‘What are you doing for Easter?’ is normally small talk. It’s the kind of thing you might ask a co-worker in the office kitchen, or a parent at the school gate, without really caring all that much about the answer.
But not this year. This year we care — a lot. We need inspiration. What exactly can one do for four whole days without leaving the house? Particularly if one has already watched the entire season of Netflix’s Tiger King. Twice.
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Gorging on chocolate and hot cross buns is a given (thank God — or Scott Morrison, anyway — that the Easter Bunny is still considered an essential worker).
But… then what?
We asked a host of women what they’ll be getting up to, in the hope that it may give you some isolation inspiration for the long weekend ahead.
Here are some of our favourites.
Recreate the Royal Easter Show: “My family is doing an at-home Easter Show; wood chopping in the backyard included,” said Eleanor.
“I’m going to make all my friends in The Sims 4,” said Rose.
Virtual family Easter egg hunt for the kids: “Our four households will all hide Easter eggs and FaceTime with each other,” said Janine. “Then we will take turns in taking our cameras around with us, for our nephews [aged two and four] to spot the Easter eggs in each of our houses! We’ll see if it works or not…”
Competitive Easter egg hunt (for teens and grownups): “I am a mum of five kids aged 25 to 14. The Easter Bunny still comes, and each year it’s fun games,” said Simone. “This year I am going to add a new game, similar to ‘the chocolate game’ from kids’ parties. I will hide five kinds of little chocolate treasures in the backyard and take a photo of what they need to discover. I’ll then get the kids around a table with dice. When they roll a six, they can go and find the treasures. If someone else rolls a six, the first person stops searching, and this continues until we have a winner. The winner will get a bonus box of chocolates. Nothing like a competition to get the energy flowing amongst teens and young adults!”
Virtual bake-off: “I am doing a virtual drunk bake-off with my girlfriends where we will all cook the same cookie recipe on Zoom,” said Maddie. “The person who does not burn their cookies wins.” (If you try this, please drink responsibly. There are cookies at stake.)
A holiday at home: “We’re going on vacation… to the spare room,” said Elena. “We’re pretending it’s a hotel.”
‘Going to the movies’: Elena also said she’s “getting dressed up on Saturday night to go to the movies (i.e. watching Parasite on Stan).”
Indoor picnic: “We’re doing a household picnic in the living room with a cheese board and nice wine,” said Elise.
Learning to DJ: “I’m teaching myself to DJ so I can have my own club in my living room. I really miss going out dancing,” said Hannah. “I bought decks in week two of isolation and [watch tutorials on] YouTube.”
Backyard camping: “We are going to camp in the backyard — as long as it’s not bucketing down rain,” Megan said. “We are also going to spend quality time with the kids; teaching them to ride bikes, or braid hair, or whatever they want us to do that we don’t usually have much time for.”
‘Pub’ quiz: “My husband is creating a pub quiz for us and our Canadian family (challenging, covering three generations!) over Zoom,” Kathryn said.
Watching theatre: “I’m watching as much online theatre streaming as I can manage! NationalTheatre At Home, The Shows Must Go On, From Our House To Yours (Sydney Opera House).”
Does ironing count? Asked Bec. And technically yes, but we probably won’t join you on Zoom for that one.
Feature Image: Getty.
Read more about COVID-19:
The current situation around COVID-19 might be making you feel scared or uncertain. It’s okay to feel this way, but it’s also important to learn how to manage feelings of anxiety during this time. To download the free PDF: Anxiety & Coronavirus – How to Manage Feelings of Anxiety click here.
