attested solely by Bede in his 8th-century work The Reckoning of Time, where Bede states that during Ēosturmōnaþ (the equivalent of April), pagan Anglo-Saxons had held feasts in Ēostre's honour, but that this tradition had died out by his time, replaced by the Christian Paschal month, a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.'

So if St Bede says the pagan version came first... are there really present day Christians who'd dispute that?

I did have a strange discussion recently when I referred to the Easter Bunny as 'she' and someone 'corrected' me and claimed he is male. Seemed more likely to me that a symbol of fertility, connected with oestrus and delivering eggs would be female.

No, we don't do it either.

I buy the kids an Easter egg. End of story. No mythical bunny, no egg hunts, no Easter presents/toys/tableware/other shite which the shops push on you.

Suspect a lot of mothers who are "doing" the Easter Bunny in a big way are the same people who leap on board with other shite like elf on the shelf and buy Valentine's cards for their kids.

Just say no people, just say no.

Foil coated not jostled eggs. We also roll decorated hard boiled eggs and jarp them, the bashing them like conkers someone mentioned up thread

When I tried to hide eggs in the garden the bastard squirrel nicked half of them before the kids made it outside. Maybe I could start an Easter Squirrel tradition, be good or the squirrel will steal your chocolate.

Easter egg hunts are fun. I would never have done it if I didn't enjoy it. It was just a quick 5 minute hiding them in the garden though. Some people seem to put loads of effort in to it which is great if you all enjoy it. We didn't do hunts as kids though just egg rolling and jarping.

We do an Easter table. A few days before Easter we cut a twig or two from the garden and the kids help decorate it with decorated eggs, chicks, we might make another decoration or two.
Then I set up the table with a white cloth and the twig and lob small eggs all over it, with a place set for each child with a big egg. Usually lots of daffodils too. It looks really pretty , they look forward to coming down and seeing it, it's always slightly different each year and they know I do it for them. No bunny.

My MIL does the Easter bunny. I hate it and think it’s stupid. I have encouraged some scepticism from my kids.

German ancestry a couple of generations back on both sides of my family, and we did the Easter bunny as children, and my mum & siblings did it as children - so certainly not new in this family. My two are 14 and 12 and still love it! A large egg each (plus anything given by grandparents - unlikely any more but definitely when they were little) a few little Lindt bunnies, and a few bags of small wrapped eggs hidden around the garden. Hunt in your pjs, eat chocolate eggs for breakfast with damp edges to said pjs. What's not to like?

They get giant chocolate eggs. That's enough of a treat.

I'm so surprised it's not more of a thing.

The Easter Bunny would usually visit when we were all at Mass in the morning so you'd come back starving and ready for the hunt!

There are always some of the tiny eggs still unfound a few weeks later that my mum unearths during cleaning. They're a special cleaning gift from the Bunny

Ah well perhaps it is a German thing... oops.

All you have to do is buy an Easter egg and say the Easter bunny bought it. Maybe at a push hide some mini eggs around the house and tell the dc to find them. Its not really much effort doing that.

It’s fun! The hunting is more fun than the actual eggs!