Easter crafts that work are sorted by age. Children under three glue and paint with their hands, three- to five-year-olds can manage a glue stick and chunky scissors, six- to nine-year-olds paint eggs and make påskkärringar (Easter witches), and ten- to twelve-year-olds blow eggs and build things that last. Twenty ideas below, most of them with egg cartons, toilet rolls and paint you already have.
Påsklov (the Easter school break) in Stockholm often means a week when förskola (municipal preschool) is closed or half empty, the weather can't make up its mind and the children are indoors more than they should be. The craft table rescues one afternoon at a time. This is what we actually do in our families' homes: nothing that requires a craft shop, and nothing that takes two hours to prepare for ten minutes of joy.
What suits which age
| Age | Can manage | Needs help with | Skip |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3 years | Finger paint, gluing feathers, stamping | Anything with scissors, anything that has to dry before the next step | Small parts like beads and googly eyes that can end up in the mouth |
| 3 to 5 years | Glue stick, chunky scissors, painting hard-boiled eggs | Cutting along a line, tying string | Blown eggs; they break and the tears come |
| 6 to 9 years | Painting eggs with details, påskkärringar, sewing simple stitches | Blowing eggs, hot glue | Nothing, but be patient with how long it takes |
| 10 to 12 years | Blown eggs, building, dyeing with onion skins | Not much, mostly company | Crafts that feel babyish; ask what they want to make |
Five crafts for the littlest, 1 to 3 years
- Finger-paint chicks. A yellow handprint on paper, your child presses, you draw the beak and legs afterwards. The whole hand becomes a chick, the fingers feathers.
- Feather gluing. Cut a big chick or egg out of card, your child glues on feathers or paper strips with a glue stick. The aim is not for it to look good; the aim is twenty minutes.
- Potato printing. Cut a potato in half, carve a simple egg shape, dip in paint and print on big sheets of paper. It becomes Easter wrapping paper for something.
- Påskris to decorate. Påskris is the Swedish bundle of birch twigs decorated with feathers for Easter. Your child hangs feathers and ready-made paper eggs on the twigs. Two-year-olds can hang things on branches for as long as you like.
- Egg-carton flowers. Cut the carton into cups, your child paints them, you thread a pipe cleaner through as a stem.
Five crafts for ages 3 to 5
- Painting hard-boiled eggs. Boil the eggs for ten minutes, let them cool, paint with watercolours or food colouring. Eat the same day or the day after.
- Toilet-roll chick. Paint the roll yellow, glue on paper eyes, a beak from an orange triangle and feathers as wings. Make three; it becomes a family.
- Easter cards with stamps. Folded paper, stamp eggs with a potato or a cork, your child writes their name or you write it. Sent to grandma.
- Paper eggs in the window. Cut an egg out of card, cut out the middle, your child glues pieces of tissue paper over the hole. Hung in the window, it glows when the sun comes out.
- Chick in an eggshell. Save half eggshells from breakfast, wash them, fill with a little cotton wool and a yellow pompom as the chick. Eyes drawn on with a felt tip.
Five crafts for ages 6 to 9
- Toilet-roll påskkärring. The roll is the body, a scrap of fabric becomes the headscarf, the face is drawn on, a stick or a straw becomes the broom. Six-year-olds make one; nine-year-olds make the whole gang.
- Eggs painted in detail. Hard-boiled eggs with patterns: dots, stripes, faces. Thin brushes, small cups of paint, newspaper under everything.
- Easter basket from a milk carton. Cut a milk carton in half, your child covers it with paper or paints it, a ribbon as the handle. Then used for the egg hunt.
- Sewn felt chicks. Two chick shapes in felt, your child sews around the edge with big stitches and adds a little stuffing. The first sewing for most, and they are proud of it.
- Papier-mâché Easter egg. A balloon, strips of newspaper, wallpaper paste, dry for a day, paint. Takes two afternoons, which is the point in a school holiday.
Five crafts for ages 10 to 12
- Blown eggs. A hole in each end, blow out the contents, dry, paint with acrylics. They hang in the påskris year after year, and your child remembers which one is theirs.
- Dyeing with onion skins. Press a leaf or a flower against the egg, tie it into a nylon stocking, boil in water with yellow onion skins. The pattern comes out pale against a brown background. Really beautiful, and a chemistry experiment.
- Egg hunt clues. Let the twelve-year-old write the riddles for the younger siblings' egg hunt. It is a craft, it is writing practice and it gives them a role in the game.
- Easter tree in a pot. Branches from the park in a pot with stones, your child makes hanging eggs from air-drying clay, paints them and threads string through.
- Photo book or sign. Photograph all the crafts and arrange them into a little book, or paint a sign for the door. Something that feels grown-up enough.
How to make it work without nagging
Set everything out before the children come to the table. Everything ready, paint poured into cups, newspaper underneath. A child who waits while you look for feathers has lost interest before you find them. Have one craft per sitting, not five. Allow fifteen minutes for a three-year-old, half an hour for a six-year-old, and know that a ten-year-old will sometimes sit for an hour if nobody disturbs them. Stop while it is still fun. Let things dry somewhere nobody can reach, because what dries on a tray in the kitchen gets touched within ten minutes.
Don't say what it should look like. The chick is allowed to be purple. It is not your chick. And take the glitter out of the cupboard if you want a floor you can walk on in April.
How we do it with our families
Sanna, who has a four-year-old and a seven-year-old on Kungsholmen, puts the påsklov crafts on the Tuesday rather than on Easter Day itself. At two o'clock she sets out toilet rolls, yellow paint and feathers for the four-year-old and hard-boiled eggs with thin brushes for the seven-year-old, at the same table. The four-year-old is done after twenty minutes and goes off to build Lego. The seven-year-old paints five eggs and a sixth that is hers. The note for the parents says where the eggs are drying and that they must be hung in the påskris that same evening, otherwise there will be a row about who touched them. The note for the babysitter solves more than you would think.
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Read more: Easter egg hunt · Crafts for kids · Baking with kids · FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What paint should you use on eggs that children are going to eat?
Food colouring sold for use on food, or onion skins, beetroot and turmeric boiled with the eggs. Felt tips, acrylic paint and glitter belong on eggs that will hang in the påskris, not on eggs that will be eaten. Blow those out first, and they last for years.
How do you blow an egg?
Prick a small hole in each end with a needle, make the lower hole a little bigger and stir the yolk with the needle. Then blow into the small hole until everything has run out. Rinse with water and leave to dry overnight before the children paint.
What Easter crafts can a two-year-old do?
Finger painting on big sheets of paper, gluing feathers onto a cardboard chick with a glue stick, printing with a potato dipped in paint. Anything that doesn't require scissors or precision. Allow ten minutes, then your child will want something else, and that is perfectly fine.
Do you need to buy a lot of materials?
No. Egg cartons, toilet rolls, milk cartons, newspapers and a bit of paint cover most of it. Feathers and påskris are the only things we usually buy, and the feathers can be skipped: cut paper strips do the same job.