how long has Easter been associated with presents...

[weddell]

As a kid I usually got a small toy or stuffed bunny, never anything big, and candy :D . My kids have allergies and we aren't in the US at the moment. We are in a country where the candy is kind of terrible unless it is imported and then it is ridiculously expensive. So I'll buy a little and supplement with a small gift or two to make up for less candy. When we are back in the US next year, it'll be more candy and less toys for the baskets. Last year I cut egg shapes out of paper and made quick designs on them with markers. Then I taped a piece of candy to the back and hid them around the house. It was as close to an egg hunt as I could get with all our plastic eggs being to storage back in the US.

[Mom in High Heels]

No presents here, just candy. The candy is usually in one big basket, but when they were little they each got an empty basket to go hunting for candy and plastic eggs with candy and/ or coins inside. We color eggs, too.

 

Friends of ours have a fun tradition of saving all their egg shells for months. They make a small hole in one end to get the raw egg out. Then they wash all the saved, empty shells and fill them with confetti. The outsides are decorated with glued on tissue paper that covers up the holes. On Easter the kids--sometimes adults too--crack the confetti eggs on each others' heads in the back yard.

 

 

 

We have done the confetti eggs too, but it is such a mess to clean up! Indy loves them though.

 

We do a small gift inside the basket, but nothing extravagant, though YMMV on what's considered extravagant. My parents always left a jelly bean trail from my room to wherever my basket was, and I do the same. I make sure the floor is really clean though. ;)

[aggieamy]

We have done the confetti eggs too, but it is such a mess to clean up! Indy loves them though.

 

We do a small gift inside the basket, but nothing extravagant, though YMMV on what's considered extravagant. My parents always left a jelly bean trail from my room to wherever my basket was, and I do the same. I make sure the floor is really clean though. ;)

 

Consider the jelly bean trail idea stolen because I think it's simply fantastic. DD will love that.

 

:)

[dontknow]

We haven't even done an easter basket yet. We're terrible, I know. Our child gets a 2-3 giant ones full of all sorts of things from family so we decide to only use ours for easter egg hunts with a couple dozen plastic eggs. For that matter, we have raised her on the philosophy that the e-bunny is just someone you visit at the mall if you want. She has no clue that the thing supposedly comes and brings you anything.

[Pawz4me]

My boys are 14 and 17 and I don't recall ever giving them Easter baskets, let alone gifts. We're not much interested in candy, and I've always felt that (1) Christmas has been commercialized enough, no need to commercialize yet another religious holiday and (2) they get plenty of "gifts" in the course of normal life.

 

When they were younger we did dye eggs, and their grandmother always had an egg hunt for all the grandkids. She'd use plastic eggs and fill them with change or pieces of candy.

[Laura Corin]

I haven't heard of Easter presents over here beyond chocolate eggs/bunnies.

 

We do presents for Christmas and birthdays only.

 

Laura

[bettyandbob]

I've always felt that (1) Christmas has been commercialized enough, no need to commercialize yet another religious holiday

 

See I feel like Easter is sliding down a slippery slope toward the ways of Christmas. I can easily see a future in which I hear about Easter "wish lists". I think the old fashioned fun of dying eggs and hunting for them will be long gone. The chocolate will be a side note to the expectation of big stuff.

 

I understand getting a basket is fun. I just hate the commercial take over by stores and how that is affecting what used to be a small part of the celebration. The encouragement to FILL the basket makes the holiday about STUFF. I think I see encouragement to go beyond the basket for big STUFF.

 

 

[Laura Corin]

Just a tip in case it helps anyone.

 

We do an Easter egg hunt for the boys each year, but we have three acres and use the whole area. We give them clues in the form of photographs: for Hobbes, the photographs will make it reasonably easy to find the prize; for Calvin, the photographs are much more misleading. Neither child is allowed to pick up an egg that is not associated with a photograph.

