Things to do this Easter weekend: From egg hunts to virtual church services

The Easter bunny has, mercifully, been assigned key worker status by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, but let’s not beat around the bush: the next four days will undoubtedly be the weirdest Easter weekend yet. No Good Friday pub plans or visiting grandparents this year.

Still, it’s four days off. For (most) workers, it’s a welcome break from back-to-back Teams meetings and Slack notifications. For those on furlough, you’re finally free to annoy all your mates over Houseparty again.

Plus there’s chocolate: being in lockdown won’t put an end to Easter egg hunts and gorging on Lindt bunnies. You just have to think outside the (chocolate) box and make your own — at the very least, it’ll give the kids something to do.

From Good Friday FaceTime parties with all the cousins to virtual getaways, this is a guide to bank holidaying in lockdown.

(Feel-)Good Friday

The forecasters have said it: tomorrow is set to be a scorcher, so fire up the BBQ and order in the Aperol. Bacardi has partnered with Deliveroo to deliver cocktails to Londoners’ doors over the bank holiday and shuttered Scottish restaurant Mac & Wild is delivering its bottled Negroni nationwide.

If gin isn’t your thing, Hacha Agaveria is delivering tequila, mezcal and bottled margaritas, East London’s Signature Brew has launched its “pub in a box” with glasses, snacks, a music quiz and a Spotify playlist, while The Wine List is offering live taste-alongs on YouTube and IGTV. “You’ll taste the wines, get involved and ask the questions you might feel too stupid to usually,” says founder Josh Lachkovic.

You can still have your Good Friday blowout. At 5pm, Peckham mead evangelists Gosnells are hosting a live tasting experience on Instagram TV (you can bag yourself the ingredients bundle for £30 in advance) and from 6pm Sweaty Betty is hosting a live Friday night rave with fitness studio Frame to undo all those hours spent hunched over your homemade desk and get the indoorphins flowing. If you fancy a singalong, karaoke bar Lucky Voice is offering a free month of its online karaoke service for music-lovers stuck at home. All you need is your laptop or phone.

Crack on

Supermarket restrictions are no eggs-cuse for cancelling your egg hunt. You can get your chocolate delivered instead: Dominique Ansel bakery is now delivering its strawberry-shaped egg and marshmallow chicks to homes across London, Covent Garden bakery Ladurée is delivering Easter chocolates nationwide, and Deliveroo’s door-to-door egg service includes an adults-only Cointreau egg and an “invisible” chocolate-flavoured egg made from translucent gelatine — hide it in the garden and the kids will be busy hunting all day.

If you don’t have outdoor space of your own, LIFX, the smart light bulb company, has an indoor solution using your Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. Just say: “Alexa, start the Easter egg hunt mission!” and LIFX will play pre-programme colour scenarios alongside a child-friendly Spotify playlist, or head online. Exeter Cathedral is putting on a virtual egg hunt on its website on Sunday, and Wimbledon and Putney Commons are taking their annual hunt online by hiding virtual eggs around the website from 9am tomorrow morning. Each egg will have a letter on it: put them together and send in your final two-word answer by Monday night. There’s an e-book token going for the winner.

Hatch your own

The real lockdown pros are getting hands-on. Master chocolatier Paul A Young has just released his Learning With Experts masterclass for those with a sweet tooth and time to kill (his Cadbury creme egg recipe takes a couple of hours), while chocolatier William Curley has a three-hour maple syrup and dark chocoate egg recipe for those who fancy a challenge.

Chocolate is egg-cellent, but so are hot cross buns. Tooting baking competition The Big Bakes is releasing three bake-at-home classes every week with prizes for the best bakers, Food & Wine magazine has a boozy hot cross bun recipe on its website and Cowcross Yards in Farringdon is putting on a Show Us Ya Buns contest, challenging Londoners to bake their own buns with the ingredients left in their cupboard. Tag #CowcrossShowUsYaBuns in your Instagram post — the best will be reshared.

Easter feasting

The long weekend is a chance to connect over good food (and Zoom) so give your virtual dining table a boost for Sunday’s Skype lunch with grandma and Saturday’s Houseparty wine night. Founder of Hoste supper club Laura Jackson’s quarantine dinner party suggestions include an easy green filo pie and gin and elderflower fizz (ingredients and tablescape ideas are on the Habitat blog) while Michelin chef Raymond Blanc is hosting a spring feast cooking class at 11am on Saturday. Head to travel company Belmond’s Instagram TV page to take part. If your cupboards are sparse, Michelin-starred restaurant HIDE is delivering an Easter banquet for two over the bank holiday weekend via the Supper app. For £48 you’ll be served roast Herdwick lamb saddle, confit new potatoes, crushed peas with mint, warm leek vinaigrette and a red wine jus, before strawberry and vanilla custard tart for dessert.

