BRITISH vs AMERICAN EASTER: the Differences 

We got a new dress, dress shoes, a hat and gloves. But, then, I’m older than you, Julie.

The marshmallow bunnies and chicks were called “PEEPS” made in PA. When I (an American) lived in Rhodesia, we made EASTER nests for the kids with colored grass leading to the nests which the kids had to find in the garden. We made crosses out of the palms we got on Palm Sunday.

Peeps are the marshmallow candy you were trying to remember. We also received Easter Baskets with candy, a solid chocolate rabbit maybe coloring books crayons and plastic eggs with money in the egg. New clothes were also a big deal. Church was also a special service.

Oh my gosh, Julie your memories of Easter bring back so many lovely memories of my childhood Easters. Got a whole new outfit, had the Easter bunny, ate and hid the real hardboiled eggs but sometimes we didn't find all of them. My dad would when he mowed the lawn months later 🤣

Terry's chocolate oranges Luke mentioned are only sold at Christmas where I live in the central US. I think it must be because they fit so nicely in a Christmas stocking.

I'm Canadian so my Easter traditions aren't like Julie's. However, I believe that's less to do with her being American than her religious affiliation or denomination. Traditions also vary regionally. Other people's experiences might vary on that account as well. My parents were devout Mennonites. No frivolities or fantasies like Easter bunnies and egg hunts or even Santa for me. At a very young age I was taught that only Jesus was real. As a young child, the first time I was told that soldiers nailed Christ to the cross on account of my sins, I was traumatized to inconsolable weeping. Yes, I'd put red shoe polish on my lips once to see what (forbidden) lipstick might look like and got spanked for it, but was that so evil as to merit such pain to the Son of God? I had questions. Always. I did, however, get new spring/summer clothes and got to choose what I wanted from the catalogue; however, that was mainly a practical thing as I'd mostly outgrown last year's clothing. With the arrival of a more liberal pastor, things relaxed a little as I got older so I also got some hard candy eggs, a chocolate rabbit and chocolate eggs. Chocolate covered marshmallow bunnies or eggs were the worst imposters. I'd pick one thinking it was chocolate and bit into a mess of odiously sweet goop. Though my mother made the most delicious paska (Easter bread) I much preferred Christmas as it had better food--turkey rather than ham and way more cookies along with candles and a tree for better atmosphere. That said, I still buy myself a (solid chocolate) bunny from a top tier chocolatier every year simply for the childish pleasure of biting its ears off. Deeply satisfying, that.

Luke, on American Easter: "It sounds a bit kitch to me." I had to laugh because I had childhood Easters exactly as Julie describes, down to the plastic eggs filled with candy and the new clothes for Easter Day church. They were definitely kitch. But they were also wonderful. And, most American children probably don't sleep much on Easter night thanks to sugar-induced mania..

Easter Week is my absolute favorite time of the year! Our traditions (growing up in New England and New York) were much like Julie's. The new Easter dresses were enormously important, especially walking into Church as everyone else was checking them out! We dyed eggs that the Easter Bunny hid, and we always had an Easter basket waiting when we woke up. As far as gifts, they were small, always included a stuffed animal of some sort, and were things the Easter Bunny knew we'd appreciate for a long time - a book, a piece of costume jewelry, something like that. BUT, Julie, I'm surprised you didn't receive a cross made from the palms on Palm Sunday. We always looked forward to getting them and hung them on our bedroom walls until they were replaced the subsequent year.

In Lithuania the Palm Sunday is celebrated by making very intricate dried flower, weeds and juniper arrangements, which have a shape of a staff. In the morning of Palm Sunday the first person who wakes up, takes the staff and goes around the house lightly hitting sleeping people and saying - it’s not me who’s hitting you, it’s the staff. On Easter Sunday - some people go to church, some don’t. But we all eat Easter breakfast with hardboiled eggs which are decorated with various patterns : natural dyes made out of onion skins, herbs or painted with vax and dipped into different dyes to reveal multi colored eggs.

We called Easter Grass in the Easter Baskets...Yes all the candies Julie's saying yes we got as well..Great to know England's traditional Easter.)(Dinner after Church was usually Baked ham,mom added pineapple rings marishino cherries on top of the ham.Potatoe salad,devil eggs,Greens, macaroni and cheese,corn,Yeast Rolls.