 

Laura

[Pippen]

We usually got one or two small, inexpensive items (toys cars, hair stuff, bubbles, etc) while growing up. Later that morphed into smallish teen appropriate stuff (socks, $5 in a plastic egg, nail polish). Never any large gifts.

 

I started out with gifts when my kids were small as they were getting Easter baskets with candy from four other sources. I gave that up after a few years and just carry on with what my mom did.

[TexasRachel]

Friends of ours have a fun tradition of saving all their egg shells for months. They make a small hole in one end to get the raw egg out. Then they wash all the saved, empty shells and fill them with confetti. The outsides are decorated with glued on tissue paper that covers up the holes. On Easter the kids--sometimes adults too--crack the confetti eggs on each others' heads in the back yard.

Cascarones. It's a huge Mexican tradition so if theirs a Hispanic grocery around you might be able to buy them there. We buy them at Walmart by the flat.

 

We do small presents in our baskets like I did growing up. Also new clothes. I'd always get a new church dress for Christmas and Easter. I continue ue the tradition with my kids.

[Night Elf]

We've only ever done candy, but a decent amount. Colored hard boiled eggs always seemed so gross to me. I never enjoyed coloring them so I have never done it with my own kids because none of them liked hard boiled eggs.

[Jane in NC]

As a child, I gave up sweets for Lent which made my Easter basket a real treat. It always contained Russel Stover's products: a bag of chocolate eggs, pectin jelly beans, a chocolate rabbit and a coconut nest.

 

We decorated eggs, but it was mild compared to my husband's family. They dyed and painted eggs then did a hunt for these eggs. Many of the eggs were not for consumption--they were mini works of art.

 

No wonder why we began doing Pysanky with my son but I blew the eggs first!

 

Now that I'm thinking of the whole Easter gift thing, I'm starting to feel kind of old.

 

I was just remembering that my dad used to take Easter pictures every year before we went to church, and there I'd be, in my new dress, new Spring coat, new shoes, new dressy gloves, new hat, new little handbag, and holding whatever stuffed bunny I'd gotten that year.

 

I probably wouldn't be feeling quite so old if I hadn't remembered the gloves and the hat. :glare:

 

This. No presents in the basket but Easter was the time when our wardrobes received a boost: a new dress, new "church" shoes, gloves and hat. I usually wore my sister's hand me downs for spring coats. The irony was that Easter was often cold and snowy--so much for the cute spring dresses

 

Something interesting here: I did not grow up in an affluent family but it was important that we had these special church clothes, items we wore on some other occasions too. At the risk of sounding judgmental, I will lament the loss of some formality within society. I recently had the opportunity to sit on some job interviews for a youth leader. One of the applicants wore soiled trousers frayed at the heels and a wrinkled shirt. On the one hand, yes, we do not need to judge by appearance. On the other hand, it is nice to see some effort go into presentation.

 

No tomato throwing, please.

 

ETA: Derailing a thread again! Sorry to the OP!

[qtkimi]

I usually get them lots of candy and a couple small things (bubbles sidewalk chalk ect.) but this year I'm trying to cut down our candy consumption so I ordered them each one nice gift. I'm hoping the arrive on time though I got an email that some of my items are on back order. :scared:

[bettyandbob]

We've only ever done candy, but a decent amount. Colored hard boiled eggs always seemed so gross to me. I never enjoyed coloring them so I have never done it with my own kids because none of them liked hard boiled eggs.

 

I liked looking for eggs. I didn't enjoy egg salad for days after. My mom did all the coloring, so I dont have a fun memory of that. I did start coloring with my youngest a few years ago and he does enjoy it. AND my dd does like boiled eggs.

[Annie]

We did little presents last year (a small construction truck, some bubbles and a bath toy), and we'll do it again this year. My little guy has food allergies, and it's just easier. He'll get Harold the helicopter for his Thomas trains, some sunglasses that he needs anyway, a spring time book, some fruit snacks that I have left over from his Christmas stocking, and some freeze dried strawberries. We'll do an egg hunt in the backyard with plastic eggs, but they'll be empty since we can still get away with that.

