After a long, cold winter, few things bring more joy than an outdoor Easter egg hunt and stuffing yourself silly with honey ham and deviled eggs, surrounded by family and friends. We live in unique times where sometimes traveling to visit family – even if it’s just across town – isn’t always possible. Being so close, yet so far, during the Easter season can be especially disheartening. The great thing is that even if you can’t head out to Grandma and Grandpa’s to celebrate this year, there are still plenty of ways to spend the holiday with your family long distance. Here are our five top picks:
(Pixabay / JillWellington)
1. Mail an Easter Care Package
A relatively easy way to celebrate Easter with long-distance loved ones is to send an Easter care package in the mail. This small box could include plastic eggs filled with jelly beans, Peeps, chocolate bunnies, Cadbury crème eggs, and other specialty Easter candy. If you find yourself running behind this year, you could also overnight one of our delicious Easter cookie gifts.
Sometimes dietary restrictions don’t allow you to send tasty treats in the mail, but there are other fun things to send. Painted Easter egg salt dough ornaments can add some festive flair to your loved one’s home – especially if you leave a little hole at the top so they can hang up the eggs. Additionally, taking the time to actually write down beloved family recipes and share them with your loved ones (instead of relying on “a pinch of this and a dash of that”) can mean a lot to people celebrating far from home.
2. Host a Virtual Event
Technology has certainly stepped up its game over the last few years, which makes hosting a virtual event easier than ever. Make it a formally organized event, and send physical (or digital) invitations inviting everyone to the festivities. It can also be fun to coordinate a menu and have each household make some or all of the same foods for the Easter feast. Additionally, you might want to take some time before the party to create an Easter playlist on Spotify and share it with your family members.
As part of the fun and games portion, you could play Easter trivia or use Zoom to have all of the kids decorate and hunt for Easter eggs. If your kids are old enough, you could even have them take the phone around with them as they search for the eggs.
3. Surprise a College Student
College students notoriously struggle to eat good food and purchase healthy ingredients. If someone you love is in school, consider sending an Easter care package for college students. You can include healthy, non-perishable foods in the box and a little bit of cash to buy the perishable ingredients so that your student can make some of your favorite family recipes. Homemade treats like cookies or Rice Krispie Treat bunnies are also sure to bring a smile to your student’s face. You can also include an Easter basket in the mail (more on that below).
4. Make an Easter Basket
Colorful Easter baskets are a fun thing to both give and receive at Easter time. You can either plan to send a basket in the mail or ding-dong-ditch one at your loved one’s house so that everyone stays safe and socially distant. Besides the brightly-colored fake grass, you can include homemade treats and decorations, Easter puzzles and games, and handmade flower crowns. Don’t forget to throw some treasured family recipes into the mix.
5. Do Service
Sometimes the best way that you can celebrate the Easter season with long-distance relatives is to do service and share the experience with each other. Why not set up a service challenge for your extended family and encourage everybody to post their good deeds on the family group chat to inspire each other? Ideas include
- Making a donation to a food pantry
- Decorating people’s front sidewalk with chalk
- Sending treats in the mail to soldiers
- Taping paper eggs to people’s door with things you love about them written on the eggs
- Doing yardwork for your neighbors
- Donating toys and supplies to a local foster home or women’s shelter
Consider making this a family Easter tradition, and share your experiences over a Zoom Easter dinner. Doing service for other people has a way of making everyone feel happier and more festive – no matter their current circumstances.
Spending the holidays far from family is the pits, but with the right attitude and a little bit of ingenuity, you can still make this Easter as memorable as Easters in the past. Try hosting a virtual event and send out invitations, treats, or other Easter goodies in advance so that everyone has the things they need to celebrate the big day together.