Does the Easter Bunny Visit Your House?

The Easter Bunny just visited the One Spot at Target in preparation for a visit to my house. We usually put loys of outdoor fun stuff. Sidewalk chalk, jump rope, bubbles. Less candy, only a chocolate bunny and a few eggs filled with jellybeans.

I want to spend my money on fun outdoor activitites that promote health, rather than straight sugar.

Not that sugar is banned. They are still kids and it's a special occasion.

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My kids are grown 25, 27 and 31but sometimes the Easter Bunny comes to my house and hides the plastic eggs with lottery tickets inside in the back yard! lol.

However when my kids were growing up he brought bubbles, coloring books, books, kites, beach ball and pail, and crayons, maybe a DVD and some candy. If they needed play clothes he might even give them an outfit or two. Happy Easter!

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The Easter bunny visited when I was a kid, and I enjoyed getting my little basket of candy. I don't remember it ever being more than a little candy. Ironically, the same "bunny" visits her grandchildren and they end up looking like they're having a second Christmas stocking. I personally think it's over the top and ruins the simplicity of the basket (I'm not judging anyone who does differently, by the way. But you have to understand, with four children, bringing home piles of more toys twice a year gets overwhelming quickly...especially when they aren't even quality toys, just filler for the basket that will be quickly broken and/or abandoned.) So I'm having a talk with the "bunny" this year and telling her to lay off A LOT!!! Not sure if she'll listen, but you can't blame a mom for trying.

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Yes, the Easter Bunny visits our home. He leaves a basket with a few items (small toy, chocolate bunny, dvd, books, puzzles, shoes, bubbles, cars, trucks) that are on the table when the kids wake up. He then hides eggs (some with candy, some with small toys, some with coins and the ones we boiled and decorated) while we are at church.

Just b/c the Easter Bunny visits does not mean my children don't know what Easter is really about. We go to church on Ash Wed for our blessing, we try to go on Wednesday's throughout all of Lent. We go Maundy Thursday to celebrate the Last Supper. We go to church on Good Friday to listen to the story of His crucifixion and death. Then on Easter morning we go to celebrate the Resurrection. Even my 3 y/o knows what Easter is truly about.

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We did the Easter Bunny on Saturday. Why? Because the Easter Bunny was respectful of the real meaning of Easter and came on Saturday out of respect for Christ and the sacrifices he made for us.

It worked very well for us. The Easter Bunnny left colored hard boiled eggs, candy, occasionally a very small present or two.

Good luck to you and yours.

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Yes, we talk about the Easter Bunny and he brings baskets of "joy" and we hunt for eggs. For most of my life, my baskets have been filled mostly with candy of various types and a couple of nice gifts.

My children are really too young for sweets and my husband and I really can't have them (various medical issues) so I am already looking for some inexpensive gifts along the lines of "stocking stuffers" but to go in baskets. My son usually gets at least a couple of matchbox cars and other toys like that. My husband loves the deviled eggs, so that will make him happier than chocolate anyway. :-)

I don't recall ever being "lied" to regarding mythical figures. Santa, Easter Bunny, leprechauns.... they were always explained to me as more of a "feeling" and that a little piece of it lives in each one of us all the time and at one special time of year, that is enough to make magical things happen. I like that and will spread that idea on to my children. The day I stop believing in magic.... well, I don't want to think about it. :-(

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Growing up our Easter baskets were candy, only, and a big chocolate bunny. Our baskets were also hidden (behind a chair or something) with a jelly bean trail leading us to them. We had no family near by, so that was all we got for Easter.

My husband's family lives nearby, and my MIL does her own Easter basket for the kids and has tons of candy and we go to an Easter egg hunt in town that is more candy and they get candy at school ... you get the idea.

We've been doing small gifts and maybe a little bit of candy but only if it's something my husband and I really want. We haven't done clothes yet, but I like that idea! I really liked the jelly bean trail growing up, but I changed it to a colored gold fish trail because of all the outside candy coming in.

