Egg-citing Alternatives: Making Easter Fun Without Harmful Traditions
With Easter weekend just around the corner, it’s time to get excited about spending quality time with loved ones. Easter is a time to relish delicious food, sweet treats, and the arrival of spring. However, for animals, Easter is not always a joyous occasion. The holiday often involves their exploitation and abuse. From the use of animal products in Easter candy and decorations to the consumption of meat and dairy in holiday meals.
So, how do you celebrate Easter in a cruelty-free way?
Fortunately, there are simple steps that we can take to have a cruelty-free Easter. By choosing vegan Easter treats, opting for plant-based meals, and selecting cruelty-free decorations & Easter activities for kids, we can ensure that our celebrations are both festive and compassionate. By making small changes, we can make a big difference in the lives of animals and create a more sustainable future for us all.
Let's start with eggs (and not just the chocolate kind!)
Did you know that chickens use up to 24 individual vocalizations to communicate and even unhatched chicks cheep to their mother from inside the egg?
Chickens are amazing creatures, with hierarchy systems and unique personalities. The chicken, and specifically the egg industry, keep laying hens in tiny cages, give hens no natural environment to raise their young, and kill male chickens right after they hatch! Even organic or free-range eggs continue the practice of killing male chicks.
Chickens deserve more than being kept in awful conditions, so this year, instead of painting real hen’s eggs and contributing to the horrible chicken farming industry, try a cruelty-free egg painting alternative.
There are lots of alternatives to hens’ eggs when it comes to egg painting, many of which are reusable. Wooden or ceramic eggs are a great option and can either be repainted each year or you can save them to look back on when the kids are all grown up. If you want a more DIY craft, try making paper mache eggs.
If you plan on having an Easter egg hunt, instead of using hen’s eggs, use the eggs you have just painted. Or for an option that can be used year after year, buy a selection of different-sized plastic eggs that are fillable and fill them with clues on hiding spots or even some tasty vegan treats.
Vegan Easter Eggs and Candy
Opting for vegan candy and Easter eggs is a simple swap to make your Easter cruelty free. Sadly, most candy is not vegan due to its addition of gelatine (which is made from boiling pig or cow bones, skins, and tendons) or due to the addition of milk. Thankfully, as veganism has become more popular, there are loads of delicious options for cruelty-free & vegan Easter eggs and candy. No longer are the only vegan Easter eggs super dark chocolate, which let’s be honest isn’t really child friendly. Instead, there are loads of vegan swaps for chocolate bunnies, creme eggs, and Easter eggs.
If you are not sure where to start, check out this list of bunny-approved vegan easter candies from PETA or have a look at this 2023 list of vegan candy by The Green Loot.
Have a Plant-Based Easter Lunch
One of the best parts of Easter (besides the chocolate) is getting together with your family and friends to have an Easter Sunday roast. But let’s face it, the usual fare of lamb is not a cruelty-free one. The idea of eating a baby animal that should be with its mother is pretty disturbing. Before the lamb makes it to your table they are taken away from their mothers and are usually castrated and have their tails docked with no anesthesia.
Instead of eating lamb with your Sunday roast, try some vegan meat alternatives or make something like a healthy nut roast. A plant-based dinner can seem overwhelming if you don’t usually cook that way, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. If you aren’t ready to dive straight in and go fully vegan, start with small simple swaps, such as aiming to make at least one side dish plant-based.
Here are some fantastic plant-based Easter lunch recipes to try out that kids will love:
If you want to learn more about going plant-based, check out our article on starting your plant-based journey.
No roast dinner is complete without dessert. Try out these veganised chocolate nests that the kids can help make. These are super quick to make, and if you don’t want to use cornflakes, you can switch them out for shredded wheat cereal or rice krispies.
Cruelty-Free Easter Activities for Kids
If you are looking for some fun cruelty-free Easter activities to keep your kids entertained this Easter, look no further. These fun eco-friendly activities teach compassion towards animals and are great for the whole family.
🌱 Make eco-friendly Easter decorations – decorate your house with homemade decorations made out of recycled materials. If you want to purchase decorations, look for ones that can be reused every year.
🏞️ Take a nature walk – Spring is coming and the weather is warming up, head outside with the whole family for a beautiful nature walk. Collect leaves, flowers, and twigs along the way to help make your eco-friendly decorations.
🐣 Visit an animal sanctuary – it can be tempting to head to a petting zoo so your kids can play with the cute bunnies and chicks, but they are not nice places for the animals involved (and here is why). Instead head to your local animal sanctuary, where the animals have been rescued and are now being looked after in a safe environment.
🧺Make Easter baskets – using things you already have at home, make beautiful Easter baskets you can gift to your family. Use recycled materials and fill your basket with vegan treats, seeds for planting, and eco-friendly toys.
🥄 Have an egg and spoon race – a fun activity for everyone in the family, instead of using hen eggs, use wooden eggs to make this cruelty free.
🎨 Easter-themed craft activities – crack open the glitter and get crafting. Make bunny masks from cardboard and string to tie round your head or have kids create Easter cards to send to their family and friends.
In conclusion
Easter is a wonderful holiday and a time for new beginnings and the arrival of Spring. However, some of our traditional Easter activities are harmful to animals. By rethinking how we celebrate this holiday, we can make it kinder and more compassionate. Leave behind old harmful traditions, and start new ones that teach kids to be kind to animals and to our planet.
Happy Easter!
We have two wonderful books for children which aim to help them on their journey to understand animal welfare and farming – 100% of our proceeds go towards animal rights organizations (yes, we do this for love, not money!)
The second in a trilogy of beautifully illustrated children’s books, this story about the compelling journey of a young chicken named Cluck, told by a sage parrot.
