Spending time with your family is one of the delights of a holiday for all generations with Easter egg hunts, special lunches and sprucing up your home, a tradition that goes back to pagan England and celebrating spring.

“Decorating the home for Easter is now as established as decorating fir trees for Christmas or the beloved easter bunny hunt, and it doesn’t need to involve spending a fortune,’’ says Anna Sheppard, head of seasonal buying at Sainsbury’s.

“You can simply display an array of colourful bottles or vases containing fresh spring flowers to create a stylish mantel display, and then add pretty pastel tableware for the perfect table setting.

Welcome guests by filling a cookie jar with baked goods and place a large, decorative bowl or wicker basket filled with fresh fruit and chocolate eggs on the kitchen table for the perfect centrepiece.’’ Involve the children or grandchildren in the fun of popping accessories around the house.

Give them litle wooden chicks and bunny ornaments to arrange on windowsills or hang from twigs. Drape Easter bunting over a doorway or around the mirrors.

Easter is the perfect opportunity to move the party outdoors, and pretty up the patio with some tubs filled with seasonal blooms, stylish paper tableware, and some signs and clues guiding those hunters to the hidden eggs.

Display a handful of twigs or branches in a vase and hang with tiny egg or chick decorations. If cluttering the house isn’t your style, just pay a nod to the season with subtle touches such as fresh flowers.