12 Non Candy Easter Basket Ideas
Spring has landed, the new year is off to it’s official start, and now it’s almost time for Easter. I don’t know about you, but I love the rebirth and renewal that this time of year brings. I can literally feel in my soul an opening up and lightness after being in the dark and cold winter. It’s also the time of the year that I start thinking about non candy Easter basket ideas!
In my family we grew up with the fun tradition of receiving Easter baskets on the morning of Easter, and as a kid I always looked forward to it! As a kid of the 1990’s, what did I mostly get excited about? The massive amount of candy that I would receive in my basket! Anyone remember those giant chocolate bunnies that you got from Wal-Mart or CVS?
Now that I have kids, we kept the tradition of giving Easter baskets. However, we’re more health- conscious now and I don’t want to give my kids so much candy that they get a stomach ache on Easter. Instead, we look for non candy Easter basket ideas and also try to focus more on the reason for the season- the resurrection of Jesus. In this blog post I’m going to give you suggestions on non candy Easter basket ideas for your kids, in case you also want to cut out the candy and get back to what’s most important and special about this holiday.
Don’t have time to read it now? Pin it for later!
12 Non Candy Easter Basket Ideas
If you don’t know me- I love a good theme! There are a lot of choices for Easter baskets out there, and creating around a theme helps me to narrow down the items that I buy. For our kid’s Easter baskets I most often create around a theme of “outdoor play” because the days are now longer and we spend a lot more time outdoors as a family. Here are some other theme ideas to help you get started:
Lego- themed Easter basket
Spa or bath- themed Easter basket
Superhero- themed Easter basket
Outdoor- themed Easter basket
Dollar- spot themed Easter basket (buy it all from the Target dollar spot!)
Baby doll- themed Easter basket
Safari- themed Easter basket
Reading- themed Easter basket
Sensory play- themed Easter basket
Imaginative play- themed Easter basket
Craft- themed Easter basket
Resurrection- themed Easter basket*
*While we are a Christian family, I typically include some resurrection- focused items for our kids but I don’t usually make a whole theme around it. However, my friend, Erin over at The Humbled Homemaker has a great list of ideas for resurrection- themed Easter baskets that you can check out at: 35 + Christian- Themed Easter Baskets
Now that you have your theme, it’s time to go shopping! In our family, Easter baskets are not quite as extensive as Christmas stockings. We bought the smaller Easter baskets from Pottery Barn when all of our kids were born, so I purposefully wouldn’t have a ton of room to stuff the baskets full of so many items. Here is a list of non candy Easter basket ideas that go with the themes that I mentioned earlier in this post:
TOYS
A individual pack of legos for each kid, or a small box of duplo legos
CRAFTS
Craft kits (kiwi co is my favorite!)
Easter dot marker activity book
Bible dot marker activity book
IMAGINATIVE PLAY
A new dress up play costume (we love this chef costume by Melissa and Doug!)
Play kitchen items (we love the food groups sets!)
BATH
Crayola bath paint (a HUGE hit with my kids!)
Bath bombs (these are safe with no yucky stuff)
Nail polish (we love Piggy Paint!)
OUTDOOR
Water shoes (these are our go-tos to our kids)
BOOKS
Berenstein Bears The Easter Story
The Story of Easter Golden Books
77 Memory Verses Every Kid Should Know
Little Blue Truck Springtime (this is the book that taught my kids all of their animal sounds!)
I hope this blog post gave you some creative ideas for non candy Easter basket ideas! We all want to help our kids live the happiest and healthiest lives, and Easter does not have to be filled with an overload of candy and sweets. Candy is easy to buy, and it also easily and quickly gets eaten. By being more intentional about what we choose to put in our kid’s Easter baskets, we can encourage more play and creativity from our kids for weeks after Easter is over.
What are you putting in your kid’s Easter baskets this year?
This post may contain affiliate links. I may earn a comission when you click on the links at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Affiliate I earn comission from qualifying purchases. I only recommend products that I would use myself, and all opinions expressed here are my own.
