Over commercialisation has turned Easter into a problem for many Eco friendly parents with every supermarket you walk into presenting you with an endless array of Easter chocolate & sweets that are too tempting a treat for little ones, but did you know over 3000 tons of Easter Egg packaging will be making its way to landfills & recycling facilities these Easter holidays, all of this discarded from the 8 million Easter Eggs we eat every year in just the U.K. alone, and with each egg being excessively packaged (on average only 38% of an Easter egg box (by volume) is taken up by the chocolate itself) that makes for a pretty wasteful Easter.
So how can we celebrate Easter in a more sustainable way... heres our 6 top tips to celebrate an eggcellent Eco-friendly (& less wasteful) Easter that's fun for the whole family.
1. Organic Easter Decor - Instead of all the plastic decor think 'organic' and head out into the garden, Daffodils, Easter Lilles, Snowdrops, Crocuses, Pansies or Tulips will all make a great table centrepiece with the colours of Spring and children will love taking part in helping to collect and arrange the flowers.
2. Egg Dying - Dyeing Easter Eggs with natural dyes will not only get you some beautiful coloured eggs you can use in your Easter decorations but is a fun activity you can do with your kids.
You can use Red Cabbage, Beetroot, Red Onion, Blueberries & Spinach to name a few, just add a litre of water and 2 tablespoons white vinegar to a large pan and let boil add your fruit or veg of choice and simmer for 30mins, let cool then strain your mixture and add your eggs, the longer you leave the eggs in the more vibrant the colour. When you're happy with the colour, take them out, dry with a towel & enjoy.
A Dozen Bird Eggs in a Basket
3. Sustainable Gift Giving - Fill the Easter basket with gifts that will last longer than just the holidays and that keep little ones entertained longer than 10mins. Plastic-free, sustainable and built to be passed down the family gathering memories & character along the way these beautiful sustainable beech wood bunnies & ducks will surely entertain over the Easter Holidays & a whole lot longer.
4. Ditch the chocolate - I audibly heard your gasps as you read this, but store-bought choc comes with a heavy price - child labour, with journalists in recent years exposing & highlighting this widespread issue on cocoa farms in Western Africa with a tonne of wasteful packaging and the addition of additives & colourings sure to send your child on a week-long sugar rush, but if you feel it's just not Easter without a choccy egg then choose your chocolate carefully, buy fair trade, organic or local or even better yet make your own, not only to curb a sweet tooth but to hand out as little gifts from the head bunny himself!
5. Plant some bulbs - Head out into the garden to plant some bulbs, perfect for keeping little ones entertained over the holidays but also a great way to symbolize renewal & rebirth. Find some beautiful Easter flowers below & their meanings:
White Easter Lilies - symbolic of purity, virtue, innocence, hope and life. The Easter lily is also the symbol of the Virgin Mary.
Iris - symbolise faith, wisdom, hope, valour & royalty.
Daffodil - symbolic of happiness, hope, rebirth, new beginnings and eternal life. Also known as “Lent lilies” because of their association with Lent.
6. Meat-free Sunday Dinner - not only are veggie options more sustainable, help slow climate change and conserve precious natural resources but they take way, way less time to cook so theirs more time to get the kids involved in the Easter celebrations by letting them help decorate the table or take part in making a 'mushroom sage & onion wellington with a savoury fig & walnut stuffing' sounds yum right head over to Meat-Free Mondays site for this recipe and more - HERE.
“Try it, you might like it … and the planet definitely will appreciate it.” -
Woody Harrelson
All of these beautiful items are available to buy now on the Blue Brontide site just click on the link below...