Decorating Easter Eggs? Better Get Crackin'!

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Here comes Peter Cottontail, hoppin' down the bunny trail — two weeks earlier than last year. In fact this is the earliest Easter Sunday in 95 years,  so if it snuck up on you, you're likely not alone.

There's still time, however, to partake in that most cherished of springtime rituals, decorating Easter eggs. According to the National Retail Federation, the average consumer this year is expected to spend $135.03 on Easter baskets, Easter brunch, marshmallow chicks and, of course, the necessary egg-decorating accoutrements.

The tradition of coloring eggs goes back thousands of years — various ancient cultures welcomed spring by bathing eggs in dyes made of berries, bark, and dried plants — and remained pretty much unchanged over the centuries. But these days, Easter eggs, like most everything else, are subject to the whims of fashion.

The big news in Easter egg couture this year? Teal blue is the new "it" color, shoving aside so-last-season purple. According to Paas, maker of the ubiquitous colored-dye tablets used by generations of budding egg artists, teal's "vibrant hue, reminiscent of sky and water," has taken the fashion and home-design trades by storm, and is poised to dominate your Easter basket, as well.

What's more, Pass found in its survey that almost 90 percent of people who intend to decorate eggs this year will not be satisfied with color alone, but plan on adding dazzling details. From stickers to glitter to press-on crystals, eggs haven't seen this much bling since Peter Carl Fabergé presented the first of his namesake eggs to a Russian czar in 1885. (Just for the record, it was made of white-enameled gold and opened to reveal gold yolk that contained a gold hen with ruby eyes.)

For the most part, though, egg-decorating tastes are highly personal. For instance, there are those who prefer their eggs empty of yolk and whites, and those who prefer to simply boil them. For the former, try the Blas-fix egg-blowing kit - and handle those fragile creations with care.

For those who enjoy tracing intricate designs, Hearthsong's egg-engraving kit includes a fine-tipped engraver along with several colors of dye. Especially for the young set, Williams-Sonoma's egg-decorating kit includes not only dyes and egg dippers, but pastel beads, glitter glue, transparent crayon, assorted stickers, ribbon, pom-poms and more. For parents who'd rather not have kids mess with eggs at all, Smith & Hawken's "Kid's Paint-an-Egg Kit" includes six wooden eggs, six nontoxic paints and a paintbrush.

The "Peek Inside Egg Kit" comes with step-by-step instructions for creating hollow — and edible! — Easter eggs with little scenes inside. White candy wafers are melted and poured into molds, then the bottom half of the egg is filled with a small edible figure (included in the kit), then attached to the top half with soft candy squeezed from tubes.

And when you're finished, you can start filling baskets, or save a few to display by hanging them on an egg-tree centerpiece.

You've still got time to hop to it!