Alternative Easter basket ideas

When you aren’t religious and you don’t want to fill your kid’s entire basket with sugar, what do you do for Easter? Over the years, my family and I have done some pretty creative things. This year, we were short on time so I bought most of my daughter’s goodies from Jo-Ann’s Craft Store; even so, here are some fun ideas for an alternative Easter basket your child will love.

Handmade goodies

For littles, use toilet paper rolls and make some spring animals. One year I made Wood Sprite* a duck, a frog and several other critters. She used them as puppets for years.

One year, a homemade rain stick was a huge hit; she still plays with it, too! I made ours a little differently than this tutorial, though; I wadded up some aluminum foil in long coils inside the tube and added lentils:

You can see where we have had to patch it up!

I had intended on making this set of owl finger puppets; I still will if I have time.

Look up whatever your child has an interest in and there are bound to be online tutorials to make your own toys! Or, just come up with your own ideas.

Store bought goodies

I bought all kinds of things that my daughter loves this year, including the traditional annual stuffed animal (from Target) and lots of woodland creature stickers and art supplies:

She also loves dinosaurs, so I went with a dino activity book and some dino scratch art. There’s also a Scooby Doo coloring book, a Star Wars Angry Birds eraser (she’s a Star Wars nut; we did everything Star Wars last year!), tie die, a puzzle of ancient Egypt and for filling plastic eggs there is a tube of mythical creatures. It’s going to be a pretty awesome Easter for sure. FYI, most of these things were 30 percent off at Jo-Ann’s, so check your area store for the same bargains. I also used a 25 percent off coupon I received in the mail, so I spent half of what these items normally cost.

Treats

My daughter only likes chocolate, so we do two treats: A few chocolate kisses in eggs and one big chocolate bunny, which is what she always looks forward to. I know when we were kids it was mostly candy in our baskets, but even if I wanted to do that for my child the candy would just linger around her for months. We end up using it for gingerbread houses in the winter!

We were fortunate enough to really go all out this Easter, but we have made homemade treats in the past, which is so much more special. We made crispy rice treats and brownies, but some other good ideas include marshmallow bunnies, sweet animal treats and semi-homemade bunny racecars.

Another tradition we have is planting jelly beans. We sprinkle a few on the lawn the night before Easter, and then poof, the next day, they are lollipops! Wood Sprite only likes cherry suckers, so we get them at the party supply store where you can buy individual flavors.

What kinds of out-of-the-box ideas do you use for Easter?

*Wood Sprite is the online alias I use for my daughter.

Photos courtesy of Sara S.