 

I only had candy in my baskets growing up, but it was way more cany than we would want around even if we didn't have the allergies.

[LuvToRead]

My girls gets tons of candy from extended family, so we generally buy them small gifts. In the past they have gotten Bibles, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, butterfly nets, etc. This year they are getting some 3 in 1 yard game set.

[Guest inoubliable]

My parents went all out for Easter. I think, for most Catholics, Easter is just a big a deal as Christmas. At both holidays we got new dresses and shoes for Mass, candies, and presents. The only difference was that Christmas presents were things not necessarily associated with the religion. Easter presents, though, were usually books of devotion, a new cross necklace, new rosary, etc and came in a basket.

[Paige]

As a child, my brother and I received baskets with toys, candy, eggs, and small cute things. The basket was kind of like a small Christmas stocking. I say small because our stockings were huge. We also received small baskets with just candy, eggs, and a novelty toy or stuffed animal from my maternal grandmother. I keep that tradition up with my kids. What can I say? I love to give presents. I love to hunt for the perfect little thing. It doesn't have to be expensive stuff, but I want to surprise them with little things they are not expecting. This year, their baskets will be full of international candies they have never seen before in stores. I'm excited to see them explore the new candies and wonder where they came from.

 

My DH's family only had small, small baskets with candy and some eggs. He doesn't do the shopping or planning, so he doesn't plan their baskets. If he did, he'd keep it to candy and eggs. He thinks they don't need more. IMO, it's not about need, but about fun and memories, and special surprises! DH is like the original poster and wants to know when Easter became a present holiday. I think it's always been a present holiday in some families, or at least has been for a long time. My mother and her sisters received toy and candy filled baskets too and my oldest aunt on her side is 75.

[Chris in VA]

We get new clothes (well the kids, mostly, and now just the girl) to symbolize new life in Christ.

We give candy in the baskets in the tradition of celebrating the sweetness of Christ (newly baptised used to receive a tiny spoonful of milk and honey).

We sometimes give a devotional or pin or piece of jewelry to symbolize the preciousness of Christ and as a profession of faith.

 

All symbols, all fun.

 

Bunnies, eggs--these are newness of life objects to us, taken from the pagan world, yes, but changed and made new in Christ, just like us.

 

We dye eggs (and make coffee filter butterflies with the leftover dye); have a plastic, trinket-not-candy-filled egg hunt at church after the service; have a special Easter dinner (lamb kabobs on the grill); and absolutely, thoroughly enjoy the holiday. It is the highlight of all our holidays. I don't want to give too many presents because finding gifts for Christmas stresses me out, and I don't want to have that stress at Easter, so we will never do "wish lists" or whatever.

 

I adore Easter.

[KarenNC]

I got presents in my Easter basket 40 years ago and more, so it isn't entirely recent. I distinctly remember the year I got the KISS Destroyer album in my Easter basket (released in 1976). :D (and this from very religious Christian parents).

[J-rap]

We've only just done candy here. In fact, I don't know of anyone who gives presents. We did wear gloves and hats when I was little. :)

[Dmmetler]

For my DD, we don't do much-but since her birthday is in Winter, it's a good excuse to get her outdoor play/warm weather stuff. I do also do books for pretty much every occasion possible, including "Ooh! here's a nice book!"

 

I will say that I don't go all out on Easter clothes. DD still gets a lot of hand me downs, and dressy church-type dresses are something that usually doesn't even look touched when she gets them, so we just pick one out and put it aside for Easter.

 

And given that we had snow falling last night...we'll see what happens Easter-wise this year!

[Dmmetler]

My mother used to blow out eggs for everything she did with eggs that didn't require an intact yolk for MONTHS before Easter so we had the shells to paint/decorate, but I've never been able to bring myself to do that (it seems very unsanitary to me now), and I hate hardboiled eggs, so DD gets to decorate plastic eggs and the occasional wooden or papier-mache egg.

