Hosting Easter Brunch: Decorating Tips and Menu Ideas

Easter is coming this Sunday, and if you’re hosting Easter brunch, you’re probably scurrying for last-minute decorating tips and menu ideas. We’ve gathered suggestions from our Cothran Homes’ team and some of the residents of our townhome communities to help you spend more time enjoying the holiday with family and friends.Think spring! We’ve made it through another winter and spring has just arrived. Use this season of new beginnings to inspire your decorating with light colors, fresh flowers, and linens. Don’t go heavy on the decorations, because it adds undue weight to your airy spring theme. Place a few baskets around your home. Make a centerpiece with a basket of colored eggs, spring flowers, and some edible treats, like skewers of fruits, for example. In the bathroom, fill a basket with a few hand towels, soaps, colored Easter eggs, a few blossoms, and a “Happy Easter” note.Set up a self-serve beverage bar. Limit the variety of drinks you’ll be serving. No one expects a full bar or an endless array of soft drinks. Bubbly drinks, like mimosas and sparkling wine or punch, are refreshing and inviting. Pitchers of water infused with fruit, herbs, or cucumbers is a pleasant and eye-catching alternative to bottled water—but it doesn’t hurt to have some small bottles on ice for the purists. Set up your beverage bar in a convenient place that’s out of the way of the traffic, while easily accessible from the kitchen (so you can refill the ice and drink supplies as needed). Cover the table with linen and keep extra glasses and napkins stored in a basket underneath.Serve finger-friendly foods. A buffet is both casual and easy for serving a group of people at Easter brunch. People can eat at their leisure and continue to mingle. Provide foods that can be eaten forks or spoons, to make it easy to move about while dining on your fabulous fare. Quiche, frittatas, sliced ham, deviled eggs, and fruit cups can be made ahead to save time on Easter Sunday. Unique (but easy) dishes like Benedict eggs in pastry, asparagus mushroom strata, baked oatmeal with fresh fruit, pecan maple bacon, and French toast casserole will make a memorable brunch menu.Color-coordinate your Easter egg hunt. If your guest list includes children, you can avoid the sad faces when someone doesn’t gather as many Easter eggs as another. Let each child choose an egg from a bucket and that color is the egg they must hunt. Then, it’s not about speed, but effort. By hiding the same number of eggs for each color, you’ll avoid the hard feelings.Be ready for leftovers. If you’re like many hosts, you’ll have more food left over after the brunch than you can store (or eat). Prepare ahead of time by stocking up on containers to give your guests a sampling of leftovers. However you spend your Easter—quiet reflection or a house filled with guests—Cothran Homes wishes you a happy holiday.