DEAR Jasminda,

What are the expectations for Easter presents this year?

I just went to the shops for my grandchildren and there are Easter trees, Easter decorations, Easter wreaths, Easter clothes, and on it goes.

Brian W.

Dear Brian,

Wreaths? Trees? Decorations?

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas (feel free to sing in Michael Buble’s baritone voice).

It would appear Easter eggs aren’t bringing in enough retail dollars, so now we have Easter activity cases and Easter egg wreaths and flocked Easter bunnies made of polyfoam and polyethylene terephthalate, and this little bunny isn’t falling for any of it.

The only Easter expectations are the ones you place on yourself, but I can almost guarantee that your grandkids will be far more excited by a challenging mini egg hunt in the backyard than unwrapping bits of plastic wrapped in (you guessed it) bits of plastic.

And no, they don’t need egg-hunt grabbers (that look very much like rainbow-coloured poop-scoopers), because most of them have these handy things called hands.

Just make sure you roll the foil wrapping into a fist-sized ball before recycling.

Or perhaps you could suggest that your grandkids join you in hand-dyeing some eggs or baking some homemade Easter buns.

Yes, I know you can get them straight off the shelves (and have been able to since Christmas), but nothing beats the smell of freshly-baked buns.

Carpe diem,
Jasminda.