Every year for Easter, each kiddo gets a basket with goodies. Growing up, the tradition was that on Easter morning, we would get up and find our hidden basket that the Easter Bunny had hid during the night.

Our baskets typically had candy and then some sort of goodies. I know one year, I had candy and a baton in my Easter basket (I was taking baton twirling lessons so the Easter Bunny gave me a new baton that was better for class).

This tradition has continued onto my family and each year the Easter Bunny hides a basket for each of our kids who then find them Easter morning. The difference? Our Easter Bunny doesn’t include candy, so they have to be more creative with what gets put in the basket.

Here are some of our gift giving ideas for Easter Baskets:

Every year for every holiday (birthdays, Christmas, and Easter), I stick with a theme – one outfit, one “fun” thing and one “educational” thing.

Baby/Infant:

Buggy was 3-4 months old for her first Easter and Buddy was nearly a year for his first Easter. Lil Miss will be 5 weeks old for her first Easter. It can be hard to find age appropriate gifts for their baskets. And while I am sure none of them did (or will) care (because they’re so young), it still matters to parents, right!?

As per my theme, each child got an outfit for their first Easter. For me, that’s the easiest part!

The

“fun”

thing was a plush bunny that said something along the lines of “First Easter”. Buggy had one that was pink and Buddy had one that was yellow (they didn’t have blue and in addition, they each still have their bunnies at age 7 and 4!)

For their second Easter, they both got Precious Moment prayer dolls – you know those cute plush Precious Moments that are kneeling and say a prayer? Buggy had a little girl one and Buddy got an angel one (again, they still have these!)

Regardless, I usually purchase a plush something as their “fun” item. It’s age appropriate and depending on what it is, can stick with them for a long time. Other ideas could be a rattle or some other age appropriate toy (especially if they are closer to the year mark or older), or a movie they might enjoy or maybe even a CD of lullabies or other fun music (both of my big kids are music lovers). The goal is to find something that is “fun”, but not necessarily a learning tool – just something they can have fun with.

The

“educational”

thing gets a little tougher at this age. Board books or soft plush books are good for this age (board books for the appropriate age and the plush books for the younger ones). Sensory stimulating toys are good as well whether it be a light up item, a touch item, or even maybe a sound item – something to stimulate their senses and development, especially the little little ones. Or maybe it’s a movie such as a Baby Einstein or another “educational” baby movie (we had a Sesame Street musical one as well as many Elmo learning videos throughout the years). I remember getting the kids the ABC and 123 wooden puzzles to teach them their numbers and alphabet too when they were more into the toddler stage.

Bigger Kids:

Buggy is only 7 so my experience much past that may not be noted here, but I do have ideas!

Again, each child will get an outfit.

The

“fun”

item has varied over the years from a favorite movie to coloring books to jigsaw puzzles to sidewalk chalk and bubbles. Fortunately, finding the “fun” things for older kids tends to be pretty easy. Buggy is really into craft things and Buddy likes anything he can make a mess with. Gardening tools are fun for them if someone in the family gardens, action figures and Barbies are also really good “go to” items for “fun”.

“Educational”

items can be anything from educational activity books to flash cards. We have found a white board with markers or the educational activity books that come with dry erase markers are huge hits with the bigger kids. Maybe a language video such as
that is fun to watch, but teaches a new language would be up your child’s alley. Educational board games, video games or computer games are good too if you’re child is into them (we don’t do computer or video games, but board games are well loved in our home!)

Regardless of what our kids get, they are always happy and we are happy because we aren’t loading them up on the typically sugar rush of Easter candy. They are always happy with their new outfit (that honestly they could care less about), their new “fun” toy and the other toy that they never really think is educational, but we know the truth!

Do you have Easter basket gift ideas? Leave them in the comments – we’d love to hear them!