Easter Basket Ideas - Bellville,OH

My husband and I found small wheelbarrows at Lowes and we are filling them up with some books, garden tools (because my little guy helps me in the garden), and some shrink grow things. You might try some small Lego packs, Easter eggs with money in them, coupons for movies or DVDs. If you want to include some candy, there are healthier options that we'll be going with that can be found at Trader Joes, Whole Foods, or Raisin Rack. Good luck!

If you don't want to do a lot of candy... maybe add some healthier snacks such as nuts, raisins, fruit, peanut butter crackers, etc.

I just learned that the Easter basket tradition largely came from the Christian tradition of bringing Easter dinner to mass in a basket to be blessed before the meal, which was the end of the lenten season when people had not been able to eat meat, dairy, or eggs for 46 days. This year I am therefore planning to fill our baskets with food that would not be eaten during lent (even though my family does not actually give up meat, dairy, and eggs during lent). I'm thinking of fancy cheeses, salami (my kids love salami), yogurt-covered raisins, and maybe special breads that contain milk, eggs, or cheese. Because Easter is also (in the non-Christian tradition) a celebration of spring and renewal, last year I put some seed packets in the baskets. My kids love to plant things in their gardens.

This way of filling the Easter baskets makes me feel like we are a little less beholden to the commercialization of the holiday and a lot less sugar high.

My kids are a little younger than yours (1 and 3) but i agree that I don't like to fill up their baskets with candy and cheap toys. I put a few pieces in but then fill up the basket with individual servings of animal crackers, cookies, raisns, cranberries, etc. and get them a small toy as well. They are too young to really understand Easter and by the age of 7 and 10 they should be old enough to know that it is not all about candy. :)

I have a 4yo boy and he is getting fishing gear! Spending time with him, especially outdoors, will mean more to him than the gifts he gets. Maybe your boys would like some new poles and a small tacle box to share. :)

books, art supplies, PlayDoh or Moon dough, legos, bubbles, chalk, sunglasses

Added: Do you have a Michaels store near you? They have a lot of nice toys out for $1-$3. I got my nephew (age 9) a package of 2 stunt gliders for $1. I think that's the kind of stuff kids like... no need to spend a lot!

Mine - both now in high school - have and have always had very small Easter baskets.
They get their favorite kind of candy - my son likes peanutbutter cups, my daughter likes chocolate bars. They get a chocolate bunny. They get a few peeps. They get a toothbrush and toothpaste. When they were little, I used to pop a book under each basket...
In the morning, they hunt for the eggs we color the night before.
Then we head out to church.
YMMV
LBC

Outside toys are great and that's what I remember getting as a child (bubbles, sidewalk chalk, my first jump rope). This year my boys are each getting a small toy (action figures for the 10yo, play doh for the 3yo, and new sippy cups for the 1yo), two Reese eggs (their favorite), a sucker, and their favorite flavor individual bags of goldfish. I may throw some raisins or crasins in there as well. My mom does the big egg hunt and fills the eggs with a bit of candy, quarters, cool rocks (she lives on a river and the boys love this, last year they got arrowheads she'd found) and pieces of paper that they'll trade in for their bigger gifts - and she does the outside toys and usually an outfit.

My son is 3 1/2 and his basket/bucket has playdough, a puzzle, art stuff, sidewalk chalk, bug collecting stuff and a couple of books. The only candy it has is some m&m's and a few suckers which are his favorite. He will get enough candy at the easter egg hunt and at his grandma's.

Oh, he got a new football too.

Ideas for your boys

Outdoor games, ring toss, horseshoes, badmitten
bug collecting stuff Target and walmart have great selections
water guns
fishing gear
books

Happy Easter!

I do art supplies. I am the same way I don't want to fill their baskets with cheap junk and candy but I also don't want to spend a fortune. Crayons, paper, etc. work for both my son and my daughter and it encourages them to be creative.

