A wonderful way to celebrate Easter is by hosting a Parade for Children of all ages; either at home, in the community or your local church. Involve children in the creation of funny, creative hats using artificial flowers and palm leaves. Take it a step further and plan an entire mini parade around the Easter theme by decorating bikes, strollers, wagons and carts.

Making the decorations

For decorations collect a range of ribbons, colored paper and tissue paper, dried and artificial flowers, twigs, palm leaves, old greeting cards, bows, baskets, plastic eggs, toy bunnies and a bunch of magazines for cut outs.

Children can cut out pictures like bunnies, flowers, and other fun colorful images. Ribbons and strips of newspaper make attractive streamers for decorating.

Decorating bikes and wagons

Give old wagons a fresh coat of paint and decorate with glued on flowers, cut-outs from magazines and cards. Bikes can be further spruced up with streamers made from ribbons and flowers. Ensure that you have a lot of glue on hand to attach ribbons bows and flowers. The use of balloons in colors like pink yellow, blue and white is a nice touch for the occasion. Balloons can be attached to wagons and bikes for that festive look and children in the parade can also carry bunches of balloons.

The Easter bonnet

Making the Easter hat is easy and fun for adults and children alike.

You can start with low-cost straw hats found at your local discount, thrift store or use any hat you have in your house. The key is decorating the hat to your liking. Decorate hats with colorful flowers; each hat can have its own theme with one colour or flower type, or a mixture of different hues and flowers. Add ribbons, bows, and streamers to the hats.

There is no wrong way to do it and children should be encouraged to experiment.

Colourful baskets

What is an Easter parade without a basket? Use baskets with handles which are much easier to carry while on the move. If the baskets are plain, paint them or glue on tissue paper and decorate. There is no restriction on how you can decorate an Easter basket and the more creative you get the more fun these baskets will be especially when filled with yummy eggs, chicks and bunnies.

Enjoy the parade

With the preparation complete it is time for the festivities. A parade can have as few as three children or several children. If, for instance, the parade involves the neighborhood kids, adults will coordinate the activities and map out a route. The children will take their places at the start of the route and anyone can join in. Colorful wagons, bikes and hats make for a memorable event.

An Easter parade is fun for all regardless of the size. It is also the most enjoyable event that you can organize that wouldn't cost you a bundle. Get the children involved in decorating hats, bikes and other items used in the parade and they would enjoy the experience so much more since it is their parade. Parents are welcome to join in the festivities.