I saw find a compromise you both like and just have fun with it!

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He does visit our house :). We do the hard boiled eggs (so they can color them), candy filled eggs, and gifts. This year they will get new bikes for Easter. They need them, and it's the perfect time of year in Maryland to get them - so we can knock out two birds with one stone.

Growing up the easter bunny brought presents too. He also hid our easter baskets. I wish I was clever enough to do that with my kids! I might get my mom to help me on that one!

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NEVER. Also, no Santa Claus or Tooth Fairy or any other fictitious character. When we had our first child, we made a conscious decision not to lie to our children as we don't want them to think lying is okay in certain situations.

I think the Easter Bunny is about the worst, though. I know so many children who think that's what Easter is about. Easter is a specific Christian holiday, to remember that Christ rose from the grave and is now in Heaven. It is a reminder of our eternal salvation.

I personally make baskets for my children during the season, but I do not give them on Easter...usually a few days before, as a "spring gift." I do candy and small things...for example, last year I gave my oldest a Yoshi shirt she really wanted and a new fancy notebook to write her stories in. My youngest got a bath toy and a stuffed animal. Candy...well, Easter candy is the best!!! Cadbury eggs? Robin's Nests? Jelly beans? Peeps? OH YEAH!! :) Sorry, I got carried away. I need some candy.

Oh...we hunt for eggs. Why not? Just a game of find the toy, really.

I don't mind having fun traditions...it's the lie that bothers me, and taking the focus entirely away from why holidays exist in the first place.

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We always do Easter Bunny baskets! I loved them growing up, and my boys love them now. We do some candy and some little gifts -some books, a DVD, some Hot Wheels, bubbles -that sort of thing. What's wrong with that? We don't go nuts -it's not like Christmas or anything, but little gifts are fun.

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The Easter Bunny comes to my house, but doesn't do anything elaborate. Last year I think each kid got a chocolate bunny, a few pieces of candy and a book about Easter. In the past they have also gotten a stuffed animal or play-doh. We try to keep the baskets pretty basic.

We also do a big Easter egg hunt, but the girls know that mom and dad hid the eggs. This has worked out better for me b/c last year we combined our Easter egg hunt with another family so we brought the eggs with us. And we've had Easter egg hunts at my parents' house. My daughter (6) thinks you cannot have too many Easter egg hunts. We still have some plastic eggs in our toy kitchen and periodically one of my kids will ask me to hide them. Sometimes they search for empty eggs, sometimes I add pennies/nickels, sometimes a few pieces of candy. For the most part it doesn't really matter what is in them. The kids just like searching.

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Yes, we are chrisitan so we celebrate the resurrection of christ, but also the easter bunny visits too...and my kids are older...16 this weekend (spec needs), 12 and 9. They each get a basket left overnight by the easter bunny when he comes and hides eggs in the house. All the prior years candy has been in the eggs, but this year we decided the easter bunny eggs will have coins in them...hope no one gets hurt! Lol! So the kids get their baskets and find as many eggs as they can. We usually get each of them something they want in addition to some fun easter candy and novelty items. And I think since we have started Family Game Night every Wed that I may get hubby and I each a new game from the Easter Bunny this year. =)

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We do very little candy. We have little gifts like shovels, rakes, coloring books, crayons, and kites.

One year we put fake food for the kitchen in her bucket.

This year, they will get new bikes (that I bought on Black Friday).