 

When I was a kid, the parks and rec did egg decorating contests as part of the Easter season. Now the one here does baskets-I wonder if that's because of the problems of leaving decorated hard boiled eggs in a display case for a few weeks! DD had her basket planned out since last year.

[Dmmetler]

My mother used to blow out eggs for everything she did with eggs that didn't require an intact yolk for MONTHS before Easter so we had the shells to paint/decorate, but I've never been able to bring myself to do that (it seems very unsanitary to me now), and I hate hardboiled eggs, so DD gets to decorate plastic eggs and the occasional wooden or papier-mache egg.

 

When I was a kid, the parks and rec did egg decorating contests as part of the Easter season. Now the one here does baskets-I wonder if that's because of the problems of leaving decorated hard boiled eggs in a display case for a few weeks! DD had her basket planned out since last year.

[Wheres Toto]

I'm 43 and used to get toys in my Easter basket. Usually it was a stuffed bunny, a chocolate bunny, small toys for spring like bubbles or chalk, and jelly beans.

 

When my oldest was younger, Easter could rival Christmas. She was the only grandchild on both sides, the only neice, and used to get WAY too much.

 

I'd rather do small toys than a ton of candy plus my son won't eat any candy but Hershey's chocolate. My mother goes overboard with baskets for them with small crappy toys and a ton of candy, so I don't want to make it worse. I usually get things for playing outside (chalk, bubbles) since usually all of last years stuff is lost, broken and used up. This year they are getting mostly stuff for nature study - a small pair of binoculars each, small notebooks, kids garden stuff like Target usually has - trowels, rakes, etc. I may include sandbox stuff since they will have a sandbox again this year. This is all stuff that I would probably buy anyway, it's just easy to do for Easter.

 

My oldest will get Dunkin Donuts gift cards (there's a DD on campus), Cadbury cream eggs, and Peeps.

[littlebug42]

Our Easter baskets for the girls resemble what they might get in their Christmas stockings along with a stuffed animal (handmade by a dear friend of mine). In the basket, there will be some candy and maybe some Pokemon cards. Boo-Boo is heavy into My Little Pony right now so maybe something small in that area (under $10). A book for Sweet-Pea will likely be included as well.

[mytwomonkeys]

Boo-Boo is heavy into My Little Pony right now so maybe something small in that area

 

 

oh! my daughter and her friends are really into my little pony too! lol. (and her best friends are in 6th and 7th grade). they collect them, watch the show, buy "my little pony" stuff. i will need to get my daughter one for her basket! i'm so glad you mentioned that!! :)

[justamouse]

Now that I'm thinking of the whole Easter gift thing, I'm starting to feel kind of old.

 

I was just remembering that my dad used to take Easter pictures every year before we went to church, and there I'd be, in my new dress, new Spring coat, new shoes, new dressy gloves, new hat, new little handbag, and holding whatever stuffed bunny I'd gotten that year.

 

I probably wouldn't be feeling quite so old if I hadn't remembered the gloves and the hat. :glare:

 

 

That was our house, too.

 

And those coats? Were awesome.

[justamouse]

As a child, I gave up sweets for Lent which made my Easter basket a real treat. It always contained Russel Stover's products: a bag of chocolate eggs, pectin jelly beans, a chocolate rabbit and a coconut nest.

 

 

 

 

That's why my kids love the candy in the baskets--they've been sugar free all Lent, and I remember how important the Russel Stover's were. It's so mice to see them in the grocery in the cutest little boxes.

 

As for the wardrobes, I'm still sewing. Since 7 am. :D Pink lawn and butter yellow voile for the other, and I've hand stitched the bodices. I'm having so much fun.

[*Michelle*]

We do mostly non-candy items for Easter. This year, each kid is getting a personalized tote bag from Happy Saints' store. They'll each get a religious coloring book, a small pewter saint figurine, a chocolate bunny and chocolate carrots, plus a toy or DVD. It's not too much, but the items themselves are nice and meaningful. I'd rather do that than load up four baskets with candy. We still have Halloween candy that was recycled into Christmas stocking candy that is now in a jar on the shelf.

