The season of spring stirs up excitement in the air like pollen blowing past on these sunny days. It is another giving season, and one done especially well in the south, where Easter baskets come in eye-bugging proportions and egg hunts are sure to elicit giggles and squabbles alike. Amid the stuffing of baskets with goodies, dyeing or painting of boiled eggs, don’t forget to add building a gingerbread house and watching duck eggs hatch to your slate of Easter weekend activities. And all in your best dress, of course.

Gingerbread houses are a tradition shared by both giving seasons—Christmas and Easter. And in 1973, in Baton Rouge, no one did the Easter gingerbread house better than Carriage Trade Flowers and Gifts, Inc. at Corporate Mall. As featured on the April 7, 1973, cover of The Register, a staggering 7,000 cookies came together in an assortment that towered over the tiny tots who approached it with their eyes aglow. When that wonder wore off, they could hop over to the incubator to watch the Mallard duck eggs placed there on the first day of spring begin to hatch. All the while, parents perused the array of hanging baskets and Easter pot plants of blooming hydrangeas, tulips, irises, daffodils and chrysanthemums in every shade.

‘Tis the season!