IT IS time for those sweet chocolate Easter indulgences. The shops have been tempting for quite a few weeks with their Easter egg displays and many would have to admit that an extra chocolate treat has already been added to the supermarket shopping cart.
Traditional Easter hot cross buns are features in the bakery. If traditional cinnamon and spice is not to your palate’s liking or if you are finding it hard to choose between eggs or hot cross buns, fear not, you can have both in a chocolate bun.
The choccy egg foil wrappers reflect what’s popular and looking at King Island supermarket shelves, footy seems to win again and packaging is important, so there’s dinosaurs and kid’s favourite cartoon characters. There are bunnies cute or cartoony, packets of quail size eggs for Easter Sunday egg hunts, filled and not filled, speckled, popping candy, dairy and gluten free, vegan and big.
Giant eggs and artisan, handmade eggs are all the rage online. As consumers seem to no longer be satisfied with boiling eggs, dab a bit of wax or use onion skins and messy dye to decorate eggs, there’s plenty of decorate your egg kits this year. Giant eggs with hidden fillings or treats while commercially the rage, they really hit the pocket pricewise.
In line with off island retailers, the island offers soft and fluffy Peter Rabbits as well as long leg gangly country style stuffed hares and cutsie chicken soft toys. As winter is not far away, while not providing kid eggliciousness and eggcitement, the stores do have the other Easter fall back choices, which have grown in popularity as chocolate alternatives and can become a family tradition – new winter PJs, slippers, and ‘onesies’.
Off island families, similar to Christmas, are giving gift cards and choosing to eat out at an adult lunch, as a way to make Easter special and consider this better value.
As the holiday break is four or five days, depending where you live, King Islanders hope for some sunshine and as with many mainlanders, pack the camping gear and hit other parts of the island with family and friends or look at that veggie garden and get planting.
Phoenix House will have their annual Easter Egg hunt in the Community Garden 25 Meech Street on Sunday 9 April starting at 10.30 am, followed by a barbecue.