Easter, unlike Christmas, has got to be my favourite religious holiday. Not that I’m at all religious, mind you, but I’m happy to buy in to the concept for the holidays! There are a few reasons for this, so in the interests of community service, I thought I’d put them out there.

Clearly, the first reason Easter is so butt-kicking is chocolate. Lots of it, and a licence to scoff it down for weeks after. In fact, if you are anything like me, you have a stash of Easter chocolate hidden around the house that’s good to go for at least 6 months. Yes, it might go all white, but it’s still edible!

Next, the weather starts getting cooler. I am a cold weather girl, and Easter for me, is a signal that the weather is taking a u-turn into winter. Easter is often the first time I light my gas heater for the year, and I put the electric blanket back on the bed. I get the slow cooker out of storage and start buying cheap cuts of meat for stews and such. At Easter, I start getting my carbs on!

One of the best things about Easter has to be hot cross buns. And I’m talking hot, dripping with butter. Whoever invented them should be made a saint, as far as I’m concerned. And while people say that fruit toast is an excellent substitute – at the risk of being labelled a purist – I am here to tell you that it is not!

Unlike Christmas, Easter is all about the long weekend. Four glorious days off. Four. In a row. Count them. No wonder people pack their bags and head off into the sunset over Easter. It’s because they can. They have time. I actually don’t go anywhere over Easter, though. I just potter around the house, chilling. I read, watch TV, write and just generally enjoy four days of paid down time.

I usually watch Jesus Christ Superstar at some point over the weekend, usually on Sunday night. To say I think it is the best musical ever made is an understatement. I know the whole thing off by heart, every part. I even have a JCS Playlist so I can run to it. But at Easter, I am mandated by society to watch it, so for four days, it is not a guilty pleasure. I watch it loud and proud! And despite what I said in the first paragraph, Easter is a religious holiday after all 😉

Finally, and just about more important than all the other reasons put together, there are no family expectations tied up with Easter. There are so many family politics involved with Christmas (in my family anyway), that bowing out of Christmas and pretending it doesn’t exist is the only sane way to cope. Easter is not like that for me.  I don’t have to fend off questions about what I’m doing for Christmas and who I’m spending it with. The pressure is off!

So there you have it. These are the reasons I think Easter kicks Christmas’s butt. What do you reckon? Am I onto something?