Easter Sunday: How About Brunch?

 

Finally, spring is here. Your windows are open, the days are longer, and you’re finally able to feel your toes again. With Easter only a few weeks away and the weather on your side, it’s the perfect opportunity to host an Easter brunch for your favorite people to play, eat and revel in the new season.

Planning an Easter brunch is like planning any other brunch, but holidays are always good for going all out. From the hunt, to the food, to the décor, here’s how to put on an awesome Easter brunch.

What to Do

As if there’s an option other than the egg hunt and decorating eggs. To make sure you get enough eggs: anticipate having six per child under seven, and a full dozen per each of the older kids. You can decorate your Easter eggs in different ways using dyes, paints, stickers, and even crayons. Decorating Easter eggs with wax is very popular in other countries but I’m partial to dragon Easter eggs myself.

Plan a traditional Easter egg hunt for earlier in the day so the littlest ones don’t get restless. When the youngest have lost interest (and they will), make the hunt more challenging by widening the boundaries for the older kids. Set a timer for three minutes and send them off; when the time is up, whoever has the fewest eggs is out (but still gets a prize, of course). Then, set the timer for two minutes and the remaining hunters search for the rest of the eggs and so on until all of the eggs are found.

What to Eat

The easiest way to go all out on the food is with a potluck; have everyone bring something, so there are as many dishes as there are people (translation: lots and lots of brunch food). Because it’s brunch, ask half of the guests to bring a breakfast dish and the others to err on the side of lunch. If you start the party around 11, the menu will appeal to everyone and you’re not stuck trying to remember who wanted sandwiches and who wanted pancakes.

For your dish, how about a glazed ham? It’s an Easter favorite and will likely be a pleasant surprise for old Uncle Bill who started grumbling a month ago at the suggestion of an Easter brunch. The Food Network’s recipe for baked ham with a brown sugar-honey glaze is excellent and only takes about 15 minutes of prep time (but plan to put it in the oven around 9 a.m., as the recipe calls for two hours cooking time).

Make sure you have orange juice, coffee, milk and water, as well as a couple out-of-the-box options like blueberry iced tea or raspberry-lemon spritzers. Also, it is brunch, so you’ll probably have guests asking about mimosas and bloody marys.

How to Decorate

What is Easter décor? Certainly your brunch isn’t going to be outfitted with pastel paper streamers and Easter bunny window decals. With spring having just arrived, it seems most appropriate to put the season’s florals on display. For your centerpiece, draw attention with a bouquet of tulips or a festive Easter arrangement with traditional daisies and carnations. If you end up with a large arrangement, pull a few of the flowers and set them up in different places around the house; a daisy in a mason jar on the side table, or a tulip in a clear bottle in the kitchen window. The subtly coordinated touches here and there pull the look together and ultimately bring focus back to the centerpiece. You may also want to have a visit from the Easter bunny for the kids but if that’s not in the budget setting up a phone call from the Easter bunny is the next best thing.

By following the tips above, you’ll be ready to host Easter brunch and spend the day enjoying the beautiful spring weather with family and friends. Who knows, maybe they’ll even stay ‘til the sun goes down.

What do you typically do for Easter?

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