Easter Activities in Ottawa

It may still feel like chilly outside, but warmer weather will be here before we know it - which means Easter will be too! Easter is towards the middle of April this year, which may mean outdoor egg hunts are possible. Only time will tell!

Ottawa has many family-friendly Easter activities happening throughout Easter weekend including Easter egg hunts, decorating and ample opportunities for little ones to meet the Easter Bunny! Here's where to go in the Ottawa area for the very best in Easter activities the entire family can enjoy:

Bell’s Bunny Hop at Fairfields Heritage House

Celebrate Easter with a traditional egg hunt on the grounds of Fairfields Heritage House! Before, or after, your child collects their treats, help them explore the museum with a scavenger hunt or plant seeds to help jump start the growing season. Note: Activities will take place both outdoors and indoors (rain or shine). Please dress for the weather and wear appropriate footwear for mud/snow and grassy terrain. Registration is required.  
Saturday April 11th, 10am- 4pm, $6.82 per child.

Canadian Agricultural Museum- Easter at the farm

Celebrate Easter at the Canadian Agricultural Museum from April 19th to April 22nd. The barns are sure to be alive with newborn animals, and what better way to celebrate Easter than with real live cute baby chicks and bunnies!

Valleyview Animal Farm – Easter Fun  

Easter egg hunts with hundreds of coloured eggs take place throughout Easter weekend at Valleyview Animal Farm. This farm is a great place for younger kids, who may want to stop and feed a goat or two while they hunt for eggs

Billings Estate Museum – Easter at the Estate

On Saturday April 11th (9am to 3pm) Billings Estate hosts an Easter egg hunt as well as other fun and educational Easter activities. For more information visit the Billing Estate Museum website by clicking here.

Easter at the Farmer’s Markets

It’s still a little early for fresh produce (unless you hit up one of the farms with a greenhouse!) but markets will still hold some fun activities over Easter weekend, and you can shop for locally made goodies and all those root veggies that get stored throughout the winter! Check out Carp Farmer’s Market on Saturday and the Ottawa Farmer’s Market on Sunday.

Cumberland Heritage Village Museum - Hop Into Spring

On Saturday April 20th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. celebrate Easter with "Hop into Spring" - unscramble an easter puzzle, dye eggs and learn how people used to prepare for spring. For information and to register, visit the museum's website.

Diefenbunker – Annual Easter Egg Hunt

Located in Carp, the Diefenbunker has held an easter egg hunt on Easter weekend for the past few years - this year it is on Saturday, April 11th. With hundreds of places to hide in the 100,000 square foot bunker, it makes for a fun Easter egg hunt for all ages! For more details, click here.

What activities do you enjoy sharing with your kids at Easter? Or is there an Easter activity in Ottawa we should know about? Leave a comment and let us know. 

Making Easter Eggs

A favorite Easter tradition growing up was making pysanka. Although we aren't Ukrainian, we were exposed to pysanka living in Winnipeg and because it is so much fun, and so beautiful to make, we adopted the tradition as our own.

I hadn't made pysanka in years, but after taking a local workshop with some friends I decided to try it with my kids. I was nervous at first because I wasn't sure about letting my four year old and two year old handle the tool used to draw on the eggs with hot wax. In the end it turned out fine. I offered them the tool to draw with, after heating it over the candle flame myself, but they passed. They much preferred to just tell me what to draw while they watched.  (Kids that are six and older could probably use the tool themselves, with supervision of course.)

We spent a really enjoyable few hours talking about what to draw on the eggs, me drawing it and them watching the eggs in the various jars of dye. We used six colours of dye: yellow, orange, pink, red, blue and black. In other words every colour of dye I had!

After each colour of dye the kids made sure to pat off their egg with a paper-towel. After the black dye I used the candle flame to melt off all the wax and reveal the art underneath!

I won't even pretend that what they made is pysanka because the designs are in no way reflective of traditional Ukrainian folk designs. (Although it is possible to make faux-pysanka with kids!) But it was a good chance to introduce them to the idea and show them pictures of pysanky. I am pretty sure that this will be a now yearly Easter tradition!

Before making pysanka I did some other crafts with the kids to get them familiar with the idea of decorating eggs. I started by drawing egg shapes on paper and asking the kids to decorate them with their own designs. Then the kids painted the designs.

Next I let the kids paint on eggs. They had a great time doing this. I even showed the kids how to blow out the egg by poking two holes in either end of the eggs and then blowing out the egg yolk and whites. I think this was a highlight for both of them! (Tip: make sure both holes are a good size or you'll be blowing in vain). The only problem with a blown out egg is that the shell is easier to break, as my two year old found out.   

Does your family decorate eggs at Easter? Have you ever made pysanka?

Brie is the mom of a 4 year old daughter “the girl” and 2 old son “the boy”. You can read her blog at Capital Mom.