We use the same Easter basket each year for tradition. :)

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Easter at our home is a week long event. We talk about different Biblical stories, watch a movie, or parts of movies, we have special meals, we take communion together as a family, and different traditions that are specific to us. But the Easter Bunny does come. We dye eggs and on Saturday night just before the kids go to bed, we'll leave them out (temporarily) in a pretty bowl for the bunny, and we also leave our egg buckets out. The eggs AND buckets are gone in the morning, and we're busy with our Easter Sunday things. (Sometimes this is an early morning Sunrise service, or regular service, sometimes an after church event and sometimes we just go home...) At some point in the day, the Bunny does surprise us by showing up. Sometimes he rings the doorbell and there's the buckets filled, sitting at the door. Other times we get up from nap and boom, there they are just sitting there waiting. We never know!
He takes our eggs and hides them in the house. He takes plastic eggs that have a jellybean or 2 skittles (or whatever) in them outside the house. In the buckets we'll have a couple marshmallow eggs, a chocolate cross or bunny, some little jellybean or chewy candies, and the little gift could be a book, a small stuffed animal, or a larger "egg" with a hotwheel in it. Just 1 little gift each. After they find the eggs that the bunny hid, we will send the kids to their rooms and hide the eggs again "just for fun".

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We actually do the opposite of yourr husband. The Easter Bunny comes, but leaves only small gifts (bubbles, new shovels and pails for outside, that kind of thing) and no candy. This year the Easter Bunnies mama (grandma) is bringing them scooters, which is more than I would want them to get, but they had way too much at Christmas, so we put those off for a bit. The kids get so much candy at school for their Easter parties. I just don't feel like we need to give them any more candy at home.

:) B

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We do the bunny as well. We are Greek Orthodox and the Orthodox calendar is a little different so our bunny usually comes later than everyone else's so I can bank on getting some sale items to use! My kids are only 4 and 2 so they have yet to notice the difference, plus Easter was on the same day last year. I agree that it's fun and kids love fun stuff! I don't feel like you have to choose between the bunny world and the church world, they can intertwine, and trust me there is plenty of church during the lenten season for us! ;)

We do a mix of candy and toys in the baskets, which the bunny hides. He doesn't hide eggs, if we do an egg hunt, mom and dad hide the eggs. He hides the bakets someplace tricky and the kids have to look for them. Usually there are some small toys like cars, bubbles, pinwheels, etc. I put a few plastic eggs filled with candies and usually a chocolate Russel Stover egg. We don't do anything "big" in the baskets, but just fun little stuff!

When I was a kid the Easter Bunny did the same thing, except my mom never gave us plastic eggs (and honestly I feel a little scarred from it!:) but she would fill pastel cupcake liners with jelly beans and chocolate eggs and place them inside our baskets.

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No and yes. No because we don't do Easter bunny things and decorations - we just do Resurrection stuff. But yes because my son's preschool did an Easter egg hunt all 3 years he was there, so we just kept his eggs and let him open them on Easter. Another yes because all our friends who have adopted our son as their own makes a big deal about Easter,so out of love and appreciation for them, my husband and I are forced to comply with all the activities they kindly plan for our son, complete with an egg hunt, cupcakes and gift basket and bunny ears. I have learned to get over it because Easter candy is awesome, especially Cadbury Eggs.

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We are also Christians and choose to celebrate with the Easter Bunny as well as Christ's resurrection. We actually don't do any candy (my boys are going on 5 and 2 1/2). I just do small gifts for their baskets--coloring books, crayons, stickers, cute things from the dollar section at Target, etc. If I do a treat, it's something like fruit snacks (same for Christmas stockings). My parents also do a basket for them and usually put a treat or two in there.

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Our Easter bunny used to leave small gifts rather than candy. But we have too much stuff, so now the bunny may leave a book, a small toy, and candy candy candy (and he hides the eggs we decorated). It's once a year, the boys eat the candy, and unlike Legos, soon it's gone. ; )

One of my all time favorite memories from when I was a kid was finding an easter egg in the pipe from the dryer vent (outside). I was so proud...never mind how many "clues" my Dad had given me. : ) I don't even remember what we got in our baskets.

So - the main idea for us is to keep it fun and minimize stress for Mom and Dad (whether that is $ stress or stuff stress). My husband grew up with $ and he and his brother had to find their gifts on Easter morning. They always got candy and gifts. They got tennis rackets one year. Personally, I think that's a bit much.

