Bring the bunny to the bunker: Making Easter virtually perfect
Coronavirus may have laid waste to traditional Easter plans, but there’s a host of fun, virtual activities rapidly spreading across Aussie households.
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Peak cabin fever is driving parents to get creative ahead of the holidays, with frazzled families braced for the impending Easter in isolation.
As coronavirus lays waste to traditional plans, a host of fun activities is rapidly spreading across households increasingly starved of human contact outside their own gene pool.
Mum Leanne Bradley said her two girls, Taylor, 9, and Halle, 7, jump at any chance to connect with the many schoolfriends they haven’t seen since parents were urged to keep children home if they could.
The first of several planned virtual celebrations was a craft challenge dubbed Bonnets in the Bunker.
“One of our children’s favourite things to do every year is the Easter hat parade, and seeing as this year’s was not able to take place, they were very excited to hear about the concept of a virtual Easter hat parade, Bonnets in the Bunker.
“There is a group of us that joined at the same time on (online video platform) Zoom and the kids showed each other the bonnets that they’ve all created,” Ms Bradley said.
Parents used the exercise to teach the children about resourcefulness, recycling and rationing. Rather than leaving home to buy new supplies, part of the challenge was only using materials they already had to hand.
“We recycled a lot of stuff that we had in cupboards from previous years. There were some hats that they pulled some old decorations off and there were some leftover decorations. There were some old fake flowers that they used and just other trinkets that they normally get in some of their Easter surprises each year.
“They absolutely loved it, so much so that not only did they make hats, they also made props to go with their hats as part of the parade, so they decorated some Easter baskets that they had.”
Ms Bradley said that while Taylor and Halle are coping well with social distancing measures, she believes not being able to talk to other children in their age group is unhealthy.
“It’s really important that they still see their friends, they still get to converse with their friends and they still get to experience their childhood,” she said.
“We shouldn’t be taking that away from them and being able to at least do that through virtual means is better than them only having their own family to talk to day to day.”
With a virtual Easter lunch booked with relatives next weekend, they plan to use video conferencing to uphold at least one family tradition: a hotly contested egg and spoon race.
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How best to involve the extended clan in the annual egg hunt is still being discussed, but Ms Bradley said she liked the idea of grandparents calling in clues to the kids.
“I’m still working through the creativity of it — it’ll be in the confines of each house, but maybe there might be a competition between the cousins on who finds the most out of each family,” she said.
Now global guilty pleasure Eurovision has been cancelled for 2020, the keen amateur chanteuse is particularly excited about the school group’s rumoured next challenge: an EasterVision song contest.
“I think that sounds fabulous. Our girls are very fortunate that they got a karaoke machine for Christmas and we have already been talking with friends about having a virtual karaoke night,” Ms Bradley said.
“It is still Easter and we should make sure … we celebrate that in the best way we can.”