Easter Baskets

I want to make Easter baskets for my kids rather than buying the whole package. Too much candy and cheap toys. Do any of you know how to make them?

I'm unclear

Are you asking how to make the basket itself, or are you asking what people use to fill them? Because myself, I have never bought or indeed received a pre-filled basket, so I bet I could get together a list for you. In fact, my daughter is at her dad's tonight and I'm going shopping for some of that stuff in a few minutes, I can let you know what I get if you like.

Yes. How to prepare the baskets?

My son is 4 and my daughter is 5 by the way.

you GOTTA get them one chocolate bunny..I think it's a law or something.

Okay, my daughter is about 5 1/2, so this should give you some useful ideas:

egg-shaped sidewalk chalk
a "jewelery" set of bunny necklace, earrings, ring, etc.
small stuffed bunny
peeps (she loves marshmallow)
a pastel colored pen with a pinwheel on the cap
Silly Putty (in a plastic egg, of course!)

We have 24 plastic eggs that will each get a chocolate bunny or Hershey's kiss and some kind of little trinket, like an eraser or stickers or such. I'll hide those for her, the plastic will keep the stuff safe from cats. I'm still looking for a keychain for her (she has her own key now) and some pencils she can use at school. No jelly beans, tho', she doesn't like them.

I'd like to get her a decent-sized chocolate bunny, because I think it isn't Easter without one.

In the past, we've had:
bubble stuff
a jumprope with bunny-shaped handles
pastel colored balls, regular and super-ball styles
glycerin soap with a rubber ducky embedded in it
coloring book and crayons or paints
books, about Easter or rabbits
air launched nerf-type rockets
a kite
a chick that peeps when you hold it in your hand
colored paper and markers
puzzles

Of course with a girl, I can add just about anything that fits the cutesy - pastel - bunny - flowers - springtime theme. For a boy, I might go with outdoor toys and maybe things like a yoyo or small trucks. Or something with bugs, maybe a bug box or one of those plastic things you look through that's supposed to be like a fly's eye.

I got a bunch of stuff half-price at Jo-Ann's fabrics. You might check out the dollar store, I get stocking stuffers there at Christmas. And sometimes you find stuff in unexpected places. Cost Plus World Market sells nice wooden toys, like vegetables in sections that are velcroed together to "cut" with a wooden knife, or that game with the ball on a string that you try to catch in a cup with a handle at the bottom. Pier 1 often has cute things too, though you wouldn't think to look there. We got a wooden hedgehog that "walks" down a slanted plank there one time, about $3.

I hope that helps a little, at least for providing inspiration!

I make my kids baskets everyyear. I just buy an empty pastel basket, some of that grass stuff, and then I buy a bunch of stuff to put inside. I do exactly what Sunlion does....I do put some chocolate....its not easter with out a good big ole' bunny!!
You can put anything you want inside....for my daughter I got her a pair of sunglasses, some bunnies, a stuffed animal,etc. Its quite easy and you can be cost effective if you go to the right places.

Have fun making yours Nena10!!

My parents also had a special basket and treat search every Easter morning for me & my sister. We would each get an empty basket with just the coloured straw, small chocolate eggs and jelly beans in it. They would then hide the rest of our goodies and do the you are getting warmer cold thing as we searched. It was always exciting. We would find things like Pez dispensers, Large chocolate bunnies, undies, socks, jump ropes, side walk chalk, etc. It was always more exciting to search then to just have a completed basket. I still miss that - I still want my mommy to do that for me!

Since I don't fill the basket "overflowing", we make Easter morning more fun by doing a EasterEgg hunt before then get their baskets. We hide chocolate eggs, and also the plastic ones which we put a "prize" in for them to find. Its so much fun for them and they are so thrilled with hunting!!!!!!!

When I make the basket for my nephew I usually buy an inexpensive basket, some grass and some of that plastic wrap. Then I buy an Easter book, small stuffed animal (like a beanie baby), and very little candy. You could include stickers, a coloring book, crayons,etc. Have fun making your basket.

I wish you guys were MY parents!! I never got real Easter baskets

We would do the Egg Hunt, though. Like Sunlion said - the plastic eggs with goodies inside. We did get a chocolate bunny, and the goodies in the eggs, but that was about it. I know it may be cheating, but look inside the pre-made ones to get ideas!

Just have to share a funny Easter story with you guys. One year, my parents decided to hide REAL Easter Eggs (hard boiled and decorated) around the house. We lived in Colorado so hiding eggs outside was not an option (colored eggs in snow isn't much of a challenge). So Dad stayed up late and hid the eggs for us to hunt in the morning. Well, morning came and my sister and I looked EVERYWHERE! There were no eggs. Dad goes and checks where he hid the eggs, and they were all gone. Our dog, Dutchess (a Weimereiner) had gone on her own egg hunt and had eaten a dozen hard boiled eggs!!! She was a stinky outside dog that day! Still makes me laugh thinking about that Easter!

Thanks for the suggestions! I will print them.

The thing about the chocolate bunnies is that I feel sorry for the bunny. When I buy one, I never eat it. Call me strange but I feel like its saying, "Don't eat me!"

I will buy them for the kids and two for me. One, I will eat little by little. The other one I will keep and never eat it.

I will stick with Catbury chocolate candies. Or the Dove. I love those! Or the marshmellows. I will buy them on monday.

My mom was anti-candy, so my basket always had little toys, books, and stuff. She'd also make carrot cakes in the shape of bunnies (with a special muffin tin) and put cream cheese frosting and faces on them.

Easy key to making an Easter basket:
1. Get a basket
2. Add filler (my mom used the crinkly shredded paper you can get at Card and Gift Shops like Hallmark), it's more environmentally correct.
3. Get small toys, candy, hair bows, etc that your kids will like for inside.

Voila! Done!

Good luck and have fun!

I used to LOVE getting an easter basket when I was a kid. My mom ALWAYS made my sisters and brother our easter baskets, since we didn't have alot of money. She would buy the baskets and put jelly beans, pez dispensers, chocolate eggs, a chocolate bunny and sometimes she would give us a dollar or something. I always looked forward to getting something. She stopped giving us an easter basket after we turned 14 or 15, because she said that we were too old. She always got us a little something though. Nena, when you make yours, just be creative and have fun!!!

SusieQ, you are toooooo funny!!!!!!!

Nena...

I just gotta know..why buy the 4th bunny if you're not gonna eat it? :confused3:

My kiddos get the white chocolate bunnies- caffeine free

Because he is soooo cute! Once my mother bought me a rose made of candy and I never ate it. Too beautiful.

No, I just buy one and the flower I think my mother threw it away. I had the flower when I was a teenager. So, I think she threw it out.

When I was growing up, my best bud Vicki, her mom made these exquisite sugar eggs. I used to sit near her and watch fascinated as she made these large cones of sugar, and then using her tools made a doorway, and used frosting to decorate the eggs and put little miniature scenes inside of them. They were a true work of art.

We always got a big basket of goodies on the end of our bed at easter, and had to wear those dreaded easter dresses. We had an easter egg hunt around the yard and all kinds of fun. My mother loved the holidays when were young.

Actually, I only have one. I have it in a box as a decoration. I had it for about six years now. The others that I buy I do eat them.