If you are trying to lighten your carbon footprint, you may want to consider these earth friendly Easter ideas! As I browse through retail stores in my area I am inundated with Easter paraphernalia. Plastic eggs, brightly colored candy, and even fuzzy bunny costumes for dogs. Yes, I really see things to dress up your dog like a rabbit. Instead of trying to find ways to get my dog to keep rabbit ears on her head, I am trying to figure out ways to have a more eco friendly Easter and I thought I would share a few green tips with you.
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Eco Friendly Easter Ideas
With the commercialism of Easter, we sometimes forget what we are really celebrating. Whether you are Christian and celebrate the rebirth of Jesus or just choose to celebrate Easter to help ring in spring, we should all take a step back and remember that MORE is not always better. Here are a few ways that I have come up with to have a more eco friendly Easter this year.
For a Sustainable Easter, Skip the Plastic
For a green Easter celebration, skip the plastic grass and brightly colored plastic baskets and instead choose a more natural look. There are a number of beautiful baskets made of twigs and wood that can be filled with shredded Easter paper that has been dyed with natural inks. Many craft stores carry both of these items so this is one eco friendly Easter idea that should be pretty easy to do.
Learn how to blow out an egg and decoupage natural eggs for a centerpiece. Or, learn to dye Easter eggs with natural dyes from beets, coffee or cabbage. Here are a few other eco friendly Easter basket ideas to consider this year:
5 Eco Friendly Easter Ideas at a Glance
- Basket Grass: Shredded Easter paper
- Eggs: Reuse plastic eggs year after year or buy plastic Easter eggs made from recycled materials.
- Candy: You can try making your own homemade candy or buy fair trade and/or organic chocolate bunnies
- Gifts: Choose mindful gifts and green toys that you know will get used. Skip the cheap plastic junk that will just get thrown away in a week. Recycle gift cards that they may receive to keep that plastic out of the trash.
- Baskets: Use a natural wicker or metal Easter basket instead of plastic.
Choose Earth Friendly Easter Candy
Instead of indulging your kids in every candy known to man, pick a few things that you know they will really like. Spend a little extra to buy natural varieties that contain no artificial colors or flavors.
You don’t have to give up ALL the classics. My kids (and husband!) get a box of Peeps in their basket every year. Yes, those brightly colored marshmallow treats in cute shapes are a HUGE hit in my family. Buy a few of their favorites and fill in the rest with organic varieties for a more eco friendly Easter!
If you are looking for earth friendly Easter ideas, look for organic, fair trade, or artisan chocolates. They usually have a smaller carbon footprint than traditional mass produced candies.
Buy a Second Hand Easter Outfit:
Easter is one of those holidays that often requires getting dressed up and going to church. My kids will wear jeans to church on a regular Sunday but for Easter, it is fancy dresses and a tie for the boy. Yes, he HATES that!
Eco friendly fashion doesn’t have to be expensive. There are many beautiful Easter outfits to be found secondhand for a fancy event. Not only is buying second hand more eco friendly, it is a good way to save money. I hate spending a fortune on a fancy outfit my child will only wear once. So, save your wallet and have a more earth friendly Easter by buying your fancy threads second hand.
Have a Smarter Easter Egg Hunt:
Many years ago I collected about 150 plastic Easter eggs and have been reusing them ever since. No sense throwing away perfectly good eggs, whether they are plastic or not. I have an Easter egg hunt for my kids every year in the backyard. It has come to be one of our favorite Easter traditions.
Instead of filling the eggs with candy and plastic toys, I fill them with money. You can put nickles, dimes and quarters in there or even a few with dollars depending on your financial situation. Then, when the kids have gathered all the money they get to go to the store and pick out one or two nice things.
Instead of filling the eggs with plastic trinkets that will end up in the trash, they can pick out a book, game, or toy that they have really been wanting.
Reconsider Your Easter feast:
One of the most popular Easter dinner ideas includes ham. Unless you are buying from a local farmer or a store like Whole Foods that offers sustainably raised meats you may want to rethink your ham dinner.
Buy organic or locally raised produce whenever possible and challenge yourself to bake from scratch. Pies, cakes and hot cross buns not only taste better when made from scratch but also have a much smaller carbon footprint than store bought items do. You can throw an eco friendly party for friends and family just by being mindful of the foods you eat.
There are a lot of ways that we can create a more eco friendly Easter if we plan ahead and consider our purchases carefully. Do you have any other suggestions you would like to share?
Diane is a professional blogger and nationally certified pharmacy technician at Good Pill Pharmacy. She earned her BS in Microbiology at the University of New Hampshire and has worked in cancer research, academics, and biotechnology. Concern over the growing incidence of human disease and the birth of her children led her to begin living a more natural life. She quickly realized that the information she was learning along the way could be beneficial to many others and started blogging and freelance writing to share this knowledge with others. Learn more about her HERE.
Great suggestions. We try to stay way from the plastic stuff as often as we can. Honestly, who needs more plastic eggs, wind up toys that will break, or nic nacs to require dusting? I don’t!
Great tips! We got a canvas easter basket tote for my son that is awesome and can be reused. I’m excited about that!
Great ideas! Way to keep away from more plastic!
That’s a good idea to reuse the plastic Easter eggs. You can still recover them months later if they don’t get found. Real eggs are not as pleasant to deal with down the road!
Thanks for the tips. We have always reused our plastic eggs. Also I have already used shreaded colored paper as Easter grass for baskets, much easier to recycle than that plastic Easter grass.
I love your ideas and share many of the same ideals. We are big on hand me downs here, we agree that there is no need to wear a special fancy dress only once or twice. we love the tradition of seeing all the girls in the family in the same dresses etc.
We got my daughter’s dress from her cousin and after us it will go to a smaller cousin. Gotta love those handmedowns!