How To Host Easter Brunch At College

Like any holiday, Easter is a time to celebrate with friends and family over a grand meal. But for a lot of college students (myself included), going home for Easter isn’t an option, leaving us on our own or with roommates. Personally, I don’t really want to be stuck eating ramen noodles for Easter — even if we’re away from home, a holiday meal can and should still be special. Here’s how to host Easter brunch at college, from the essential recipes to tips and tricks for a home-cooked meal that’s fun and festive.

Start simple with small bites and sides.

A fancy holiday meal calls for multiple courses, and just because we’re college students on a budget doesn’t mean we can’t have layers to our brunch menu. Your Easter brunch appetizers don’t have to be elaborate in order to taste delicious. 

You can’t go wrong with fresh fruit (something us college kids do not get enough of) — berries, grapes, and melons are easily shareable. You could also pop a baking sheet of frozen hash browns, breakfast sausages, or bacon in the oven for something quick and salty, or sweet, as you could candy the bacon as a little something special. If savory is calling to you, you could do a small crudité (veggies and dip) or a charcuterie board of cheese and crackers. 

As a kid, my family always had an assortment of pastries as our appetizer, so grabbing a box of store-bought croissants or a pastry of your choice is an easy winner, or if you can afford to, consider picking up pastries from a local bakery. Supporting small businesses is definitely in the spirit of Easter). You could also make your own quick pastries, like picking up a log of Pillsbury crescent rolls and spicing them up with this cinnamon sugar spread (a personal favorite).

Get cracking on your main dish.

For the main course, you’re going to want a dish that you don’t have to bend over backwards making, can serve lots (either because you’re serving lots of guests or you want leftovers), and obviously, tastes delicious. Enter: breakfast casseroles. There are tons of recipes floating around the internet, but most of them involve throwing eggs, meat, cheese, and potentially vegetables into a baking dish. Quick, delicious, and perfect for brunch and a bunch of people.

One of my all time favorite breakfast casseroles is a tater tot casserole from AllRecipes, which you can make ahead of time. It’s perfect because you don’t have to cook a whole grand meal in the morning — this is true of a lot of the casserole recipes. If you’re looking to impress, you can up your game with French toast casseroles or could even try a quiche, which despite the fancy name, isn’t all that difficult to make. Store bought pie crust is magical!

Of course, this Easter, it may feel like buying eggs is no different from splurging for a nice cut of meat. So if cartons of eggs aren’t something you want to shell out for, you’ve still got options. Try whipping up a baking pan full of cinnamon rolls or sheet pan pancakes, which are exactly what they sound like: pouring pancake batter onto a sheet pan and baking. Easy as pie (or pancakes).

Compliment the food with festive drinks.

If you’re brunching, your cocktail — or mocktail, if you’re sober curious or not yet 21 — game has to be strong. Mimosas are both a brunch classic and easy to make: just mix champagne or sparkling grape juice and orange juice and voila! If you’re wanting to make your drinks Easter-themed, hop (like the Easter Bunny) over to TikTok or Instagram reels for a number of cute, colorful Easter-y drinks featuring Peep and marshmallow toppers, glasses rimmed with frosting and sprinkles, and Easter flavors like carrots and chocolate bunnies. 

End on a sweet note

After a hearty selection of appetizers, drinks, and a main course, dessert is probably the last thing on your mind. Or maybe not, as we all know there is a secondary stomach exclusively for dessert consumption. So if you want something small and sweet to end off your brunch, you could hand make quick treats like Peeps rice krispie treats or chocolate robin’s nests:

Or you could recognize that you’ve already cooked up a whole brunch and instead throw together an assortment of Easter classics like Reese’s Eggs or Peeps to munch on, like an Easter basket for everyone to share, or if you want to dress it up, style it like a charcuterie board. You could also go for the Pillsbury ready-to-bake Easter cookies or even Lofthouse cookies (any excuse to eat Lofthouse cookies is a good excuse. And the yellow or pink ones are pretty Easter-y, right?). These also don’t have to be desserts — you could easily set up treats as appetizers too.

Hop to it! There’s brunch to be made.

You can easily pick and choose what to serve at your Easter brunch based on your own personal tastes as well as any dietary restrictions you or your guests might have. After all, this is your Easter brunch and when you cook, you get to decide all the details (maybe the only advantage of not being home for a family meal). You could also see if your friends would be interested in doing a potluck — that way everyone can share in the work. If you’re feeling extra fancy and festive, you could top off your brunch with Easter décor like plastic eggs or a centerpiece of flowers. Or you can just yap over good food and good drinks to celebrate the holiday. Happy Easter!

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