How to Have a Sugar-free Easter

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We are a minimally processed foods, no added sugar household, so holidays like Halloween and Easter can be a little tricky in helping our boys enjoy the holiday without all the added sugar, preservatives, colorings and other “junk” in typical holiday treats.

Here are some ideas for how to have an Easter filled with fun but not sugar.

Break the Mold

Growing up, Easter morning meant a huge basket filled with candy, a life-sized chocolate bunny for each child, two-pound cream-filled chocolate eggs, and even more sweets when we got to Gramma’s later that afternoon. As a kid, I certainly wasn’t complaining! But for my own kids (and my own adult self), I limit sugar year-round, so this kind of Easter celebration would inevitably lead to a roller coaster of sugar highs and emotional disasters for us all.

So I re-frame what Easter morning means.  We have fun coloring eggs. A lot of eggs. Many different ways:

• Traditional egg dyes

• Stickers

• Glitter eggs

• Drawing on the eggs with crayons and markers

Colored eggs become a central part of the day’s festivities, instead of Easter candy.

Candy-Free Egg Hunt

We also hide tons of the plastic Easter eggs, but instead of filling them with chocolates or jelly beans, we use:

• Raisins

• Stickers

• Stamps

• Legos

• Finger puppets

• Bouncy balls

• Plastic dinosaurs

• Mini Thomas the Trains

• Socks

• Flavored lip balms

• Tattoos

• Coins

I’m completely outnumbered by boys in my house, but for families with little girls you could also include:

• Barrettes & hair bows

• Dress-up jewelry

• Mini nail polishes

Nearly all of the above suggestions are choking hazards for tiny tots, so please do be careful if one or your children is still in the phase of putting everything into his or her mouth.  For our very first Easter with our son, we filled eggs with just Cheerios and raisins.

Sugar-free Easter desserts

If you’re hosting Easter lunch or will be a guest at someone else’s, baking a healthy-ish cake gives your family a taste of dessert without all the added sugars. I recently baked this Healthy Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting for my son’s first birthday. He ate it up and so did his 3-year-old brother!

I love to hear ideas from readers on how you celebrate healthful holidays.  Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below. Happy Easter!