When Did Americans Start Celebrating the Easter Bunny?

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The German immigrant tradition of the Easter Bunny and colorful eggs in a basket (started by German Lutherans) was a favorite time of the spring for our family. 

Growing up as a kid in the 60’s and 70’s you were excited to wake up early Easter morning to large, colorful (candy) eggs that were about half the size of a normal real egg.

 


 

German-Easter-Bunny

Original Author: Bethany Blankley

The Easter Bunny first gained popularity in America in the early twentieth century. It was depicted as a colorful rabbit bringing Easter eggs and candy in a basket to small children.

First called the Easter Hare, and made popular by German Lutherans, the bunny was supposed to judge whether or not children had been “good or bad.” The bunny’s story…

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It was a big reward for all of us siblings to collect as many eggs as possible as we searched all over the house for them high and low. They were carefully hidden by the Easter Bunny the night before while we were all sleeping.

Sometimes the Easter Bunny would hide his eggs in the most amusing places too. One year I discovered an Easter egg that was hidden in the salt shaker on the kitchen table.

As a small child growing up, the thought of the annual Easter Bunny coming to our house brought about somewhat of an anxiety attack. The thought of him at that time was terrifying.

harvey2

Keep in mind from my adolescent “kid” prospective, there was a movie that was aired every Easter weekend featuring James Stewart. The movie was called, “Harvey.”

This “Harvey” movie used to scare me and my younger brothers senseless, mostly because Harvey was presumed to be somewhat very large compared to us little kids.

Harvey was said to be 6 foot tall (actually 6’3 1/2″) and the very worst thing of all… he was invisible too!

 

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