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Yup, we do the Bunny. We also take our son to church each week and he's well aware at 4 what Easter is "really about"... in fact he is practicing his "good deed" each day as part of his little Lenten promise. We treat this the same as Christmas. In our house Easter morning is about going to church and celebrating the Resurrection. The afternoon is about hunting for the baskets and eggs.

Last year the Bunny went overboard b/c the "grand bunnies" and "great grand bunnies" sent items to add to the basket without much warning. As children we always got a new bathing suit, sun glasses, sunscreen, a book and some candy. We do the same with our son... last year we bought (excluding others' contributions):
- Bubble wand
- sidewalk chalk
- sun glasses
- candy
- stickers

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The Easter Bunny fills eggs with chocolates and money at our house. He also leaves baskets with small gifts or a outfit.

As the kids have gotten older, the eggs are harder to find. Sometimes we find eggs the summer time and tease the kids about not searching very well.

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We celebrate our favorite holiday - baseball's Opening Day! Seems for many years, the first game of the season was the same weekend as Easter, or pretty close.

We never really did Easter, but my husband and I had done little opening day things for a few years before our son was born. After his arrival, we wanted to do a basket like other people and this was a great way to continue our tradition. Our baskets always include some game tickets to surprise each other with, a new baseball shirt for our son, a few other small gifts, along with the traditional candies.

Oddly enough, Wal-Mart always has a good selection of baseball-themed easter stuff. "Eggs" to fill shaped/decorated like baseballs, baseball lollipops, little games. One year we got him a plastic ball/bat set that was a carrot for a bat and a green wiffle ball. Perfect. Another year was the best - a big, stuffed baseball, with bunny ears and bunny face. When you press its paw, it sings Take Me Out to the Ballgame! None of that stuff costs very much.

We also do the egg hunt with candies, tattoos, whistles, whatever inside, never money. And we color the eggs to eat for breakfast.

Last year, Opening Day and Easter were farther apart so we did something for both Sundays. Easter was a small thing with a lollipop attached to a bug catching net, bunny coloring book and chocolate bunny, while Opening Day had the other stuff.

My parents get him a basket for Easter, too, and my aunt sends him a coloring book or craft around that same time.

Hmmm...I think he's a little spoiled!

ETA:

We haven't mentioned the Easter Bunny yet (he's 4). That doesn't really seem to come up so he knows his stuff is from mommy and daddy/nana and pop-pop. After all, if we do the work, we should get the credit! :) Even Santa only brings him one thing, mom and dad do the rest. Maybe one year he'll hear about the bunny and we'll have to make a little change.

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for us, the easter bunny does not visit, but my kids know that it's fun to get a easter basket that "I" put out for them. I usually put a few small toys from target (in their easter section) and a chocolate bunny. We also do a easter egg hunt at my MIL's house. It's fun for them. But, we teach them the real reason for easter.

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I did everything as I knew that children grow up fast.

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we do easter baskets left out at night, then in the morning the easter bunny leaves a few gifts and maybe a stuffed animal, and has hidden the eggs we dye around the livingroom. sounds similar to what you are used to. then we all go to sunrise service at church together, then do a big family get together.

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Why not????
We did the Easter Bunny when my kids were small, I loved dying eggs and hiding them as well as getting them nice gifts and candies.

I knew a family years ago who had converted from Luthern to Jewish when the Mom remarried and her new hubby was Jewish. They did not want to kids to have to give up all of their Christian traditions but modified them so instead of the Easter Bunny they had a Passover Pelician.

I think I am gonna have to have the Ostara Ostrich at my house.

Whatever works. The most important thing is kids know it is a religious holiday to be observed but it is a CELEBRATION too.

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We've always done candy and gifts - I grew up that way too. Nothing outrageous (it isn't Christmas in April) but we do a basket with candy and small gifts. Last year my son got a Yodi bucket and it had candy, a wii game, and a book. I think daughter got something similiar except no wii game cause she was only two - probably an outfit or a pair of shoes.

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