Where I live, spring is starting to spring. And I have to tell you, this is putting a spring back in my step. The grass is greening up. The trees are budding and just about to pop. And best yet, the weatherman is forecasting a high in the 80’s for later this week! Which means it could be a warm and spring-like Easter. Hooray!
My kids no longer believe in the Easter bunny. (Sad but true.) So this puts me in that odd stage of redefining our Easter traditions. Which traditions stay despite there being no “real” bunny, and which traditions go?
The bunny itself has gone, but not surprisingly the baskets filled with candy and other goodies have stayed. (Not sure how my kids pulled that one off, but they did.) Now though, it is the Easter chicken that visits our house, hides the eggs, and fills up the baskets with goodies. I think we will also still dye Easter eggs, and I’m thinking we might bake some Easter cookies, since I have some cute Easter colored sprinkles I’d like to use up.
The Easter chicken will be carrying on the Easter Bunny’s tradition of an as-clutter-free-as-possible approach to stuffing the Easter baskets—something that this professional organizer fully endorses. So here are our Easter chicken’s favorite tips for clutter-free basket-filling and Easter-ing.
Reuse the basics year after year.
The Easter chicken raids my Easter storage bin which contains the baskets that formerly the bunny, and now the chicken, reuse and refill year after year—ever since the bunny started visiting my kids. We have four baskets, since one year we had friends visit us for Easter and felt we’d have better chances of keeping up the bunny tradition if all the Easter baskets matched. So the chicken gets a little bit of variety in his basket selection. The Easter grass is also reused and stored right in the baskets.
Create some recycled Easter grass.
If you don’t already have Easter grass for your baskets, our Easter chicken suggests shredding paper scraps (perhaps some scrapbook paper scraps) to create recycled Easter grass. This will have the added benefit of decluttering your scrap stash a little bit, which is always a good thing. Right?
Fill the basket with practical and creative fillers.
Filling the basket is the fun part. It’s like creating mini gift basket for the kids each year. The bunny’s approach (which has been passed down to the chicken) is to shoot for creative and practical fillers that match the child’s interests. If they’re into baseball, baseball themed stuffers are good. If they’re into helping Daddy in the yard, gardening themed stuffers are good. If they’re into all things girly, lotions and potions fit the bill (and stuff the basket.) Our chicken focuses on items that will get used or eaten—and therefore not end up as clutter. Here are some ideas to share with your bunny (or chicken, as the case may be.)
- Body spray
- Book
- Bubble bath
- Coloring books
- Crayons
- Crocs
- Flashlight
- Flip flops
- Gardening gloves, seed packets, bulbs or kid-sized gardening tools,
- Gel pens in spring-like colors
- Gift card
- Glitter glues
- Gum
- Hair accessories
- Jewelry
- Jump rope
- Lip balm
- Loofah
- Lotion
- Markers
- Movie tickets
- Nail polish
- Notebooks
- Paperclips
- Pens / pencils
- Perfume
- Playing cards, trading cards, baseball cards or small games. (My son got the card game Monopoly Deal in his stocking last Christmas…and we love it!)
- Reusable water bottle
- Sidewalk chalk
- Spring themed cookie cutters
- Spring themed socks
- Sticky notes or a small seasonal notebook
- Straws
- Stuffed animals
- Sunhats or baseball caps
- Sunglasses
- Swim suits
- Toothbrush
- And, of course, a chocolate bunny or other favorite candy
This year our Easter chicken will be avoiding stuffed animals, as the chicken has noticed an abundance of these in one of my child’s bedroom. But were it not for past over-accumulation of stuffed things, the chicken would definitely place this high on the list of basket fillers.
If you celebrate Easter, I would love to hear your approach to creating a fun and clutter-free holiday. What are your go-to basket stuffers? And if you have kids that have outgrown the bunny / basket stage, did you change your Easter traditions? And if so, how? Thanks for sharing!
My 40 year old husband’s mother saved his basket (it’s used for one of our daughters now) and one batch of Easter grass his whole life. I finally threw out the grass last year. It grossed me out. We use shredded paper, and for some reason I always give my girls socks for Easter and Xmas (probably because there are always socks on the Target $1 aisle!), candy and seeds/gardening supplies are staples as well.
We have two little ones in our house so the Easter Bunny is alive and well here. The kids have one personalized Easter basket each and it’s set out every year for the bunny to fill (just like we set out the same stocking every year for Santa to fill).
I like practical items that can and will be used rather than just “stuff” that will clutter the house. There is very little candy but there is some so the kids don’t feel deprived. The Easter Bunny that visits our house brings item in preparation for spring and summer (very similar to your list).
sunglasses, new outfit (shorts), swim suit, beach towel, flip flops/sandals, sand toys, pool toys, gardening toys, bubbles, bubble machine, sidewalk chalk, kite, stickers, coloring books, crayons/markers, craft supplies, books, kid magazines, hair accessories, character toothbrush, umbrella, etc.