I remember many of the same things other Americans have mentioned here. I always got a big chocolate covered egg in my basket that was filled with a firm candy filling that contained nuts, sometimes cherries or coconut and you would cut slices of it off. In addition, we always had pictures taken in our new outfits with our Easter baskets. And I always loved (and still do) singing Christ the Lord is Risen Today at church. The music at church is always very joyous and celebratory including a brass quintet. Easter dinner always included ham.

We blew eggs,that was for fancy decorating.

I grew up many places in the US. We always got a palm frond or spear on Palm Sunday. We also got a special Easter dress and hat. The marshmallow candy you are looking for is Peeps. When I moved to Colorado for marriage, my husband’s family always got huge chocolate eggs filled with more chocolate from a candy and ice cream shop that has sadly gone out of business. My children remember it fondly.

Now in the USA it is now not permitted to have toys in the centre of chocolate eggs. You can carry a gun, but you cannot have a toy inside chocolate.

Thanks for the memories of Easter. My mom would take me shopping for a new dress, gloves, patent leather shoes & purse. Yes, we would go to church on Easter Sunday, then have egg hunt & a course we got a basket filled with goodies. My mom would make a sweet braided bread with the palm fronds around the bread from Palm Sunday. Then we would get together with my aunts, uncles & cousins for a family meal. Hope you, Luke & family have a great Easter.

In Canada, we are culturally a real mixture between American and British traditions, as we are commonwealth country.

PEEPS

We sometimes did blown out decorated eggs (I live in Michigan, USA). Remember the hollow sugar eggs that had beautiful dioramas inside them?

I am from Quebec and the tradtion that is strong here is to collect Easter water at the break of dawn on the sunday morning. This water does not corrupt and is said to have healing virtues. Brunch is a big thing, families gather and we eat ham usually glazed in maple syrup and omelet and of course every children is getting it's own chicken shaped chocolate.

I’m glad to report that we had a mixture of both of your Easter celebrations! New clothes, shoes hats and gloves for church. We did get palm on Palm Sunday and made them into crosses ourselves. We woke up to baskets filled with Easter “grass” candy, mostly chocolate and marshmallows peeps! Small toys. We did dye hard boiled eggs and sometimes they would be in the basket, but not always. We had egg hunts that were more like Luke’s. But later on plastic eggs found their way into the hunt, filled with tiny toys or money! Always had lots of family for a large ham dinner! Great memories of family and cousins!

In PA we got a new Easter dress- and COAT! My grandmother bought them, I suppose she did it for all the grandchildren but I never noticed anyone else’s... I wonder what she did for the grandsons. New suits? She didn’t give gifts other than birthdays and Christmas, but she always bought church coats for winter and spring. We blew out eggs too- not just “European”.

For us Palm Sunday we got our palm’s and made our cross, I still do it lol. As kids we had a whole new outfit shoes, dress, glove, hat and little purse. We colored eggs the night before and after church we had our egg hunt and our Easter baskets. We had chocolate bunnies but the best was the fudge egg my Grandma had made for all us kids. And Luke there is no Easter chicken lol. I will never for get the Easter my sister was chased my Grandma’s Bantam chickens 🐓. 😆🇺🇸

We would get a skipping rope, I remember getting a hoola hoop one year. That colored plastic we called it straw. We also got chocolate eggs and egg shaped candy. Happy Easter

Marshmallow chicks and bunnies were Peeps!

I grew up in the time before plastic eggs. One year we dyed 12 dozen eggs! Yes! 144 eggs! Our dad taught us how to tell the difference between a raw egg and a hard boiled egg… a hard boiled egg spins and a raw egg doesn’t.

I think that we, in New England (or at least on the farm in Vermont), may have stayed closer to English roots -- we absolutely hunted for small, foil-covered chocolate eggs and definitely decorated blown-out eggs rather than hard boiled.

I haven't seen anyone mention those cakes in the three-dimensional shape of a small, resting lamb, frosted with white frosting and coconut. The cake was usually very dense and dry, so we spooned strawberries or chocolate syrup over our slices.

I’m American but actually the British Easter sounds better! A BIG chocolate egg?! 😋 yummy!

