When my son was young, we dyed eggs for Easter. Oh my, what chaos! But he had so much fun, how could I say no? My sister would come over and join in the festivities (and mess). Our favorite dyes were those oily swirl type paints.

Some of the eggs turned out so pretty, it was a real shame to destroy and eat them later. So we decided to dye either hollowed out real eggs or use the plastic type that split apart--that allowed us to keep them indefinitely.

Martha Stewart online has some great egg decorating ideas this month.

I decided that an egg tree would be the perfect place to display our works of art. The tree was easy to make. All I did was go into my yard and prune off a young scrubby tree. I think I use part of a dogwood bush. A young buckthorn would also work well. (Heaven knows there are plenty of those around!) You can purchase ready made trees too.

After you trim the little tree to a pleasing shape, spray with white spray paint and let dry. You will want to leave the lower trunk a little longer so it can fit into your "stand". (The trunk might need a little whittling to fit it into the stand.)

For the stand, I just used a plastic tub, like the kind Cedar-Crest ice cream comes in. I also took a short piece of metal conduit (make sure your tree trunk fits into it, but any tubular material would work: plastic, PVC, round toothbrush case, etc.) and held it perpendicular in the center of the tub and then poured some mortar mix in around it. I then let it cure overnight. Plaster of Paris would work too, I think.

I put the tree into the conduit tube in the stand (a few Popsicle sticks can take up the extra space and keep the tree straight.) 

The stand goes in a basket with some "grass" on top. I used some natural packing material that came in a food gift basket. You could use that shredded crinkle paper you get from a craft store too. If you do not have a basket, you could use a large circle of pretty fabric and gather it over the whole base and tie with a ribbon or even use wrapping paper.

My tree stand in the basket then goes onto a serving platter that I put more of that "grass" in.

Pick out the prettiest eggs you dyed and glue a narrow ribbon loop on top. I used the blow hole to poke the ribbon ends into and Tacky glue. A small silk flower can cover the hole if it got too large.

You may want to leave some eggs with longer, separate ribbons so you can tie them onto the branches that a loop won't slip over.

Now you are ready to decorate the tree! 

If the eggs are plastic, heat up a metal skewer or nail  in a candle (you can use a pliers to hold the nail so you don't get burned) and melt a hole in the end.  I then made a ribbon loop and knotted it through a bead so I could slip it through the hole to hang.

Here are some countdown ideas:

We hung the real eggs on the tree, but I left 1 to 2 dozen of the plastic ones for the basket top and serving platter.

I placed inside each plastic egg a jelly bean, malted milk ball egg, etc. and a Bible verse pertaining to Easter. If you were really ambitious, you could add a number to the egg, 1-24 and then put the Bible verses inside in chronological order: verses about needing a Savior, Palm Sunday, the arrest, Good Friday, and finally the resurrection. (I never got my act that together.)

I wrote the verses onto card stock and then cut with a pinking sheers. These days there are really fun scissors available--I'm sure children would enjoy making the verse strips. We put a sticker on each strip, but a rubber stamp would work too. You could use the computer and a printer to do this too.

Each day, the child picks an egg, reads the verse (we put the verse back in the egg), eats the treat, and hangs the egg on the tree!

By the time it is Easter, the whole tree is bedecked.

If you have more than one child participating, the eggs could be separated and stored in maybe half of one of those prettier white foam cartons or clear cartons. Or one child maybe has all blue and green eggs, the other pink and yellow, or one has the odd numbers, one the even. You will sort it out.  

Some people place something pertaining to Easter or the verse in each egg if they don't want to use candy: i.e. A cotton ball for Isaiah 1:18 Though you sins be as scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they be red like crimson, They shall be as wool. Other items might be a heavy horseshoe type nail, a small lamb, a thorn, a small palm branch etc. I believe you can purchase a dozen of these eggs with the small item in them at Family Christian Stores .  

 





You can display your treasures in a basket too.

Brown eggs can be quite interesting.

So let the egg-citement begin!

(Sorry, I couldn't resist.) 

I store the bare tree upside down from a basement rafter when not in use--just twist a long wire loop around the trunk and hang from a nail.

Links: Betterbrookfield,  Vicki Mckenna