I’m a mum-of-nine & Easter is huge – there’s 240 Hot Cross Buns, 200 bonnets & 146 eggs, but it’s still only £4 each
THE Easter bunny is going to need a large can of Red Bull to help him complete his round at Tracy Lewis’ house.
Every year the 58-year-old admin receptionist, from Poole, Dorset, hosts an egg-travagant day for her 13 children and 24 grandkids, featuring a chocolate hunt, Easter bonnet making sessions and a huge Easter Sunday lamb roast feast.
“For us, Easter is a time to go to church and then have fun as a family,” she reveals, speaking for the fifth instalment of My Supersize Family, an exclusive Fabulous series.
“It’s all got very commercial now but you don’t need to spend a fortune to celebrate it.”
Tracy and her husband Pete, 63, a coach builder, are proud parents to: Carly who is 40 in July, Tracy Junior, 38, Samantha, 37, Charles, 36, Lyndsay, 35, Danielle, 33, Chantelle, 32, Charlotte, 30, Georgia, 29, Candice, 27, Shannon, 24, Shaznay, 22, and 19-year-old Portia.
Tracy gets up at 5.30am to start organising the annual egg
hunt.
To keep costs down she plants decoy eggs – tinfoil scrunched up to look like eggs – around her house and garden, as well as 50 chocolate eggs.
“I know some people might think putting out fake eggs is mean but the joy is in the hunt,” she says. “And, the grandkids all get two chocolate treats each, which is more than enough.”
£229 million is spent on Easter egg chocolate each year in the UK, with the average UK child receiving 8.8 eggs each.
Tracy spends around £4 on each grandchild, totalling £96.
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Tracy and Pete are grandparents to 24, including 12 girls and 12 boys who live in a detached four-bedroom house with a huge garden planted with shrubs and blooming bulbs watered by the kids.
Tracy admits she gets some funny looks from fellow shoppers when she’s dashing around the shops looking for bargain Easter treats.
“People look gobsmacked when my trolley is overflowing with chocolate eggs, hot cross buns and treats,” she says.
“They think I’m a stockpiler, but I always set the record straight and explain that I’m just a gran of 24.”
She adds: “I go online and compare Easter chocolate prices at the supermarket and the local cash and carry. When I know where the chocolate is cheapest, I launch a blitz shopping attack. No discounted chocolate Easter bunny or egg is safe.”
Tracy says Pete is a “whiz at crafting” and gets the kids to make their own bonnets and baskets.
“He makes Easter crafts from cardboard, milk cartons and plastic containers, otherwise destined for the recycling bin. He starts collecting materials two months before and I’m banned from binning
anything he thinks could be reused.”
Pete also uses the kids’ old hats to make rabbit heads, pinning cardboard ears to the top of old beanies and decorating them with flowers.
Pete says: “I’ve made more than 100 Easter hats using cereal boxes. The kids loved them. I also made Easter top hats with crepe paper and straw nests, with little yellow chicks peeping over the top. I’ve made 500 bonnets over the years.”
The family hold an Easter bonnet parade in their living room and Pete jokes the house looks like “a hat factory” beforehand.
On Easter Sunday, after church they have the official Lewis Egg Hunt at 11am. They then have lunch at 2pm.
This ‘staggered approach’ means the kids don’t stuff themselves with sweets and not eat lunch
in the garden they put every spare chair and fold-out for the kids and grandkids who come to visit.
Pete always has extra seats or picnic blankets stashed away for emergency visitors.
“Pete and I are run off our feet helping the younger ‘Lewis bunnies’ find the hidden treats,” said Tracy.
“We love it as much as the kids. I hide Pete’s egg and he hides mine.”
Tracy estimates that the family eat 230 hot cross buns over Easter weekend, drink nine litres of squash, make 100 cups of tea a day using a super sized urn to keep water hot and save electricity and cut through 100s of individual chocolate treats brought by visitors – and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“On Easter Sunday our house is in chaos!” laughs Tracy.
“All the grandkids are running around looking for eggs, my kids are enjoying hot cross buns and me and Pete are chatting, organising and making tea and drinks for everyone. It’s super crazy and we wouldn’t have it any other way.”
- 13 children
- 25 grandchildren
- 5.30am wake up for Easter weekend
- Hide 50 real eggs for hunt
- £4 budget per grandchild for all Easter eggs gifts – Budget includes Big Easter egg, Easter bunny, Easter treats
- 100 cups of tea made a day from urn
- Dozens of ‘fake me out foil’ eggs for hunt.
- Two chocolate eggs per child for hunt
- Crafted 480 Easter baskets
- Crafted 500 Easter bonnets.
- Made 200 Easter Bonnet Boaters
- 230 Hot Cross buns eaten each weekend
- 40,000 hot cross buns eaten over 40 years