It's nice to know how the British celebrate Easter. I've learned so much from Luke about the way they celebrate their Christmas, Valentine's, and now Easter!

Easter grass in the basket

Grew up in Canada...we blew out the eggs to paint the shell case. Hunted for chocolate Easter eggs that The Bunny hid. We always also hada store basket each with Easter candy and a skipping rope or outdoor toy. Our Terry's Chocolate Orange was only at Christmas in our sock. Yes, on Palm Sunday we took home blessed Palms for the home. I thought Palms depended on you religion or specific church.

Easter USA 1960s …. Friday night, after church, decorate dozens of hard boiled eggs with PAAS coloring ready for the Easter Bunny to hide. Saturday morning you grab your special basket and hunt, in the lawn, for colored eggs and a tall chocolate bunny. Then elaborate brunch to include deviled eggs. Yum. Sunday morning slip on your pastel Easter dress, Easter bonnet, white gloves, and off to church. Then Easter dinner at 3pm, spring lamb with mint jelly.

You are on the verge of 100K subscribers!!!!! Really enjoy watching/listening to Julie & Luke!!

Please pray for me and my children this passover. I’m ready to give up. I lost my job as a social worker because I declined the vaccine. I declined due to my pre existing health condition (Lupus) and heart disease. I’m on a bunch of medications including blood thinners. I was denied my medical/religious exemption from my job. I’m so ashamed and embarrassed over my situation. Since losing my job I’ve been struggling to make ends meet. I’m a single mother with two young autistic children. Every month it feels like me and the boys are facing homelessness. Struggling daily to provide groceries. I am so overwhelmed, it’s so hard on me. I am all alone no family nor friends to help me durning this time. Please keep me and my children in your prayers this easter. God bless.

We always got new hats, dresses, purses, socks and shoes and gloves for Easter Sunday church. Egg hunts always included those marshmallow peeps in our baskets as well as a Terry's Easter egg (chocolate orange - for all occasions, gosh I love Terry's still have two in my freezer from xmas.......mmmmm) Happy Easter to all at Mapperton from Ontario Canada.......cheers!

Our American Easter was a combination of both Julie's and Luke's experiences. We all received new Easter outfits as well, even new shoes and Easter bonnets (that's what our Gran would call them) or fancy matching headbands. It was a celebration of springtime, a fresh new season, and it represented new life! Colouring Easter eggs was generally done on the Saturday before Easter in our household. We would start Easter morning by attending the Easter Sunrise service, followed by the Easter service at our church. Afterward, we would have longtime reservations for Easter brunch at a special restaurant. Returning home, we would then do our annual Easter egg hunt with all of our siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, close family friends, and even a few neighbor kids. Our plastic eggs would have messages written on them in marker: "He Is Risen!", "He Is Risen Indeed!", "Hallelujah!", "Happy Easter!", "Happy Ressurection Day!", John 3:16-17" and "JESUS LOVES YOU!", etc. They would contain I.O.U's, with a promise for a scoop of ice cream from our favorite ice cream shop, or a cinema ticket, jellybeans, bubble gum, small trinket toys, and even coins! There was always 'The Golden Egg'; which held a $20.00 bill! Later, we had a large traditional Easter dinner. In our family, it was usually a honey-baked ham with all of the traditional side dishes: Scallop potatoes, potato salad, and, or, mashed potatoes, freshly baked dinner rolls, green beans, Julian carrots (of course), roasted corn on and off the cobb, and various other salads, which included freshly cut fruit salad. As we grew older, our Easter baskets became more sophisticated. The girls (teens) would receive make-up, fragrance, higher quality chocolates, and a special piece of jewelry (cross, a heart, flower, a Holy Spirit dove necklace, or bracelet). The boys would receive playing cards, drum stix, new guitar strings, a harmonica, music CDs, gift cards, etc. In addition, we all would receive a new devotional to keep us grounded on the true meaning of the holiday. Oh, how I miss those days, especially now when so many of my family members have gone on to be with the Lord in heaven.

I can reme.ber my mother ordering us, 1 girl, 2 boys, new clothes from either JC Penbeys or Sears, new dress,HAT and shoes! Hard boiled eggs dipped a few days before if not the night before Easter. Yes, Easter hunts. No plastic ones. My own children had both. Church.

