Stuck for things to do over Easter? How about keeping the kids amused and away from the Xbox with some traditional Easter activities. They are all really simple to do, great fun for all ages and don't cost a fortune.

Egg Decorating

Painting eggs is really easy and a great way of creating Easter decorations for the home. Once decorated they can be hung from bunches of twigs in vases or sat in egg cups and displayed on your mantelpiece.

Before starting to decorate the eggs, you will need to blow them. This involves making a hole either end of the egg with a needle, making one hole slightly larger than the other. When making the larger hole make sure the needle pierces the yolk as this will make it easier to remove the contents. Then, holding the egg over a bowl, blow through the smaller hole and the contents of the egg should come out via the larger hole. Leaving you with a completely hollow egg ready for decorating. Just remember to make sure your egg is at room temperature before you start, an egg straight out of the fridge is much harder to blow.

Once you have your empty egg you can get creative with paint, pens, glitter, sequins, paper, pipe cleaners to create patterns or characters. How about setting the decorators a challenge to create an egg that captures the likeness of a friend or family member?

Easter Card Making

Another really simple idea for an alternative to giving Easter eggs to friends and family is to create custom made cards.

You can pick up coloured card relatively cheaply from craft or stationery shops that will create your base for the card. Fold this in half and then start decorating with cut out Easter shapes, paint, crayons, glitter, twigs, pictures from old Easter cards or magazines. For anyone stuck for ideas giving them a theme to work from might help get their creative juices flowing. Easter chicks, Spring, humorous, Easter eggs etc. Or they could make it personal to the recipient. Mum, dad, grandpa, sister, best friends etc.

Another great way of making your cards really unique is to think up an Easter poem for the inside of the card. Perhaps set this as a competition for the kids to see who comes up with the best one?

Chocolate Easter Nests

Making chocolate Easter nests could not be easier. All you need is:

1 box of shredded wheat (16 large biscuits, 400 grams of milk chocolate, mini eggs for decorating (about 200 grams), a big bowl for mixing it together, a small bowl for melting the chocolate and 30 cupcake cases.

Start by crushing up the shredded wheat biscuits into the large bowl. Then break the chocolate into small pieces and melt in the microwave on a low heat. Remember to give the chocolate a stir every 30 seconds or so.

Once melted pour the chocolate into the large bowl and give everything a good stir until the chocolate evenly coats the shredded wheat.

Finally put a large spoonful of the mixture into a cupcake case and press the centre of the mix down slightly (creating somewhere to put the mini eggs). Press the mini eggs into the middle of each chocolate nest and refrigerate for around an hour until the chocolate has set.