New Easter Express van brings Easter Bunny visits to Long Island homes

Families can ask the Easter Express to bring the Easter Bunny to their homes for visits and photographs this holiday season.

Not up for a house call?

Children can also decorate eggs with the bunny in an 18-foot enclosed and themed trailer dubbed "Peter Cottontail’s Treehouse Workshop" that will be parked at Tanger Outlets in Deer Park seven days a week from March 21 to April 19.

Both options are new offerings from business partners Vincent Falzone, 38, of Massapequa, and Jeremy Siracusa, 38, of Middle Village, Queens, the duo who brought Long Island the Santa Express house calls in December. "Christmas sold out in three days. We thought, ‘This is awesome. Let’s do an Easter event,’" Falzone says. 

The Easter Express already has dates booked for private parties and events, Falzone says. The cost for house visits is $25 per child for fewer than five children, and $20 per child if booking five or more kids. The bunny brings the kids eggs they can decorate after his visit as well as some candy, says Falzone. Add-ons such as an egg hunt with the bunny will be available for an additional fee. Parents can take photos of their children with the bunny inside or outside of the van.  

As for "Peter Cottontail's Treehouse Workshop," "it's something that's innovative, something that's a new experience here," says Amaka Muir, marketing director for Tanger Outlets in Deer Park. It's more engaging than standing in line to take a photo with a bunny, she says, and it will be the only Easter Bunny option at the Deer Park outlets. 

The trailer is split in half — visitors first walk through a forest-like atmosphere and pick their eggs and then decorate them at the bunny workbench and take photographs with the Easter Bunny, Falzone says. Digital photographs by a professional photographer are included, and parents can also take their own photos. The trailer can accommodate five children along with adults at a time for a visit that lasts about six to eight minutes, he says. The cost is $25 per child.

To book times, visit Easter Express Booking or Treehouse Workshop Booking.

By Beth Whitehouse

beth.whitehouse@newsday.comBethWhitehouse1

Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.