I’m a southerner here in the US and we did the whole Easter outfit and hat too but chocolate was huge with us - Easter basket full of it - of course the marshmallow was obligatory but my least favorite- we always got a big chocolate bunny and the big thing was if it was solid or hollow. The baskets were filled with plastic grass and of course we dyed eggs but my mother usually only made egg salad with the ones that didn’t sit outside in the warm spring air waiting to be found lol.

Peeps, yes everything you described Julie, lol. Your basket would have colored grass, pink, green, yellow etc.

My parents were first generation American so most of the traditions in my home were very much like Luke’s. We had lots of the foil wrapped chocolate eggs. Those giant chocolate eggs that Luke mentioned ended up in my Easter basket, along with some giant chocolate rabbits , no plastic. I guess it all Depended on your parents hanging on to European traditions here in America.

I think it is time for Julie to acknowledge her American traditions are her family traditions. I grew up in the northwest, and our holiday traditions are very different from what you experienced in Chicago. It truly is amazing we have an Easter bunny and religious Easter traditions, is very similar to Santa Claus and Christmas

I’m an American and we always got palms at church on Palm Sunday. Only a few people usually knew how to turn them into crosses. We also didn’t hunt for actual hard boiled eggs- we had the plastic eggs with candy inside. The hard boiled eggs were just for decoration and eating. But I agree that we believed they were hidden by the Easter Bunny and not the parents.

Julie, you are talking about Marshmallow Peeps and Chicks.

Our Easter traditions in the US, of course church and egg hunts. Since my children were young and now with our 10 grandchildren everyone gets together to color and decorate eggs. We also have an Easter egg hunt with the plastic eggs filled with money and candy. Our kids always got an Easter basket full of goodies and now they do the same foe their children.

I lived in Chicago from 1966-73 then we moved to Eastern Ohio. I remember only a few things about Easter growing up. It was a very low key Holiday in our family. Until I was 16, I always got a new suit for Easter Sunday church services, (for some reason kept growing out of my old one.) The food was the big thing. In Eastern Ohio, a lot of traditions came from Southern European (Greek and Italian) and Eastern European (Polish, Czech, Slovakian, Romanian and Ukrainian) due to the large imigrant populations. Polish Paczki (kind of a jelly doughnut), Greek and Italian Easter Bread, Lamb, Asparagus (because it just comes into season at Easter in Ohio). Some of the colored eggs were always spectacular. Delicately painted by the older women in the Eastern Orthodox churches.

Peeps are the marshmallows you are speaking of.

My English Easter was hot cross buns for breakfast then church come home to the chocolate easter eggs and an easter cake at tea time ... the best/worst time was when my dad had bought the most beautiful chocolate eggs for my mum ,me, and my brother to find that our dog Penny had eaten the lot by the time we got back from church when i was bour 4-5 yrs old ... i was so upset and still get upset even now at age 60 :) lol ,, my dad went right out the nxt day to get replacements but they were not half as beautiful as those eaten by our dog tho

Julie did you carry on your traditions at Easter with your children? 🐣🐇

At Easter, I could hardly wait for the baked ham with pineapple sauce! 82 years later I still enjoy the same thing!!!!! Happy Easter to you both and your family. Cheers!

They were cold peeps and I would always get the pink ones because that’s my favorite color

I think you mean peeps. Peeps are marshmallow candy shaped like chicks!!

Our plastic Easter eggs would be filled with a 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100. There would be like one 100, two 50s and multiple eggs with the other dollar amounts, you could only pick up a certain amount of plastic eggs, and if you looked in the egg they would make you sit out for the rest of the Easter a egg hunt, you had to wait and see what you got after the egg hunt was over. During the hunt there would be hard boiled eggs too.

Ohio, USA here: I also grew up going to church every Sunday. I'm 20 years older than Julie, so we had "Sunday clothes" that were different than School Clothes and certainly not Play Clothes that you changed into after school or church. We did get a new dress for Easter, plus new black patent shoes, maybe a hat and little white gloves. I don't think we had Easter baskets, but we did have an egg hunt after church. But it was real hard boiled eggs (this was in the 50s and 60s -- I don't think there were plastic eggs then.) My dad hid all the eggs and sometimes he forgot where they all were and we would find them weeks later --rotted of course! lol. Luke: we did blow out eggs and color the shells. but then we taped one end and filled the shell with Jell-O so when you peeled off the shell you had a Jell-O egg. Also, Luke, I gave my kids Terry's chocolate Oranges!! in their Easter baskets and in Christmas stockings!

