Inexpensive ways to create, put together or purchase easter baskets and their filler as suggested by the ThriftyFun community. Post your own ideas in the feedback.
Shop the dollar stores! They usually have baskets and other items you can use as a basket as well as candy, gifts and little objects to fill the basket with. They also offer shredded "paper" to use as filler, cellophane bags for wrapping the baskets, etc. You don't have to fill it up with candy. There are lots of things offered at the dollar store. Depending on what you want, there's something for everyone!
By Darlene
Instead of having candy baskets (they'll get plenty of that), how about a small plant pot instead with flower seeds and a note that you'll help with the growing of it. If it's a child, it might be a new experience. If it's an elderly, it'll be something to do with you. If it's someone with a yard, maybe plants and the offering of helping them plant them.
By LRP
Use shredded paper from your home or the office -- shred some magazines, junk mail, and newspaper along with the regular white paper and you'll end up with a color other than white.
Be sure to recycle afterwards!
How about coins and a fortune in an egg for a low calorie and interesting treat. MarthaStewart.com has some instructions for snow drops and crocuses made of crepe paper that are beautiful.
Make your own Easter baskets. Use baskets from around the house or reuse strawberry baskets. You can use fresh grass from outside as basket filler!
Mary Ellen from Flagstaff, AZ
To avoid the mess and the waste of Easter grass, use cheerleader pom-poms in the Easter Basket instead. There's no mess and they serve as an extra surprise!
By Beth from Tucson, AZ
When my children were babies, instead of Easter baskets, we picked out a cute summer hat and used it as a basket instead. We put little things in it a baby could use, like a small bottle of juice, a teething toy, a small book, etc.
When my second child, a son, was a baby, we gave both of our kids sunglasses for Easter. They looked so cute, so we took their picture, and it's one of my favorite family pictures! My son looked SO CUTE in his hat and sunglasses!
By Marie from Idaho Falls, ID
If you only have a few Easter baskets to make, you either end up with a lot of leftover candy or your baskets don't have a good variety. To fix this, ask a friend if they are interested in "candy sharing." You each buy a few bags of easter candy and make your baskets. Then comes the fun part - trade the half-full bags of candy with your friend. That way each family gets a wider variety of candy and no one ends up with too many duplicates.
By Martha from Metairie, LA
The key to this tip is storage. I place all my items in a plastic tote so I can find them NEXT year. We have an egg hunt every year for ALL the kids in the family (there are 6 children and 5 grandchildren.) My sister and I each do eggs as does Grandma. We have 3 separate egg hunts so we can extend the FUN and keep our eggs sorted to assure we get them back to re-fill next year. To make it easier each child is given a COLOR of eggs to find. This eliminated writing names on the eggs. We ALWAYS get our eggs back to reuse the next year.
For the "BIG Kids" I do a small basket with items I purchased after Easter last year (this year's basket includes some FRESH Candy, a chick/egg salt and pepper shaker and a chick that lays jelly bean eggs, a Nerf football, note pad,etc.)
For the little kids, I search all year long for items post HOLIDAY. I am including lip gloss, watches and some EASTER books purchased at the 1/2 price day at our church's kids consignment sale. Target occasionally offers items in it's dollar shop which have been marked down to 25 cents. I have picked up Tweety bird totes, coloring books, playing cards, hair decorations, etc. I've glued decorative buttons on sunglasses for an Easter theme (Jesse James buttons and E-6000 glue). They are darling! You can make seasonal earrings or pins by gluing hardware to the back of buttons or resin items purchased from the craft store. Place these on your own Business Card or make one stating this is from the BUNNY BOUTIQUE.
Clean out your jewelry box and give away the unused seasonal items you haven't worn in years!
I also go to the Outlet Mall during Spring Break and stock up at the Paper Factory for seasonal items. Valentine heart shaped playing cards appeal to the girls as do Racing themed items for the boys. Think outside the season.
I redeemed my receipts at an outlet mall one year and got FREE stuffed bunny Rabbits. I supplemented these with POST holiday purchases and every child will get a BIG plush bunny this year. Their eggs will have a puzzle piece in it-fit it together and redeem for the prize. I'll make the puzzle out of card stock - a decorative clip art egg cut into 3 pieces, one piece in 3 different plastic eggs.
