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Sustainable Egg Hunt and Easter Basket Ideas That’ll Last All Season
I know some people find Easter daunting with all the chocolate, candy and gifts that come into the house. For that reason, I love being very purposeful in the purchases I make. I don’t worry about how much chocolate other family (*cough* grandparents *cough*) give the kids. I just focus on what I can do to round out the weekend. My three kids are 5.5, 4 and 1.5 years old, so with the varying ages. The Easter Bunny must get creative!
Easter Basket Ideas
The Easter basket is always a fun one to put together! We try to include practical things the kids will use during the spring. One Easter, their basket was filled with gardening things like gloves, shovels and seeds. Spring-y items like rain boots, sneakers and caps make for great easter basket ideas. My kids wear their Jan & Jul Xplorer Caps in the early spring with a hood, to keep the rain off their faces. The caps transition great to the warm days of later spring, to protect the kids from the sun.
Don’t tell my kids they’d get new sunglasses and sun hats anyway, but they’re so much more fun to receive in an Easter basket! We usually give them two sun hats each – one to keep in the car and one to keep at home.
And finally, their basket always includes a book, usually something outdoorsy or nature themed. Last year the Easter Bunny gave my eldest a few pocket guides for foraging, recognizing animal tracks.
The Egg Hunt
A few years ago, I bought a bunch of plastic Easter Eggs from the dollar store. We’ve reused them every year since for our backyard egg hunt. With three kids, you can imagine the egg hunt can be mayhem. To keep it fun for all of them, we put a sticker on each egg. Each kid is assigned a colour sticker and can only keep an egg with their colour sticker on it. This allows the eggs to be hidden in plain sight for the little one and harder for the older two.
We fill the eggs up with all different things, like chocolate, Annie’s bunny crackers and Annie’s bunny fruit snacks. This year we’ve bought a few little farm animal toys to add to our collection, and some wooden eggs for loose parts play – they fit nicely in the eggs. Previous years we’ve put juggling scarves, Calico Critters, egg shakers, playdoh, and chalk in the eggs. In the next few weeks, I’ll take a trip to the dollar store to find some stickers and little crafts to put in eggs or add to their baskets as well.
Practical Easter Gifts That Last
What I love about Easter is it gets you thinking about what activities you’d like to do with your family this spring and summer. Whether that’s spending time at home playing with open ended toys, or out exploring, donned in new rain boots and hats. Either way, the kids get to enjoy their gifts for months to come and you can rest assured knowing the gifts they receive are practical AND fun!
Alex Turner is a journalist turned stay-at-home mom. Read more about her adventures on her blog!