When I was little in the early 1960's.We had the Easter Bunny sit on the back of a convertible and toss candy to us as he was driven down the street! I got a new dress and hat each year back then.I love coloring Easter Eggs. My Mom would put the yummiest Easter candy in baskets! Happy memories! Happy Easter from Vermont

Peeps! Marshmallow chicks and bunnies are called Peeps.

PEEPS, Julie! And, they are still available! They now have brightly colored sprinkles on them.

I love these videos, for Easter we have an Easter egg hunt first thing in the morning and then we have a big lunch usually a leg of lamb.

It's funny, because I remember my grandmother talking about the people who never came to church except on Easter Sunday! She said that they just wanted to show off their Easter outfits! I hadn't thought about that for years!

I make each of my gran children aged 15years to 2 years a Easter bag decorated, they then have the Easter hunt, collect all the eggs which are shared equally between them after, it’s very competitive and fun day, I live on a acreage in a beautiful rural setting, it’s a fun happy family day, followed by big lunch on the deck with views of the Gold Coast bliss, I’m one happy Oma🐰🐰

Peeps were the marshmallow bunnies and chicks, 🐇🐥, my favorite as a child. Dying Easter eggs the evening before was so fun❣ Getting a kite to fly was great! Sometimes we would get a bottle of bubbles, or yo-yo. We would also get a new Easter dress, sometimes a spring dress coat and white gloves❣ My brother would get new dress pants, shirt and bow tie or a tie. These of course would be new church clothes.

They’re called Peeps. They are amazing when toasted over a campfire! The outside sugar forms a crusty layer and the inside is ooey gooey. Yum! The stuff in your basket is grass. Sometimes made from crinkled paper and sometimes it was made of plastic.

We live in Kansas, which is a couple of states south and a hair to the the west of where Julie is from. My sister and I always got a new Easter dress and shoes. Our Easter baskets, left for us by the Easter bunny, always had little foil covered chocolate eggs, a chocolate bunny, marshmallow eggs maybe a book or small toy. We always went to church and then home for a big Easter family lunch. Baked ham, deviled eggs, scalloped potatoes and lots of desserts to follow.

We would made crosses out of the Palm Sunday Palms!

Along with candy, We also got new underwear in our baskets--go figure!!!

American catholic here: same as Julie's but we got palms on palm Sunday. Also....they're called Peeps. Marshmallow, sugar covered chick's, but on holidays they do corresponding shapes (trees on xmas, bunnies for easter)Easter. Easter is adopted from pagan traditions, hence the chocolate bunnies 🤣 we got chocolate oranges too. They're disgusting. Luke, let her TALK. The decorated eggs are just for decorating. The searching eggs are plastic because if you couldn't find a real egg there's nothing like it.

Luke the real cooked Easter eggs were colored , found and then my mom would make deviled eggs with them and we would have them with our dinner.yummy.

There are also chocolat eggs also in France at Easter time

Growing up in my era we received a palm frond on Palm Easter. We always had a new dress for Easter. Of course we decorated eggs earlier and they were hidden and we had a hunt after Church. We stuffed ourselves on eggs and candy out of our basket before a large family dinner. Often dinner was a leg of lamb.

We in the United States, received little crosses made out of palm reeds at church on Palm Sunday. This was the Episcopalian Church, the US version of the Church of England.

You forgot about having hot cross buns on Good Friday! Easter is a big holiday here in Spain as it is a largely Catholic country. A lot of houses have palm fronds up as decoration, on the outside.

I love Easter! All those eggs and the hunt too! We had peek-a-boo eggs made by one candy company (See’s). Oh the dresses and shoes and gloves too! I got a palm leaf (not the cross ❤️). What a lovely episode (and thank you for my picture)

We got a new dress, blew out eggs and decorated them. Not always candy but a gift...Lone year a watch, another year a camera, another year a record album.....

We get palms on Palm Sunday in the US.

The marshmallows chicks are called Peeps.

