Kate - I thought your post was just an amusing bit of wishful thinking and not at all rude.

I suppose, like Boxing Day, it's a culture thing.

Do Americans give Easter Eggs? I used to love getting Smarties Easter Eggs.

Also remember that places of entertainment (specifically pubs, bars and theatres) have special restrictions on them on Good Friday.

Me too David! I always thought Rowntrees' eggs were better than Cadbury's and Aeros just don't taste the same now since Nestle took them over about 10 years ago.

:-(

One advantage of visiting another country during a holiday time is that you would be able to <i>attend</i> church or synagogue services there. There are some incredible places of worship in London that people often visit simply as tourists. It's lovely to be able to go as a participant, and have a spiritual experience as well as a sightseeing one. :)

Personally David, I STILL love getting smarties eggs.

Kate, sorry - I guess I'm over-sensitive.
Alya, thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

David,

Easter Eggs!!!! Oh don't get me started!

Here in MA my friends give their children Easter Baskets! Generally they include chocolate and candy but also - and get this! CD's, Video' Computer games!!! It's like Christmas in April.

I was given a hard time by friends for refusing to put an Easter basket together for my son (the 'when in Rome do as'.. reasoning) we bought him a basketball hoop instead - well we had to buy one now that we live in the US - it's mandatory :-)

Alya; That sounds nice but do you have actual Easter Eggs? These are large chocolate eggs with sweets inside them.

Not to mention Cadbury's cream eggs.

Hi David,

yes as a Brit living in the US, I can confirm that Easter Eggs are available in the US. Some of the chocolate however is revolting ' Hersheys, yuk! has an aftertaste of vomit :-(. I find I don't eat as much chocolate as I used to in the UK - not a bad thing perhaps :-)

Easter chocolate will also go on sale here halfway through February. When Christmas is over the Valentine choc makes an appearance, after Feb 14th the Easter chocs appear.

I swear that cream eggs (also available) are getting smaller :-(

Fellow Fodorites
Could you be careful about generalising and assuming that &quot;the UK&quot; as a whole does whatever they do where you live? In Scotland the concept of a &quot;bank holiday&quot; is almost non existent except, naturally enough, in banks. The main holidays for shops etc are termed &quot;public holidays&quot; and are fixed by the local councils. Easter Monday is a public holiday almost everywhere, Good Friday in most but not all places. Unlike in England there is no legal requirement for shops to close on Easter Sunday or any other Sunday, (or on public holidays), the only restriction being that they can't sell alcohol on Sunday mornings. As for schools, they have between one and two weeks somewhere near Easter but there's no guarantee that it will cover the Easter weekend - partly depends on how early or late Easter falls each year.

Craigellachie: True enough. But we were all answering the OP who is going to London and will be nowhere near Scotland.

Now IF they were going to Scotland it would be a good thing - but since there is no mention we can safely assume the Scottish school/public hoildays won't greatly affect them.