9 ways Easter is becoming the new Christmas

1. The magical guest

OK, so the Easter Bunny's more hop hop hop than Santa's ho ho ho but at Easter, just like at Crimbo, there's a guest your kids don't get to see who leaves them little gifts – but probably scattered round the garden, rather than stuffed in a stocking.

And why stop there? The Easter Bunny could leave a trail of paw prints, like Rudolf & Co leave hoof prints, and your children might want to leave out a carrot or two the evening before as a Bunny-energising snack. And of course, the Easter Bunny might, in your house, only bring eggs for children who are good. We can see the advantages of this already...

2. The adverts

Have you seen all the Easter ads on telly? No more are magical 'something special's coming' ads the sole reserve of Christmas. Coca Cola may 'own' the twinkly Santa at Christmas thing but, this year, Cadbury's is doing its best to 'own' the Easter bunny, depicting him as a purple-loving cyclist no less, delivering eggs to all the good girls and boys...

3. The Easter roast

Now, this is pretty much the Christmas lunch, except you swap the turkey and cranberry sauce for the lamb and mint sauce. Ooooh – and, guess what? If you pop to Poundland right now, you can even get Easter crackers to decorate the dinner table with. We kid you not.

4. The big family get-together

As Easter includes two Bank Holidays and, for many, signals the start of the school holidays, it's a time when, just like Christmas, you can often arrange to meet up with relatives you maybe don't see so often.

It's not quite in the realms of its Chrimbo cousin yet but could it soon be that, as early as January, we all start debating (or rowing about!) where we should spend Easter?

5. The Easter tree

Have you found yourself grabbing a few twigs, popping them in a vase and getting your little ones to decorate them with mini Easter eggs? Yes, it's not quite the giant-tree-and-tinsel Christmas thing but, if you take one look at Pinterest these days, you can see that Easter trees are definitely now a thing.

6. Easter Eve

Yep, just like with the Christmas Eve last-minute wrapping frenzy, on the Saturday night before Easter Sunday, we'll be tucking over-excited kids up in bed, and then rushing downstairs to write clues for the next day's treasure hunt and blunder about outside in the dark plotting hiding places for chocolate eggs.

7. Easter cards

Whether your child's at school or nursery, chances are they'll have made you an Easter card or Easter gift, complete with still-slightly-gluey eggs or flowers or chicks or bunnies – or all 4 at once.

You might even have started getting Easter cards through the post from family and friends and popped them on the mantelpiece. JUST like Christmas.

8. Easter pressies

Back when we were kids, Easter usually meant a bag of mini eggs and maybe a big egg in a box but now people do seem to be splashing out that bit more on Easter and going for full-on gifts or even giving cash. (By the way, if you want some ideas for non-choccy Easter gifts, we have plenty.)

9. Easter Elf on the Shelf

Oh yes. Now, to be fair, we haven't seen any Easter outings on the official Elf on the Shelf site just yet. But there are lots of little Christmas elves in bunny outfits dotted around the web here and there, so we're guessing it won't be long before Easter Elf shows up.

Don't say we didn't warn you...

Read more

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• Easter eggs unboxed: how much chocolate are you actually getting?
• 5 last-minute Easter bonnets