Beck Vass: Why Easter was a total let down this year

Beck Vass discovers Easter eggs just aren't what they used to be. Photo / Getty Images

Did Easter sell out early this year, or was it just me? I'm the first to admit, I'm a little bit out of the loop when it comes to Easter.

We've really only embraced it in the last year or so because our two oldest kids, six and four, have finally become old enough to get into it together.

But a couple of things happened this Easter that I was a little surprised by:

Firstly, my Mum sent up a box of goodies for us and the kids. It has become a tradition for her to send pyjamas to the kids at Easter.

Along with some other treats, she included some Cadbury chocolate-coated marshmallow eggs. What a let down! They're just half-eggs now - missing that subtle chocolate crunch in the middle they used to have. Helloooo! It's not even an egg! You can't slice an oval in half and still call it an egg! The chocolate-to-marshmallow ratio is all wrong.

This all sounded vaguely familiar so I asked Google, and true to (my) form, the rest of New Zealand found about this back in January.

Next up, the Easter Bunny left me a Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate buttons egg. I was quite excited about this because it made me nostalgic for my 80s childhood when that was basically the only egg you could buy.

But they don't even put the buttons inside the egg anymore! They just come in their own little plastic bag on top of the tinfoil-wrapped egg. Where's the fun in that?

The UK Cadbury buttons egg advertisement says: "Crack open and reveal a yummy treat-sized bag of buttons".

Then, I became distracted with guests visiting and only remembered at the last minute that we hadn't bought any small wrapped eggs for the kids' Easter egg treasure hunt.

So, I shot to the Four Square near home and when that was unsuccessful, to Countdown at 6pm on the Saturday night.

Now, I don't know what happened this year but what had been an entire section dedicated to eggs and other Easter junk was all gone. Not a single Easter egg in either location.

Due to my slackness and the supermarkets either running out or ridding the shelves of it all early, my kids had to follow a trail of clues and Hershey's kisses leading to a "climax" of a Kinder Surprise. That's not even Easter!

This was, of course, fine by me: the little punks get nasty on the stuff anyway so the smaller the better. And they didn't know any better, but still.

I'd like to say I'll prepare in advance next year, but I won't.

In spite of my complaints, I still demolished the hollow egg that should have had chocolate buttons inside it in one sitting.

At least some things don't change.