Traditionally, Easter is a Northern Hemisphere spring festival based on Christian faith and Pagan origins and so celebrates springtime signs of rebirth and bunnies and chicks. But here in the Southern Hemisphere we are moving through Autumn – and Easter is when leaves are falling, it is when we harvest, when the cooler weather sets in, and when tuning into the darkening season can bring a special kind of magic to our lives and a feeling of connection to our environment.

The shop shelves are heavy with chocolates of all kinds, wrapped in all kinds of packaging and from all kinds of places around the world. In our family, my kids of course notice, and anticipate a chocolate egg hunt. For this, we try and buy chocolate from NZ based businesses and minimal packaging.

It takes more effort to create with our tamariki, rather than simply buy chocolate and gifts, and in our busy lives, I do see the appeal. But, it also can feel wasteful or as hollow as the chocolate eggs, and I’m always up for creating some opportunities to try and connect with our tamariki and communities, in a slow, seasonally aligned and more meaningful way.

While chocolate and eggs still feature, here is a list of a few nature based ideas for inspiration that you might find are more in keeping with Easter in our Autumn season:

• Autumn Easter tea party

  I have to wonder if you ever grow too old for tea parties? There are many components to setting one up and can be a nice way to connect with any seasonal celebration. We start with a short hikoi / walk in which my girl enjoys collecting Autumn nature treasures to decorate the table, and my boy enjoys collecting herbs for making tea / potions. Then together we make simple food – often buns, scrolls, or hotcakes, or go for some Easter themed baking with an Easter Tea Ring or Hot Cross Buns – that we share with all this abundant seasonal fruit, and some jam or honey.
  This is a nice way to share Easter with grandparents, friends or playgroups too.
  Check out this download to combine your walk with an Autumn nature hunt.

• Autumn Easter Hunt

  Treasure hunts of any kind excite my tamariki. I love that it encourages them to be outside, as what they notice as we walk is always very cool. We have refillable plastic eggs that contain a mix of chocolate treats and necessities such as hair-ties or clips. They are hidden down through the bush track and through the garden. Their early morning excitement gets us all out and moving, noticing dew on the grass, and how the spiderwebs glisten. We pick feijoas and guavas as we go too, deliciously chilled by the overnight temperatures.

• Autumn Easter Fondue

  A twist on the Easter chocolate theme – make the most of the bountiful, seasonal Autumn fruits with an Easter chocolate fondue.
  Autumn fruits + dipped in melted chocolate + time together with family or friends.
  Follow with a walk somewhere wild and beautiful to burn off that sugary energy!

• Autumn Easter Art

  As a thank you for an Easter parcel, the kids made some egg shaped watercolour art for the grandparents. It was a simple activity but they got much enjoyment from making. We drew some egg shapes on watercolour paper and the tamariki drew patterns with a white crayon. We dunked the paper in a tub of water so it was thoroughly wet, then placed onto a perspex art board, removing excess water. Using watercolour, they painted their art and watched the magic – wet-on-wet watercolour painting allows the colours to dance and bleed into each other, and there was added magic with watching the white crayon decorations appear before their eyes. This type of gift can also be recycled afterward rather than ending up in the landfill – something we always consider! You could do the same with leaf rubbings within the Easter egg shape, again creating connection between festival and season.

• Kōrero about seasons, celebrations and faith

  We encourage a deeper understanding of this celebration and talk about the origins, watching video clips and getting books from the library. It brings in multifaceted learning, geographic, cultural, historic, language, and science as discussing the seasons can be noticing our immediate environment, or can take us deep into space!
  This Easter we are looking  through this book and talking about seasonal celebrations from around the world: What do you celebrate?

• Autumn Easter Nature Table

  A nature table is often used in Early Childhood Centres as a way to visibly display seasonal treasures and encourage observations around seasons and festivals. It is also simple to setup a nature space in our homes – on a shelf or table or windowsill – and a lovely active way to incorporate natures findings into our lives, which  dynamically change as the season does. Beautiful spaces like this even benefit us as adults! We return the treasures to Papatūānuku / Mother Earth following their use.
  Incorporate Easter themed decorations such as art, painted wooden eggs, alongside books and foraged Autumn treasures to invoke the curiosity of tamariki and aid a deeper connection with with our environment and seasons.

• Dyeing Easter Eggs

  Dyeing eggs is a tradition that casts back thousands of years. Traditionally done in spring; flowers and plants are pressed against eggs, which are then wrapped in cotton squares and tied with string before dyeing. Easter in Autumn provides different plants for use, so as well as seeking out small Autumn leaves, we’ll use some of the abundant fern fronds and tānekaha leaves from the forest floor for our pattern making. Using plant based natural dyes such as onion skins, tumeric, red cabbage and beetroot dyes. there was a great deal of excitement from the kids, as we researched, collected and observed the results. We boiled them in their dyes and ate them for lunch. “Can we do this every year?” they asked.
  Yes, I think we’ll have to try – especially to and see if we can get the vibrant turquoise that comes from dyeing with red cabbage.

• Visiting Elders

  A couple of years back I had organised for our pre-school Playcentre kids to visit the local rest home. We took along chocolate eggs and the elders helped the tamariki search for them on a simple egg hunt. We shared morning tea together and took along some some simple crafts to do also, making bunny ears out of paper plates. It was lovely to see how the elders and young ones interacted, drawing together and wearing their creations as well as smiles. Such a special connection that happens between these ages. It is a bit tricky in today’s times to create this opportunity, but if things allow in future, we will visit again.
  This year kids have been learning from home and so writing exercises became hand written letters, with drawings and some photos to post down to 91yo Great Nana. A stamped, self addressed envelope was included too so she can write back and keep the kōrero going. It’s nice to receive mail! Especially when no one writes anymore.

• Family Movie Time

  There is a movie for every celebration and Easter is no different. We are selective about when or what the kids watch during the week, so making it an ‘event’ for a family movie night, is something they look forward to. Setting up is half the fun, so they get busy preparing – this sometimes involves them turning a room into a movie theater, or it could be a simple snuggle together on the couch as the nights grow cooler. They adore this time together with parents and popcorn.

• Dance Party

  Not related to Easter so far as I know, BUT my 8yo considers himself our resident family DJ, and so EVERY celebration is considered an opportunity for a family dance party, disco lights and subwoofer included. And why not?

What do Autumn Easter celebrations look like in your home?