Funny you should post this. It is only a reminder for me to start digging out all of the treasures I have collected to put in the Easter goodie bags for my niece and son. My list of items include: word search puzzles, small amount of candy, McDonald’s gift card, small note pad, pj’s for my niece (really cheap at Walmart), and small bag of chips or cookies.
It sounds like your approach to the Easter basket is the same as mine. My kids don’t believe in the Easter bunny any more either, but still like to get a basket. I also save my basket and Easter grass each year to refill with a few items (practical things that won’t add clutter) and a small bit of candy. I like to fill them with things like I-tunes gift cards, books, seeds, and sugarless gum. I also reuse my plastic eggs for the Easter egg hunt, which we are planning on doing outside this year due to the great weather we are expecting up here in Maine! Happy Easter~ I love your blog!
Well we now do an easter egg hunt that brings, coins and bills wrapped in a square inside the eggs along with candy.
My two kiddo’s always get a new “Sunday best” outfit. Along with books and a new DVD in their basket. They get a toothbrush and toothpaste too! We usually throw in a jamba gift card & Target and call it good.
I am a big fan of the practical. I feel better spending money on things we would have bought anyway or things that don’t add to the small toy clutter! I usually stuff the basket with spring/summer themed things like: flipflops, bathing suits, goggles, sidewalk chalk, pool toys, water balloons, new underwear and/or socks, etc. And, of course, there is candy! This year each of my kids is getting a new webkinz stuffed animal – even though we have plenty “stuffies” – their accounts have expired and they need a new friend so they can continue playing!
My girls’ Easter baskets have only contained candy so far, but I like the idea of replacing some of the candy with little practical gift items from your list. Thanks!
Also, I think you would like today’s post on Write.Click.Scrapbook:
http://www.writeclickscrapbook.com/write_click_scrapbook/2010/03/r-is-for-re-purposing-making-the-most-of-all-those-pretties.html
Kim
This post reminds me of the fun we had at Easter time as children…the traditions and legacy. I no longer have the Easter bunny visit my house since we’re child-free, but it’s neat to relive the experience through my niece and nephews. So fun (:
The Easter Bunny only does useful and practical at our house, too. Long gone are the days I would buy something to put in their baskets just because they look Easter-ish. It can be hard to resist! We hide coins and mini candy bars in the eggs for our hunt. I also buy them egg shaped gum. I don’t go too crazy on the candy though. This year I did buy my 4 year old the “Princess and the Frog” DVD and some Princess and the Frog bath products from Avon. My 10 year old son is getting a book on cool science experiments as well as batteries, a mechanical pencil, water balloons and a new glue gun. They are both getting bubbles and kites. These are all things we would buy for the kids anyway. My mom always, always made sure the Easter Bunny brought me a new stuffed animal every year until I was in college. I kind of feel bad that I am not doing the same for my own kids, but honestly, do they really need another stuffed animal? And we certainly don’t need more clutter.
Happy Easter!
Thank you for this post and your ideas. Also thank you for posting a picture As silly as it sounds, I love your pictures and will be more likely to read your posts if it has a cute, colorful picture. Thank you for all the time you put into your posts. Happy Easter
It is tough when the kids grow out of these parts of our traditions, isn’t it? Thanks for the ideas for how to keep Easter as clutter-free as possible.
Hi,
My “kids” are 22 and 25 and still like to get an Easter Basket. When the 22 year old came home from school for Easter he asked if the baskets were ready!!! They both have Longaberger baskets from 1989 that get used every year. They’ve always been filled with a little candy and then things that they were currently into, paint, toy cars, Beanie Babies for a couple of years, sport equipment etc. This year they got movies and gift cards for their favorite places to eat and a big chocolate Easter Bunny…. My plan is as they get married and have children of their own I’ll use them as family Easter Baskets every year (they have to return them in order to get them the following year) with fun things for the whole family, like movie tickets, zoo passes, small games etc.
Laura
Hi, there. I’m new to your blog but have quickly gotten sucked in. I’ve added you to my blogroll, and will be back. 🙂 I enjoyed this post. I do quite a bit for each holiday except for Easter. It’s just my husband and myself … and the dogs, of course. With no kids to fuss over and no real religious beliefs to ground me to the holiday, it gets overlooked. But I feel like I’m being miserly with my festiveness every time Easter comes and goes without doing anything for it. I liked what you said about using the Easter basket as an opportunity to make a personalized gift basket for my husband, in this case. In the past, I’ve forgone it because I figured we didn’t need a bunch of clutter and chocolate. But if it’s filled with practical stuff and a little bit of candy, it would work. I put this on my list of things to do next spring. 🙂 Thanks for the inspiration.
I also still dye Easter eggs, and I think we could make Easter cookies, and I have some pretty colored Easter a. Use spray..