We have large the chocolate eggs in the US within our Italian tradition

New Easter dress and white patent leather Mary Jane shoes!

You are so close to 100,000 subscribers! Like that will be your next video announcement. Yeah. Happy Easter to you all.

Marshmellow Easter eggs are still popular here in the American Mid-West.

💯🌷🐣 Happy Easter

Easter for me growing up in the 70’s we had eggs that we blew the egg out of the middle and then we decorated them with felt tip pens. We then had soft scrambled egg on toast for breakfast. Afterwards our parents gave us a Cadbury’s egg filled with sweets or chocolate, then we would have roast lamb for Sunday lunch. We would get a chocolate orange from one set of grandparents with some money, and our other grandparents would buy us a giant chocolate egg which would be nestled in the top of a mug which would have something like a picture of a nursery rhyme on the front. To this day I still have a Jack and Jill mug which I keep at my parents house. Sadly my grandparents are no longer with us, but seeing that mug and eating roast dinner on Easter Sunday at my parents house brings back great memories.

Peeps! 🤢

Greeting from Carmel by the Sea - yes Julie, new Easter dresses (mostly pink) and baskets galore.... I wrote to the Easter bunny to wake me to no avail... One year our golden retriever Katchina had a literal 'field day' when she discovered and ate her way through all of the glorious colored hidden eggs in the garden - Lucky Ducks to have such happy memories of this special holiday. Wishing everyone much love, peace and a very Happy Easter xoxo

LOL! As a Canadian (UK-lite), we celebrated Easter exactly the same way that Luke's family commemorated the season. We did however get new dresses (or suits for boys) and bonnets to wear to church.

Peeps and Easter grass, Julie. My mom would always decorate my Easter basket with pretty ribbons too. Some of the plastic eggs would have coins inside when we were little. For a while, we lived next to my grandparents. That was the best. Our Easter baskets were waiting there and we would have our Easter egg hunt in their backyard. You didn't quite get to Easter dinner, but I'm sure you did that as well. We always had ham and often a pineapple upside down cake. We don't hide much chocolate - it would all melt, even on Easter.

We got new shoes for Easter and inside the box was a small toy and a plastic egg filled with jelly beans. As adults my father would hide an egg filled with candy in the most impossible places to find. I remember one year it took one of my brothers almost the entire afternoon to find it. We still laugh and tell the story every year.

In Austria we get eggs, real and chocolate and also chocolate bunnys, wrapped in aluminium foil, where there is clothing and face printed on. Those are always hollow figures.

marshmellow chicks = peeps!

Fabulous 🎉 happy Easter

I grew up in Montreal, Canada and had a similar Easter experience as Luke's. Thank you for the nostalgic memories!

Julie, Jelly Beans!!👏❤️

We would get a new dress and shoes too. We would each get a basket filled with candy and small toys. Sometimes on the Saturday before Easter we would go to an Easter egg hunt which was the plastic eggs filled with mini chocolates. We would have Easter dinner with our relatives around 3pm. The game was to see who could make their Easter candy last the longest. We would color eggs but use those as part of dinner, then breakfast during the week.

Listening to you both im just about rolling on the floor laughing, i must admit ive never been on an easter egg hunt. We were absolutely spoilt with easter eggs, my all time favorite was and still is at 71yrs the hard royal icing rainbow colored eggs.

I love egg salad sandwiches! I’m sure one at a Mapperton would be divine. Although I might defer to Julie to make one. 😊

Are You ,Talking About Peeps Marshmellows?

The marshmallow candies are called “Peeps”. I had the same Easter traditions.🥰

So fun! The yellow marshmallow chicks are called Peeps.

Congratulations hitting 100k………marshmello bunnies and chicks are PEEPS…..GREAT vlog❤️

Delightful! I enjoy seeing my American culture through the eyes of a Brit! Having been born in the 40s, with a southern mother and a northern father whose parents came here from Europe, my traditions have a mixture of both of your traditions. Loved the solid chocolate bunnies in my Easter basket. (PS some of us did know how to blow out the contents of the egg before decorating them. That I learned from my southern mother.)

Had to laugh at the idea of the Easter bunny hiding the eggs or leaving baskets of treats for children. I remember decorating hard boiled eggs and eating a lot of chocolate every Easter Sunday growing up!

They are called Peeps