Easter On Lockdown 2020

How was everyone's Easter? Did you do anything to celebrate it this year despite being on lockdown? I hope it was a lovely one.

We decided to try to keep Easter as normal as possible to reclaim a little normality back in our lives, and have something lovely to look forward to amidst the craziness. We totally nailed it, as well! Apart from a couple of minute differences, it wasn't any different to any other Easter we've had. It ended up being a lovely weekend, and it was great to have the distraction from reality.

On Good Friday, I put up Easter decorations in my bedroom so I could feel festive while resting in bed. I never actually managed to take any photos of my room decorated for Easter this year because I was in too much pain to move around, but it looked very similar to last year's efforts, so I've included a photo from last Easter instead. 

I spent the Saturday afternoon making homemade Easter crackers and table favours ready for our family meal on Easter Sunday. As I still had supplies left over from last year and didn't want to put anyone in danger packing and delivering a new online craft order, I just ended up making the same pastel pom pom crackers as last year- with contrasting pastel satin ribbons and pom pom buttons. I filled them with mini chocolate bunnies from Hotel Chocolat, which I snagged online from John Lewis with 30% off before Easter. The solid caramel chocolate bunnies were sooo good. 

For the table favours, I filled pastel-striped cone bags from Hobbycraft with mini Lindt, M&Ms, Smarties, and Cadbury eggs, which was all we could scavenge this Easter. I usually add in more variety and fancier brands, but for obvious reasons, I couldn't be fussy this year, and was grateful I was able to find anything to give at all.

I had a lazy Easter Sunday morning watching Steel Magnolias (my favourite Easter film that I have to watch every Easter without fail) for the millionth time, and enjoying the Easter themed Bunny Day event on Animal Crossing New Horizons. (Who else is playing ACNH? I'm addicted!) It put me in such a chilled mood for the rest of the day.

I then exchanged Easter eggs with my family. I managed to pick some up from Cadbury's Gifts Direct online a few weeks before Easter, which was a relief as our supermarkets ran out as soon as lockdown began, If I'd waited any longer, I would have missed out as they had such high demand they had to keep pausing new orders.

This was my Easter loot. My parents gave me a chocolate orange Easter egg, and the egg tasted just like a chocolate orange. OMG it was amazing! My sister got me a Galaxy egg, and I treated myself to a Cadbury one, because why not?

Around lunch time, I somehow found the courage to brave the Everest that is The Stairs so I could set the table for Easter lunch. I hadn't been downstairs since early February because my arthritis and fibromyalgia have both been so bad this year, and I've been struggling to bare weight on my knees and feet because the arthritis has been so painful. I've barely even strayed from my bed since Boxing Day. I had the worst aching, radiating pain in my leg on Easter Sunday, so getting out of bed and hobbling down the stairs wasn't the easiest or most sensible thing I've done. I was in agony, but I'm stubborn AF, and wanted to enjoy Easter lunch with my family, and make the table look pretty for it, so I powered through, with a little help from my Mum who did most of the leg work to and from the kitchen.

I made our Easter table super colourful using my favourite Easter table linens and pastel crockery. (You know you're getting old when you have favourite tableware, and look forward to using them)! I bought the table linens from John Lewis a couple of years ago, and started collecting the Port Meirion x Sophie Conran Colour Pop china around the same time. I still bloody love them; the colours are such a mood-lifter.

I added in my handmade Easter crackers, and pastel-striped bags of mini Easter eggs to every plate, plus a couple of egg-shaped bowls full of chocolate eggs to the table, which we were munching on as we got ready for lunch. The only thing that was missing was some fresh spring flowers. I think the table looked really cheerful, and the parents seemed to like it, too. Apparently I'm a creature of habit, though; the first photo is this year's table, and the second was what I came up with last year. Well, if it ain't broke...

We sat down for our meal around half two, and had a turkey roast with all the trimmings, Christmas-style. My Mum actually managed to find us a turkey crown from the local butchers (we'd normally get a whole frozen turkey but couldn't get one anywhere), and all the ingredients to make my homemade trifle. We just swapped the usual raspberries and blackberries from a local farm shop for a bag of mixed frozen berries from the supermarket, and it was almost as good as usual. The food was all delicious, and the only real difference to the meal this year was having regular roast potatoes instead of delicious goose fat ones, which was regretable but not the end of the world. My sister and brother-in-law were also missing from the meal- but they weren't going to be able to get the time off work to visit this Easter, anyway, virus or no virus.

The sun was shining and we had the patio doors open while we ate, with The Beatles playing cheerful tunes of days gone by in the background. It was a lovely meal, and just what we needed during these not-so-lovely times.

After lunch, I crawled back up to bed, and continued to play Animal Crossing while watching some TV. I was going to watch another Easter film, but I think I ended up binge-watching The Big Bang Theory again. I read for a while, and had turkey sandwiches and leftover trifle for tea later in the evening. It was a good day.

Easter Monday was spent watching The Sound of Music (another Easter ritual I observe almost every year), and playing more Animal Crossing while munching on some Easter chocolate, and eating more leftover trifle.

It was just the kind of Easter I was hoping for, and even though we were on lockdown, it really wasn't that different than it would normally be. We always celebrate Easter at home and never go anywhere on Easter Sunday or Monday, so I'm pleased lockdown didn't ruin our Easter. It was just a shame my sister and brother-in-law couldn't make it, and that my Dad was unable to go to church over Easter, which is important to him, but considering we were on lockdown during a global pandemic, I think it was a success, and far better than any of us expected it to be.

Hopefully next year we'll all be able to enjoy Easter out of lockdown with out families and friends, and all the little things we usually enjoy but couldn't do this year.

Did you celebrate Easter this year? How did you make the best of it on lockdown?