Being the Easter Bunny for the First Time

So your first child isn’t a baby anymore and you’re going to have to convince her that the Easter Bunny has hopped into your home, left a basketful of chocolate goodies and hidden a horde of dazzling colored Easter eggs around your house. As a new parent, how are you going to pull off this important holiday for your child? Here are a few hints for making sure your little one will believe in the magic of the Easter Bunny for years to come:

You don’t have to wear a bunny costume

The good news is that you don’t have to make a complete fool of yourself to create the illusion of the Easter bunny for your little prince or princess. You just have to have a little more energy than your child does for a couple of days while you prepare the following things:

• Colored eggs – no Easter is complete without them. The hard-boiled variety are not only fun to color, but are genuinely healthier than any chocolate treat you can muster up, so coloring your own batch is a great place to start. Boil the eggs on Thursday night and tuck them into the back of the refrigerator so they are ready to color on Friday; then they’ll be completely dry and ready to place into baskets on Saturday night.

• The basket – you can make your own, paint a basket you have around the house, or buy one. The best way to make your child believe in the bunny is to add a few home-made treats that only the bunny could have made. During the week before Easter, spend a night making some Chocolate Bunny Pops or easy Hollow Chocolate Eggs that you can add to your baby’s basket alongside a few little toys, and your toddler will be amazed.

• The hunt – so the last time you were involved in an egg hunt you were the one finding the eggs? As long as you remember the complete joy you felt when you discovered another of the Easter Bunny’s treats you’ll be alright. This is probably the most exciting part of playing the Easter bunny. If the climate in your area is particularly hot or humid, you may want to wake up early to hide the eggs instead of hiding them on Saturday night. If you are hiding eggs outside be sure to use tightly closing plastic eggs or well-wrapped treats.