My Minimalist/Zero-Waste Easter Prep…

With only a month until Easter, my mind has brimmed ceaselessly with ideas on how to make an egg hunt that will be creative, exciting, and as memorable as it can be for an almost 2-year-old.

However, as with every holiday, there comes the nagging voice in one’s head that serves to remind how much waste and consumption there are. Does one really need two dozen chocolate and filled plastic eggs scattered everywhere for one’s brood to find? Or little dinky plastic toys to bring a nano-second’s worth of joy? Does one need a myriad of cheap stuffed animals, colourfully proclaiming “Happy Easter!”?

What happens with these items when the holiday is over?

Are they donated? (It is doubtful stores that accept donations will keep these items once they are past the holidays –they usually find their way overseas for destruction, I was once told.) Are they thrown in the rubbish bin? Or do they simply sit on shelves or lie hidden in toy bins, creating clutter and gathering dust?

Then too, is the important question –what am I teaching my child about seeking value, appreciating quality, and being grateful for everything?

I’d like to show them that the grandiose, colourful, shop-shiny spectacles that advertisements and social pressure proclaim to be key to a successful holiday are not at all what makes the occasion.

But still, tradition and a bit of fun definitely have their place, and so off I went to our nearby Dollarama to see if I could find a few items that would be pretty, useful, and bring a bit of this wonderful springtime spirit into one’s home –and backyard.

Here is my “haul”, somewhat based around the “four gift rule”: Something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read.

But, I obviously gave myself a bit more freedom and had a lot more fun. 😉

From Amazon, I got a cute book called “The Bunny Hop“… a cute rhyming story about bunnies mysteriously appearing everywhere on Sesame Street.

Then from Dollarama, I got:

• A nice, thick colouring book by Crayola that seems to be Spring/Easter themed — it’s creative, good fun, quiet and, in my family, what’s Easter without a colouring book? Honestly!!
• Three tin Easter pails. Excessive, you ask? Two will be used for decor (and are secretly for husband and me, mwahahaha, thank you for asking!) The tiny one is for our wee little man, to take with him as he trundles through the grass in our backyard looking for goodies…
  Ideally, I would have wanted to thrift for Easter baskets, but the closest one within walking distance (my only mode of transpo, currently!) is 35 minutes. That’s a bit hard to do when you’ve got baby and nap-times to think about! However, I did get another basket from my local Buy Nothing group. Many thanks to that very generous individual!
• A tin egg (fillable) which I plan to put a few jellybeans and tiny chocolate treats in. I was tempted to get more than one but reminded myself that little man doesn’t need that much chocolate.

Zero-waste win — no plastic! Of course, there will be some plastic packaging when we get some treats for his egg and basket, but I plan on making sure there is a reason for the wrapping, and not just endless layers of cellophane fluff! We will also be keeping our treat buying to a minimum this year, and it will still be a very jolly time!

As for the “grass” for the baskets, I am planning on cutting into strips some of the doodles that our little man and I come up with during drawing sessions, and stuffing the baskets with them.

For Easter eggs, we had bought some of those fake eggs that you can dye last year, and I had family members draw and scribble on those. I’ll be taking them out again this year and displaying them and possibly having additional family members contribute their art.

As well, I will also get a traditional Easter egg kit, and dye some eggs the good ol’ fashioned way. Because I would like our little man to experience that, too!

Also! I found this out after my shopping trip today, but it is too good not to share!

Mercy House Global exists to help rescue girls, empower families, and support their two maternity homes in Kenya.

They currently have a few Easter items in their shop that not only dovetail wonderfully with the minimalist/zero-waste aesthetic, but also were made by women who were previously homeless before they were taken in and given dignified work. Please consider supporting these women, and also such beautiful handiwork!

My favourites are:

• These fill-your-own felt Easter eggs –so unique!

• These robin egg soaps… made by a Congoleese refugee in the USA out of 100% natural ingredients. So beautiful, and their muted, earthy colours are calming to look at.

• Their scrunchie+tie sets. Beautiful colours, made by rescued Kenyan teen mums, they are the perfect hair accessory to go with your Easter dress/outfit!

And that, so far, is all the fun that I have planned for Easter! I still have to think about whether I will spring for an Easter wreath –did you see what I did there?– and other fancy stuff. I will, of course, be looking for metal/wood/paper decor (paper being mostly DIY), and won’t be going too crazy.

After all, Nature already decks the world just right for Easter.