[dirty ethel rackham]

Growing up, we never got presents - just candy. When dh and I started dating, he surprised me with a lovely bracelet for Easter one year. I was shocked. I had never heard of Easter presents. For our kids, I usually put one small thing in their Easter baskets in addition to candy (which only includes candy I like so I can mooch off of them :sneaky2: .)

[vonfirmath]

When I was little, Easter Baskets were filled with candy and a large chocolate bunny. I don't remember if gifts were involved or not.

 

I do remember, as I got older, the only candy in the basket was a large chocolate bunny and the candy was replaced by one significant gift. (I still have the Casio calculator I got one year as such a gift -- these days a calculator does not sound significant. But this was a calculator more similar to today's programmable calculators because it did fractions and exponents and scientific notation.)

[celticmom]

I remember getting a few gifts at Easter as a child. I do tend to buy larger and more expensive gifts at Easter than I received. This is primarily due to birthday timing and our annual budget cycle. I have a spring birthday but my dd's birthday is close to Christmas so when she was younger she was often in a different place devolpmentally by the time Easter rolled around. Our budget also tends to be tighter around Christmas than at Easter.

[Catwoman]

Something interesting here: I did not grow up in an affluent family but it was important that we had these special church clothes, items we wore on some other occasions too. At the risk of sounding judgmental, I will lament the loss of some formality within society. I recently had the opportunity to sit on some job interviews for a youth leader. One of the applicants wore soiled trousers frayed at the heels and a wrinkled shirt. On the one hand, yes, we do not need to judge by appearance. On the other hand, it is nice to see some effort go into presentation.

 

 

:iagree:

 

It's not a matter of them having the most expensive clothes or the most fashionable clothes; it's all about being clean, neat, and tidy, and making it look like they spent a little effort trying to look their best. (And it wouldn't kill them to comb their hair, sit up straight, and look you in the eye when they speak to you, either, but I guess that's a topic for another thread... along with those dead fish handshakes! :D)

[Nscribe]

I figure Easter is a time recognizing a great gift to humanity, giving them to Dd and Dh as part of that recognition seems reasonable.

[Elinor Everywhere]

We do an Easter chair, which means the kids don't have baskets. I started the tradition of buying things they would get anyway in the spring, specifically pool toys and new goggles. I was never one to buy my kids toys and things for no reason, and with them both having fall/winter birthdays, Easter gave me a chance to get them things they needed. Now that they're older, I'll get them each a DVD, candy, and maybe a shirt or a pair of shorts. In retrospect, though, I do kind of wish I'd have kept it to candy/eggs only. The dollar store stuff no longer cuts it.

 

We also color eggs and my dd likes to make special colored eggs for everyone. We go to church, then head to my mom's house where she has an egg hunt, and we feast.

[LeslieAnneLevine]

Growing up, we always received a few presents for Easter along with candy. We always enjoyed the egg hunt, so I don't think gifts make it lose its luster.

 

I give my son a few presents on Easter. It's not like Christmas, but it's a bit more than just a token (such as on Valentine's Day). I also hide a few plastic eggs with change in them. Yep, that's right, money for Easter! That was also something my dad did when we were kids.

 

Someone asked "Why gifts?" Because it's part of our tradition.

[Word Nerd]

We don't do the Easter bunny or have baskets at our house, but we do color and hide eggs and have candy. We got baskets when I was a kid, and they had candy and maybe a small toy like a beach bucket and shovel.

[MrsBanjoClown]

We tend to do more "gifts" instead of candy. The reason we do it is because I was sick of all the candy all the time. The boys do get a small chocolate bunny, but that's it on the candy. Honestly, the "gifts" that they get are really things we would buy them anyway, so we are actually spending less money than if we bought candy for the basket and then the other things as well. They are things the boys will need for spring/summer such as new swim trunks, sunglasses, swim goggles, sports gear, etc.

