7 Ways to Host a Perfect Easter Get-Together

Check out these entertaining ideas for Easter that your friends and family are sure to enjoy.

1. Decorate Your Back Porch If the weather is nice, place a table on the porch or lawn and brighten the seating with cushions in vibrant prints. Capture spring breezes with banners cut from coordinating fabrics and embellished with aviary motifs. The feather tree centerpiece is adorned with cookies that guests can take home as party favors.

2. Make Your Own Vases Create a simple yet elegant centerpiece by using a bunch of vintage milk bottles to hold flowers aloft. Simply line up nine same-size vessels in three rows of three. Then wrap gardener's twine around the grouping twice and tie the ends. Finish the blooming display by placing two to three stems in each container.

Plus: 31 Beautiful Spring Centerpieces and Table Decorations »

3. Arrange from every angle. "It's so much easier to arrange a bouquet on a lazy Susan," says florist Meredith Perez, "because you can turn the vase and see your display from all sides."

4. Decorate Your Buffet Table To make an pretty buffet display, hang Easter eggs from branches, as is the custom in Austria, Germany, and the Ukraine. Color blown or plastic eggs with watercolors and small paintbrushes, or dip them in dyes, available in kits at supermarkets and craft supply stores. For hanging, secure satin and grosgrain ribbon loops to the wide ends of the eggs with a glue gun. You can also suspend smaller candy eggs from the branches. We wrapped ours with fine-gauge wire around their "equators" and hung them horizontally. Tucking miniature imitation birds' nests in the upper branches adds whimsy.

5. Personalize Easter Baskets If you're having an Easter egg hunt, let each kid carry their own basket with these clever tags with dry-erase paint and simple wooden animal shapes.

Drill a small hole near the top of one duck, as shown. Following package instructions for the dry-erase paint, cover the front and back of the duck with three coats, allowing at least 30 minutes of drying time after each coat. Let cure for two days. Thread a length of string through the hole and use a dry-erase marker to write a child's name on the tag before hanging it on an Easter basket.

Plus: 18 Creative Floral Arrangements >>

6. Try Easter Bunny Crafts For a craft kids will love playing with, turn a generic crepe paper ball into an Easter bunny. Just add craft paper ears, eyes, and whiskers, plus pom-poms for the nose and eyes.

7. Serve Chocolate Bunnies Confections in shapes that signal the season set the tone for springtime games and outings.

Tell us: How do you prepare for Easter?


See more from
CountryLiving.com:

Our Ultimate Guide to Kitchen Decorating »
40 Amazing Before-and-After Home Makeovers »
10 Top Outdoor Design Trends for 2014 »
11 Easter Egg Decoration Ideas »

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Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc.