Ideas For A Simple Slow Living Easter Celebration
The arrival of Easter brings with it the gentle transition from winter’s stillness to spring’s renewal. It’s a celebration filled with symbolism—rebirth, new beginnings, and the quiet beauty of nature waking up after months of rest.
But as with all modern holidays, it’s easy to get caught up in the rush of commercialism, losing sight of the deeper meaning that lies beneath the surface. This year, consider embracing Easter through the lens of slow living.
Simple traditions, thoughtful moments, and intentional choices can create a holiday that feels meaningful, rather than hurried. Here are a few ways to slow down and truly savor the simple joys of the holiday.
Dye Easter Eggs Using Food From Your Kitchen
There are far too many beautiful, natural ways to dye Easter eggs to even consider using the artificial dye kits sold in stores at this time of year. Exactly what’s in those kits, anyway?
It’s really not worth the trip down the internet rabbit hole on this subject to find out. The chances that there’s anything in them that is really welcome in a healthy lifestyle is pretty slim. It’s better to head straight for the kitchen and use common staples to create beautiful vibrant colors on your Easter eggs.
If you’re new to dyeing eggs with food, you can dive into my guide on how to make natural dye using food from your kitchen. There you’ll find a step-by-step guide on using common ingredients, like blueberries, beets, black beans and red cabbage, to create a stunning array of colors without a single synthetic dye in sight.
The process is simple, and the results are uniquely beautiful. Plus, making and using natural dyes turns egg decorating into a slow, intentional experience — one filled with curiosity and creativity rather than plastic packaging and dye tablets made from questionable ingredients.
Bring New Life Inside
Early spring often teases us with the promise of warmth, yet the chill lingers just long enough to keep outdoor planting at bay. For those of us waiting for the ground to be ready for planting, or without a garden space at all, bringing new life indoors is a great way to quench the natural desire to commune with nature that inevitably rises in us during this season.
Planting a few pots of herbs and placing them on the windowsill is a simple way to invite the energy of spring into your home. These plants will serve you well for the bigger part of the year; providing fresh, nutritious flavors to many of the dishes you make for yourself and your family.
They do, however, require tending and care. So, if tending plants long-term isn’t in the cards for your lifestyle, consider other choices that may be more in line with what your schedule allows. Spring bulb flowers are perfect for those who have limited time.
They make lovely additions to your home, instantly brightening the atmosphere with their delicate, colorful blooms. And they effortlessly shift the energy in your space.
These plants are a wonderful way to brighten common areas in your home and add a natural elegance to your Easter table. Best of all, once the holiday passes, they can be replanted outdoors — where they’ll return year after year, offering a fresh burst of beauty and a little dose of plant therapy every spring.
Host A Simple Brunch
A simple brunch, is a beautiful way to slow down and embrace the season. Keep the food quick and easy, so that you can focus on creating space to connect with those you love. An easy to put together menu will allow you to fully sink into the moment.
Tea sandwiches, a simple spring salad, and a refreshing seasonal beverage, like sparkling blueberry lemonade, is all you really need. Adding a few small touches to the table, like fresh green stems, a candle or two, and a pretty table setting, will create an atmosphere conducive to a meaningful gathering that feels just right for the new season.
Host this gathering for family, or make it your own spring season version of Friendsgiving. It doesn’t have to happen on Easter Sunday. It doesn’t even have to happen that weekend. It can be just as much fun, maybe more, to have it the weekend before or after the actual holiday.
And don’t forget that it is not only okay, but it’s a great idea, to do this just for yourself. There is an often much needed affirmation of self-worth that comes with doing special things JUST FOR YOU. It screams ‘I’m worth it’. And we all need to hear that every now and then.
So, slow down, celebrate the season, and connect. Connect with yourself. Or connect with others. Just be sure you take a little slice of time to truly celebrate the season and acknowledge your commitment to simple living in the midst of it all.
Make Something With Your Own Hands
There’s something deeply satisfying about looking around your home and seeing it decked out with charming decor that you’ve created with your own hands. And holidays are a great time to take an afternoon, or a an evening or two, to create something special.