Purchase ring post, individually packaged chips or cookies that can be taken in the lunch box extend the holiday in to the next week.
For items too large to place in an egg we have a ticket made on the computer that says "Redeem for a prize" We recycle these too! My sister always has a pinata too!
For the best RECYCLING idea: We also hunt for the RADIOACTIVE bunny and the kids LOVE this part the best. The bunny is a chocolate bunny from 1991 that graced my husbands basket and he NEVER ate it. We finally shrink wrapped it. There is always a prize for who finds this (usually an 8 pack of Reese eggs or marshmallow bunnies-so they can share). The radioactive bunny is 17 this year and still going.
We have a potluck and have so may great photos and memories. the big kids NEVER want to miss the egg hunt and several are married! Happy Easter! Remember the reason we celebrate it!
Editor's Note: For more thrifty ideas, check out this guide.
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We always kept the basket, grass, plastic eggs, etc, to use in future seasons. Everyone had their own special basket, looked forward to seeing it next year, and always knew whose was whose. A lot of candy was never given. Usually we gave a gift that was wanted/needed and some treats were added. One year we gave a baseball glove (placed some grass and candy in it ), another a sturdy dumptruck filled with some grass and candy. Other years there were books in the baskets along with baseball cards, and one year just some candy with a note for a treasure hunt. Another one had beach buckets filled with swimsuits and towels. Always had so much fun, the kids never noticed that the gifts were usually things we were going to buy anyway.
We have 5 kids which gets pretty expensive at any holiday, so what we do is shop after the holiday when everything is on sale. My kids know that they will get more if they wait a day or two after the holiday, so because they get more they don't mind the wait. We even do this at Christmas. The kids get things from different relatives on the holidays themselves, so it's almost like having two separate holidays, and it saves us a ton of money.
I didn't want to give them too much candy so I filled their basket/bags(sm. tote) or buckets. I try to use things that can be used for storage to put their goodies in. I fill them with books, puzzles, stickers, arts-n-crafts items, fun pencils/pens, sidewalk chalk...things they can be creative with.
I put a little twist on the easter egg hunt. Instead of hunting just for the eggs and a basket. I would create several clues for each of my daughters and hid them in large plastic eggs with a coin/fun eraser/stickers etc. On Easter day afternoon, I would gather my girls and give each one the first clue to get them started on their search for their hidden stuffed bunnies (other animals) and other goodies. Each clue would lead them to the next and so on until they found their basket. The fun part was to make the search fun and exciting....for example the first clue would go something like this:
*****
Your Easter Bunny (Bear..what ever stuffed animal is waiting for them) is hiding with a basket full of fun.
You must find all of the clues that will lead you to your bunny before the search is done.
When you find your last clue; it will tell you where your bunny is hiding; waiting for you to come play.
It is now time to find your bunny so lets get you on your way.
Your first clue: You must go to the room where your parents sleep. Turn around 3 times, now hop up and down on one foot and say hippity, bippity bop, now go to Janie's room and look under where she sleeps. There you will find your next clue.
They must follow all of the instructions/directions for each clue (no short cuts allowed). The second to last clue will lead them back to me or their dad. where they will have to preform a task (sing I'm a little Tea Pot etc...) before we will give them their last clue.
The ease or difficulty of the clues you create will depend on the age and ability of the child(ren) to read and understand them.
When they were too little to read their dad and I would help them read their clues.
*****
All of my girls are older now but even when they were in their late teens the still wanted to do the clue hunt for a chocolate bunny. I had fun with them by having each clue end up sending them back to me, to get the next clue and having them do things like; rub their bellies and pat their heads while reciting their abc's before I would give them the next clue. It was silly and we had so much fun and a barrel of laughs. All of my girls say that they want to carry on this tradition when they have their own children.
We recently bought easter baskets for next easter. They were nice fabric ones from cost plus that would have cost us a bunch if they were not 75% off. We got them for like 59c each.
Buy for next yr after easter and put it away in the closet
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