We do not do candy either. We figure our children get enough of it from the extended family who don't listen to us. :) Anyway, we do spring themed items. For instance, bathing suits, sandals, outdoor items. We usually spend about $30/each. My children are 3 and 5 so little outdoor play items still work for them....sandbox toys, "kid designed" garden trowels and shovels to play in the dirt. It was so funny last year. My now 5 year old found his easter basket and it had spiderman sandals and new swim trunks in it. My son exclaims, "Mom how did the Easter Bunny now my favorite thing to do was to go swimming? Can he make it warm for me now so I can go?" I couldn't stop laughing. I figure these are items they will need anyway so way not get them now instead of junky items. We do still hide the items and make them find them and do a small easter egg hunt with candy/money inside of the eggs.

Target (and others?) have these paster things that come with paint. You can get a train, a lion, etc. They are cheap ($1 or $2) and your children can do them themselves. Are your boys interested in baseball cards or something like that? How about a new magazine just for them?

We're not big on candy, either. But bubble gum is always a hit!

Happy Easter!

Balls look cute in the basket, do they play baseball? tennis balls are fun even if they don't play, splash balls, beach balls, squirt balls etc for this summer. and a book

What do they like to do? Do they play any sports? Movie passes? Stuff from their favorite sports teams? Books? Not sure how much you want to spend.

I try to keep it to things they need, or want. My DD got jelly beans and a chocolate bunny and a pack of squinkies, my boys each got gift cards for the game store, i refuse to spend 60 bucks on a game for easter, but they each have allowance to use on top of the card for a game. they also each got candy, peeps/cream eggs and each a bunny.

we used to do kites and outside toys when they were younger things like chalk ect. One year we did beach items, another pool toys for the new pool. Stuff I would have ended up buying regardless.

I got my son a Pokemon toy (he's almost 7) and my daughter some play jewelry (she's 4). Also filling up some plastic eggs with some candy and a chocolate bunny. Also some Easter related toys that I bought last year on clearance and stickers. I buy little toys throughout the year for Easter and stocking stuffers when they are on clearance. I have a bag in the basement I put it all in and when it's Easter/Christmas time I pick what I want to give them. It's usually things like books, toys (I got a bunch of Bakugan on clearance this year), dress-up stuff for my daughter that kind of thing. I don't get them anything from the dollar store, usually it's Target or Michael's.

We do an Easter egg hunt at the grandparents and I usually put hot wheels, candy, stickers in the eggs.

I fill reusable buckets instead of baskets with whatever type of toy my children are into at the moment. Hot wheels, zhuzhu pets, etc...take them out of the packaging and arrange. For treats maybe fruit snacks. I don't give my daughter candy except 1 chocolate bunny-usually a small one. Hope this helps.

may be some dvd's or some coloring books,crayons. I would also say legos are always nice and you can get them in a small pack. I saw these really cool outfits in walmart that were about $5 and they had a toy attached to them. If they like mcdonalds or chick fila then put a gift certificate or gift card in there from one of those places. I would at least put in a chocolate bunny which they also had for cheap in walmart too. I also had fun looking at the dollar and up section in target which is usually right in the front when you walk in near customer service. good luck

I usually get my kids new swim stuff for easter or other outside type toys. This year I also bought them new camp chairs, so instead of cheap baskets that get thrown away I am going to use them for the basket. :)

We are buying books and a travel size game (real game, not video game) for the older kids in the family.

DS Game...Movie Passes...Toys R Us or Target Gift Card. New outdoor sports items like a soccer ball or basket ball.

Not sure if they are too old for this one, lol.. but we take the "cool" "fun" undies (like my daughter LOVES Paul Frank stuff) and stuff them in the bigger size eggs. same with fun socks too.

Other then that we always keep it to 1 outfit, 1 toy, a small amount of candy and a few outside items (they are younger still so chalk and bubbles).

Is your older son into any kind of certain music? Maybe you can get him his first concert tickets? Or what about going to an amusement park? I see you are in Ohio but not sure where Bellville is. You could do Sea World in Sandusky or the other one in Cincinnati (mind not working this am so I really can not think of the names of the parks, lol).

Do they want summer passes for anyhting - like inColumbus we have Zoombezi Bay, the water park.

Good luck and Happy EAster