The show must go on

That Tutankhamun exhibition you couldn’t get tickets for before lockdown? The Saatchi Gallery is putting on an online tour so stay-at-homers can see the artefacts before their permanent move to Cairo’s Grand Egyptian Museum. The National Gallery is also going virtual, telling the Easter story through the works of great Renaissance artists on its online portal, and you can spend a virtual night at the theatre too. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 2012 production of Jesus Christ Superstar starring Mel C and Chris Moyles will be available on YouTube over Easter weekend (and you still have one more night to catch Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat) and Jasmin Vardimon Company has announced a special streaming of its production of Pinocchio on Vimeo from 7pm tomorrow.

Armchair escapism

That French getaway you had booked for Easter weekend? It’s still (virtually) possible. The Louvre in Paris is offering online visits to its Egyptian Antiquities and moat remains if you fancy a city break from your sofa, and you can still have your vineyard tour. Comité Champagne has created an immersive film with views of the Champagne hillsides, houses and cellars for anyone needing visual accompaniment to their Saturday sauvignon session.

Paris isn’t the only city opening its art galleries to sofa surfers. New York’s Met is offering 360-degree tours of its Great Hall and Cloisters, the Art Institute of Chicago is letting art lovers see Van Gogh’s self-portrait up close, and Google Street View is offering sofa-tourists the chance to stroll round the Guggenheim in Los Angeles. Thrill-seekers can take a virtual minibreak, too. Google Street View Trek offers hikes of the Grand Canyon, Soul Adventures has a 40-day yoga retreat streamed straight from Ibiza, and you can witness the dazzling aurora borealis through the Norwegian Lights over Lapland project, a five-minute journey through 360-degree videos.

Kids in tow, no problem. Disney World’s YouTube channel is offering virtual rollercoaster rides and character meet-and-greets, while zoos are streaming their wildlife in real-time. Edinburgh Zoo has penguins and koalas, San Diego Zoo has baboons and polar bears and Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs has a brand new baby as part of its herd of giraffes.

Take me to church

“On the day on which we celebrate the trust in a life that triumphs, I’m honoured and happy to answer “Sì” to the invitation of the city and the Duomo of Milan,” said famed Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli with the news he’ll be streaming a live performance to the world from Milan’s empty Duomo on Sunday. He’ll be performing a selection of pieces from Ave Maria and Sancta Maria on his YouTube channel from 6pm.

Bocelli’s isn’t the only virtual Easter service. Pianist Franck Laurent-Grandpré is performing a live candlelit concert from Lyon in France from 7.30pm on Sunday, and York Minster is releasing 15-20 minute services over the next three days. Elsewhere, the BBC has a selection of Easter services and choral singing, Westminster Abbey has launched a readings, blessings and choir music podcast called Abbeycast, and St Paul’s is hosting a Hymn Flash Mob project for keen singers. Record yourself singing its three chosen hymns, send them in and a mix of contributions will be released as a Choir for the Nation ahead of Easter Day.

Eggs-cel yourself

Make your candles ahead of Sunday’s service. Coal Drops Yard’s Earl of East is hosting at-home candle-making workshops over Zoom (they’ll send you materials in the post for £40), while Botanical Boys nearby is putting on plant care masterclasses on Saturday afternoon.

For families, Richmond party planner Little Lulubel has carrot plates, bunny cups, chick ballons and a decorate-your-own egg kit for doing a DIY Easter party, and learning platform Yodomo is putting on a crafting hour from 4pm every Monday, Wednesday and Friday via Instagram. Easter themed classes include marble egg decorating and making bunting.

If you fancy an element of competition, children’s theatre company Rainbow Factory is hosting a virtual Easter bonnet parade (submit your entries on Facebook by 7pm to win a £25 gift voucher) while Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue service is challenging little ones to stick a hand-drawn Easter egg to their windows to thank key workers. Make a game of spotting other eggs on your daily walk and tag #BigEasterEggHunt.

If the kids aren’t into crafts, the Lawn Tennis Association has made a series of 12 videos for brushing up in the garden, and Wroxham Barns in Norfolk is doing a on Facebook Live farm tour, so you can see the lambs.