Maybe you want to make something for your home that you will enjoy for years to come. Or maybe you are looking to bless the visitors that pass through your doors during the holiday season with a little something to take home with them. Something that says ‘I think of you often’.
Either way, taking the time to create something special with your own hands is always a double blessing. It provides you with a few hours of time spent in the relaxing, meditative creative process. And it then gives you the second reward of either adding to your own store of unique holiday treasures, or bringing a little slice of warmth and joy into the life of someone you love.
This year I made rustic little fabric bunnies from tea-dyed muslin. They are brimming over with homemade charm. And each little bunny carries the energy of the effort and intention that was put into them.
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If you would like to make some for your home, or for your friends and family, there is a free stuffed bunny sewing pattern available on the blog with an easy-to-follow guide on how to create these adorable little creatures.
Serve A Make Ahead Dinner
The concept of slow living often veers off the path of tradition and embraces an alternative way of approaching not only our daily lives but our special occasions and events as well. My grandmother embraced this basic premise surrounding one of her holiday meals almost 50 years ago. It seems she was a little ahead of her time.
She used to put out a simple make ahead meal for her children, grandchildren and, in later years, her great-grandchildren, every Christmas Eve. It freed up all of her time, during the actual dinner, to spend with loved ones that she often saw only once a year.
And it can serve any one of us well for our holiday celebrations too. I particularly love serving this style meal for Easter celebrations. It is the perfect time of year to break out spring picnic foods like potato salad, macaroni salad, and BBQ chicken or pork. They are simple, fresh, and fitting for ringing in the spring season.
This approach to making the holiday meal allows everyone time, especially the cook(s), to spend with their loved ones. It frees them up from being in the kitchen all day. And it eliminates the need to get up early in the morning to start preparing the holiday meal, which often results in fatigue later in the day when there is finally a little time to spend with family and friends.
If you choose to go this route, I encourage you to make your own BBQ sauce. It will elevate the main dish and eliminate the consumption of corn syrup, which is most often found in store-bought sauce.
If picnic style isn’t your thing, consider another make ahead meal choice. Lasagna or stuffed cabbage are really great choices too. Just about any casserole would work really well. Or just go ahead and make the Easter ham or turkey that your family is accustomed to, and serve it with cold picnic salads that you’ve made ahead.
That’s the way my Grandma did it and it inspired my make ahead Easter dinner style all those years ago. I’ve been a fan of this practice for decades. I think you will be too, if you give it a try.
Embrace The Possibility Of New Beginnings
When we look to nature, to guide us in adopting seasonal living practices in our lives, it is easy to see that this season revolves around new growth and fresh starts. The plant and animal kingdom is steeped in this premise and it will serve us well to follow suit.
Easter, with it’s promise of new beginnings offers a powerful opportunity to pause and consider what we might need to clear away from, or bring into, our life. To improve it, not only for our benefit, but for the benefit of those around us too.
Take a little time for some personal reflection. Maybe take a few quiet moments each day free-writing in a journal to allow your inner thoughts to surface. And then look over those journal entries and use them to develop a sense of clarity and intention about what it is that you want to change this season.
Or find the clarity that you need through the practice of clearing physical spaces in your home. This practice will help you break through any mental clutter that is preventing you from seeing a clear path for change.
Regardless of how you go about choosing what it is that you want to work on this season in your own life, take the time and find one or two things that it is important to you to change (or improve) and then GO FOR IT!
Take simple steps toward reaching the goals that your searching sets and use the energy of the season to fuel your commitment to making positive shifts in your life. Embrace the opportunity to reset and step into a the new chapter that this season of renewal makes so readily available to all of nature. Humans included.
And remember — slow living isn’t about perfection or doing more — it’s about making the moments count. However you choose to celebrate, may it bring you a sense of joy, renewal, and peace.
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Celebrating Easter through a slower lens brings so much more meaning to the season — simple traditions, homemade touches, and time spent with those we love. I’d love to hear how you bring intention into your spring celebrations. Let’s chat in the comments.