Easter eggs are loved by kids and adults alike. Starting around March each year the annual supermarket drive to off load a few hundred extra tons of chocolate begins and it’s certainly easy enough to pick up a few glittering, foil-wrapped eggs for your loved ones.

A More Personal Easter Gift

But what if you want to give something a little more personal, a little more interesting? What if you’d like to involve your children more intimately in the Easter experience?

Making your own Easter eggs is fun and so simple that children of almost any age can help in the process.

Old Fashioned Easter Eggs

To have a go at the type of Easter eggs the ancient Egyptians used to give each other follow the steps below.

1. Hard boil as many eggs as you want. Note: to avoid your eggs cracking use the freshest eggs possible, make sure they are at room temperature, place them in a small saucepan (to prevent them jostling about too much), fill with cold water then place on the stove and simmer, rather than boil.
2. When the eggs have cooked (about 10 minutes once they start to simmer) remove them from the pan and allow them to cool completely – don’t put them in the fridge at this point or they might crack.
3. Use small round stickers (like the ones shops used to use for prices) and thin strips of masking tape to create patterns on your eggs. Ensure there are no air bubbles under the stickers.
4. In a large bowl mix a litre of hot water, 3 tablespoons of white vinegar and about four or five teaspoons of food colouring – the colour you choose is up to you, though red and purple are traditional. Soak the eggs in this solution until their shells absorb the colour, then remove with a spoon.
5. When the eggs are dry peel off your masking tape and stickers – bingo, patterned Easter eggs.

Getting Fancy

If you want to get fancy you can perform the steps above using a very dark food colour first, let this dry, peel off the stickers and then dye again using a pale colour – your eggs will not only be patterned, they’ll be two-tone!

To add a shiny finish put a few drops of vegetable oil on a paper towel and dab the eggs, making sure not to smudge your handiwork.

A Traditional Easter

Traditional Easter eggs are a great alternative to the mass-produced chocolate shells we’re all so used to. They allow children to express their creativity and show that we’ve put more thought and effort into our Easter gift. That said, any parent desirous of a happy home at Easter time is well advised to have a number of the chocolate variety on hand as well.

For more great ideas for making your own traditional Easter eggs check out this video.