[MIch elle]

NEVER! It's part of the consumerism mindset imho.

[Danestress]

For my 15 year old boys I will put in things like a book or two, swim goggles, sun screen, ear buds, sum glasses, candy, violin strings - I guess and assortment of fun things and things they would sort of need anyway. My mom did the same.

[alef]

We've just done an egg hunt, sometime with real eggs, sometime plastic eggs with candy. No special Easter Basket. I'm not crazy about the über-commercialization of every holiday.

[jujsky]

We always got presents at Easter growing up, but they were smaller than the gifts we give our kids. I remember one year when I was very small (probably 5) I got the Dukes of Hazzard Matchbox car set -- the General Lee, the sheriff's car, and Boss Hog's car. Another year when My Little Pony was first coming out, I got one of those. My kids usually get a movie and one or two bigger presents. This year DD is getting a couple of Monster High dolls and DS is getting some Skylanders. We don't celebrate the holiday in any sort of religious way other than a traditional prayer my grandfather used to say and now my oldest uncle says before Easter brunch. If I did celebrate it religiously I might be inclined to rethink the gift-giving aspect of the holiday.

[QuirkyKapers]

We don't do Easter baskets here. A couple years I have gotten them a religious book or one that had to do with character.

[Janie Grace]

We have always just done candy (and not very much!). Candy was what I received on Easter growing up (a bunny and some jelly beans, maybe -- not gobs and gobs of it). I do like the idea of summer-stuff-you'd-get-anyway. Maybe. I'm still leery of such a holy day (for us) having any kind of "what did I get?!" distraction. The moderate amount of candy is not a big distraction. I really want to keep the focus on "He is risen!"

[AndyJoy]

When I was a kid, we collected both hard boiled eggs and candy-filled eggs, and our basket had a chocolate bunny in it. The "present" in our minds was our new fancy dresses (and matching hats/gloves if we wished.)

 

With DS, we have opted to fill his eggs with little toys rather than candy.

 

6 months--stuffed rabbit

1.5--mini chocolate bunny (hilarious pictures!), stuffed lamb which he called "Da"

2.5--mini chocolate bunny, 2 large Bible-based board books for church (still a big hit), plastic eggs filled with Squinkies,

3.5--mini chocolate bunny, plastic eggs filled with Laser pegs, still looking for a new book

[TravelingChris]

We always did candy or Easter based gifts- stuffed bunny for babies, new clothes, Easter stickers. etc/ No one got an Easter basket full of things. The kids would have an Easter Basket to put their eggs they found in an Easter egg hunt, no other reason. NOw with our only child who lives with us having a food allergy- she will end up getting chocolate and some non traditional candy that she can eat- sha has citric acid allergy and can't have most sour candies but can eat Jolly Ranchers since they use a different product to make the candies sour. I never bought Jolly Ranchers for Easter before but since she is a real fan of sour things, I will get them for her. For everyone, I get good quality chocolate candy- I can't stand cheap stuff since I got my first migraine headache at around 7 or 8 after eating a bunch of cheap chocolate rabbits and eggs made of cheap milk chocolate. As it is , milk chocoalte is much more likely to give me a migraine even if it isn't cheap so I generally stick to dark. It is healthier anyhow.

 

I never got toys at Easter, just religious items, clothes, and candy. My dh got small toys (maybe) and candy. He never felt compelled to give the kids more stuff. I was tlaking about the toy thing with my youngest and she was sad that the holiday was turning into more like Chirstmas, i.e. not a religious holiday. My kids grew up loving holidays and festivals even if there were no toys involved at all, By the way, we did make a way for our one December birth kid to have summer toys= her name day is in July.

[4kidlets4me]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXww1B--8tk

 

Saw this on Facebook the other day and thought it was a joke. Guess not Mattel has a whole campaign I guess. We only do candy.