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There are many beautiful Easter basket ideas, but often they are stuffed with candy. We’ve made it a family tradition to instead fill the baskets with items that will help us enjoy and celebrate spring! The spring season is exciting with melting snow and the daylight is coming back (hugely significant for us Alaskans), but everything is awash with gray. No greens are popping yet and the bright glittering snow is gone. I love that Easter brings a splash of color to our lives during this time!
Our Easter traditions are not religious, but are so much fun and give our family something to look forward to. Dying Easter eggs, hunting for them, and then cracking those beautiful shells to eat that wonderful protein rich snack is delightful. However, the piece that can make this holiday much less pleasant is sugar crashes and temper-tantrums. For this reason, we have decided to create a tradition of non-candy Easter basket ideas. (Of course, they will still get some candy, but we don’t want to set the expectation that they’ll get loads of in their baskets.) It can be challenging to think of other ideas, especially if our own childhoods included an all-candy basket. Instead of an Easter basket that fuels hyperactivity and poor choices, we’ve taken the opportunity to provide items that instead promote entertaining activities!
1. Simple craft
I am certainly not a crafty person, but I don’t want my kiddos to be deprived, so I try to find opportunities for them to craft. Using this special occasion is a great excuse! It can be as simple as a sheet of paper and a bottle of glitter glue 😉 This year we bought some paper eggs to decorate.
2. Summer activity
We are especially grateful for the warmer weather and sunshine on our faces this time of year, so even if we’re bundled up, we go outside a lot. For our young kids, bubbles are always a huge hit, so we put bubbles or a bubble-related item in their basket. Another favorite activity is “painting with water” so a new brush is fun to include. Chalk is another great option. If there’s still snow outside, a small spray bottle with colored water in it provides an impressive amount of entertainment.
3. New game
Our kiddos are still a bit young for games with rules, but keeping it simple is just as amusing. A small game of memory or a card game such as Uno are fantastic learning games for young ages.
4. Music
We’re including a homemade coupon for a “family dance party to the song of your choice”. (Below is a free printable you’re welcome to use!) Our kids love music and dancing. When they are older, perhaps it will become an iTunes gift card.
5. Book
Cultivating the love of learning is important to us and adding a special new book is a way to keep reading interesting and relevant. A small book about bunnies or ducks is neat, but any book will do!
6. Little “something”
Depending on what your kiddos like, a small matchbox car, ball, or stuffed animal would be a good bet. Our son loves all things cozy, so a fuzzy pair of socks is perfect for him. He’s also obsessed with growing things (the green thumb DEFINITELY skipped a generation) so I included a package of carrot seeds.
7. Egg stuffers
Fill plastic eggs with stickers, tattoos, play-doh, hair clips, or small stamps instead of candy.
8. Photo
Our son has my love of all things sentimental. I have one photo printed of the previous year’s festivities, and I laminate it for his basket. He loves remembering what we did the prior year. I then hole-punch it and put it on a ring with the other laminated photos. (My kids love photos and laminating them is the only way that I’ve found to prevent them from being destroyed!)
It is possible to have all the fun of Easter without injecting our kiddos with loads of sugar. We also don’t have to buy meaningless junk that will only entertain them for a few seconds. Our family tradition has become Easter baskets that infuse our day with entertainment instead!
What are some other ideas or traditions that you have? Comment below and let us know what your kid’s favorite Easter basket fillers are!