Whether it’s the promise of sunny days ahead, or the festivities themselves, it’s easy to catch the excitement that comes with the Spring holidays of Easter and Passover. They’re also a great opportunity to spend quality (read: not a screen in sight!) time with your kids getting crafty. Here are some of our favorite ideas for a non-toxic Easter and Passover, and some tips on things to avoid, for safe, family-friendly springtime festivities!
A Tisket A Toxin?
First what to avoid. There are 2 big ones we’re highlighting for you. First, you might think we’re going to mention egg dye, but surprise! Even with traditional food dyes, very little of the dye actually ends up on the shells, and even less in the egg inside them. So, while not ideal, if you’re looking for the classic, technicolor eggs, dying eggs once a year is not going to be your most concerning interaction with these dyes.
These same synthetic colorings are however extremely concerning from a health standpoint when they’re consumed in foods like candy and cereals, because of their link to a host of health concerns and hyperactivity in children. A study of the nine currently US-approved food dyes raised health concerns of cancer, genotoxicity and hypersensitivity and recommended all colorings be replaced only if necessary by safer colorings. Confusingly, the dyes can also contain impurities that are themselves hazards, such as in the case of Yellow 5, which is in and of itself a lower concern in food, but can contain impurities linked to hyperactivity and neurobehavioral effects. The best way to avoid food dyes is to read the labels as even white icing and brown cereal can contain artificial dyes like Yellow5 and Yellow6! For more information on this and some great tips, check out this blog post.
And, if you attend a local celebration where they are offering a face paint artist, do your best to steer clear. Face paint and cosmetics aimed at children have come under fire for their particularly poor make-up (no pun intended), as they often contain hazardous levels of metals like lead (a neurotoxin of which there is no safe level for children), nickel, cobalt and chromium which are skin allergens. Exposure to these metals is sadly commonplace due to poor restriction in the cosmetic category. For more information on this topic, check out our blog post.
Your Non-Toxic Easter & Passover Guide
Get crafty!
Crafts the whole family can enjoy making and playing with together make the holidays even more fun (and last longer too!). For Passover, we are in love with this felt seder plate craft for toddlers and these afikoman bags that kids of all ages can enjoy. This insanely cute 10 plagues craft could easily segue into a funny kid-centered puppet show or play to keep the fun going! Bigger kids (or supervised littles!) could make a lasting keepsake with these gorgeous Seder plates.
For Easter, we love commemorating little ones’ teeny hands and feet with these handprint chick puppets and footprint bunnies. Get bigger kids in on the fun with creative ideas like potato stamping and Easter Egg Wreaths! For non-toxic Easter egg dye, we love these homemade recipes, because while conventional dyes may not be the scariest enemy for this holiday, we love the subtle, organic hues of the noncommercial dyes. Once your imagination gets going, you’ll be inspired to fill up those non-toxic Easter baskets with homemade goodies, organic cotton toys and even ways stuff your eggs with outside-the-candy box ideas like the ones in this roundup that breaks your ideas down by age and this one for bigger kids.
Springtime Cuddle-duds
Looking for some super adorable non-toxic gear for your Littles? Dud them up in some breathable organic, cotton adorable bunny pajamas, Easter bonnets or My First Passover onesies.
However you enjoy preparing for your Spring holidays, our family-safe, non-toxic cleaning system, Force of Nature, is here to help you clean up after even the glitteriest, gluey-est craft session! Learn more about the simple, household ingredients that make up our safe, effective cleaning solution here.
