How much do you spend on Easter baskets?

[fairy4tmama]

You are all giving me a terrible case of candy envy. Due to multiple LTFAs, our candy is limited. A safe chocolate bunny is $18. A small pack of safe chocolate Easter "drops" (not even eggs, just a weird shape wrapped in pastel foil) is $12 plus change. Plus shipping costs. And double the bunnies because DD doesn't have allergies but all food in our house is safe, because DS deserves one safe space in his life. Safe jelly beans aren't too pricey, in small packs. But that's it for candy. :)

 

So - I didn't vote, I didn't want to throw off the results with our outrageously expensive candy.

 

Other than candy, we do little stuff that's already been mentioned. Travel sized games, water bottles, books. Mad Libs. I used to put in audiobooks on cd, or movies, but we don't seem to access books/movies that way anymore. DS is getting a labyrinth puzzle egg, and a volcanic eruption egg this year. Art supplies. Fidget toys.

 

We re-use the same baskets every year, but each year I have a, "what was I thinking when I bought these baskets?!" moment, as they are on the large size. :D

 

We are in the same boat! I don't know what your FA are but we do Enjoy Life chocolate chips and safe jelly beans to keep it financially feasible. Hysterically and disgustingly chocolate chips have become known among my kids as bunny poop O-o.

 

I feel like our food allergies have pushed us into an even more consumeristic minds set when it comes to holidays- they get a toy from the great pumpkin in exchange for candy they can't eat, we but more toys for easter, we buy plastic eggs because we can't have real ones(and no intention on my part to keep those eggs from year to year seems to matter) ....I don't know I am just feeling so over it this year- which is not being helped by the fact that I have an almost 3 year old and rather than being close to being done with all this stuff I feel like we are starting over. This year I am painting story rocks and hoping to hide those instead of plastic eggs!

[Spryte]

We are in the same boat! I don't know what your FA are but we do Enjoy Life chocolate chips and safe jelly beans to keep it financially feasible. Hysterically and disgustingly chocolate chips have become known among my kids as bunny poop O-o.

 

I feel like our food allergies have pushed us into an even more consumeristic minds set when it comes to holidays- they get a toy from the great pumpkin in exchange for candy they can't eat, we but more toys for easter, we buy plastic eggs because we can't have real ones(and no intention on my part to keep those eggs from year to year seems to matter) ....I don't know I am just feeling so over it this year- which is not being helped by the fact that I have an almost 3 year old and rather than being close to being done with all this stuff I feel like we are starting over. This year I am painting story rocks and hoping to hide those instead of plastic eggs!

Bunny poop!!! Too funny! I might have to throw some in the baskets, too! We do Enjoy Life, and we can eek by with Vermont Nut Free dark chocolate only (DS is allergic to milk but on that one he can handle may contains, whew) or Premium Chocolatiers.

 

And yes - we substitute things for candy. So it's led to more and more stuff. Ugh!!! We have the Switch Witch at Halloween, and stockings get stuff it candy, and valentines are never just a box of chocolate and the Easter bunny brings toys and on and on. ...and those eggs!!! I'm so sick of stuffing them, I've taken to ordering pre-filled eggs. :D It's terrible!

[PrairieSong]

We always brought candy and plastic eggs to Grandma's house when she was alive and the kids had an Easter egg hunt there. Now that they are older I have one big basket with candy for everyone to share. I've never done toys for Easter.

[Murphy101]

My dh is an Easter party pooper. So around $10 each.

 

Personally, I couldn't care less about Christmas and would rather spend $10 at Christmas and go nuts at Easter.

 

Dh, who is normally the out of control spender in this relationship, decided after we had 4 little ones for Easter and I spent nearly a grand that I could no longer shop for Easter baskets alone.

 

But dang that was the cutest ever. I got baskets they had to literally walk their toddler and preschooler selves inside of to dig their stuff out of and it was indeed like walking into santas big red bag full of gifts.

[kwickimom]

we do summer stuff- sunglasses, flip flops, beach towels, pool toys etc. we just moved to south Texas and will be living at the beach so I added boogie boards this year :) I do a little candy (standard jelly beans and peeps) and sometimes a $5 gift card or something. 

[heartlikealion]

The Easter bunny recycles here lol. We use the same basket/grass each year. We put it out and let the Easter bunny simply refill it. In years past I've typically done candy, Easter themed book, something artsy (water paint book for example), and/or inexpensive toy. Last year was dd's first basket and dh got her a stuffed animal. I don't know if I'll do the book this year for ds, but maybe for dd. Ds has a ton of books right now. I'm guessing average is 0-$10 per basket.

[myfunnybunch]

I voted $10-20. Mine each get a book and some candy, and a few inexpensive goodies. This year, silly string, water balloons, and....I can't remember. If it weren't for the book, the cost per basket would be less than $10.

My grandbaby's basket costs more. Dd and her bf are struggling financially, and I try to help out by picking up a toy and little things that I know they might need for him: An outfit, a light jacket, socks, sun hat, a sippy cup, baby spoons.

Edited March 16, 2016 by myfunnybunch

[LucyStoner]

About $5-10 per kid. My MIL sends them another freaking Christmas at Easter so I don't add much more than my family's traditional candies.

[fdrinca]

The kids get a Scheich animal (we have a collection, and they get a new one for minor and major holidays); a nice chocolate bunny; whatever their current favorite candy is (Starbursts and Kit-Kats are at the top of the list this year), a book, and then something else in their basket. I like that "else" to be something that they need or is useful. This year, new swimsuits are at the top of my list. 

 

We also have hidden plastic eggs filled with Legos for the past few years, but I'm not sure if we can keep that up. The age span (infant - soon-to-be-9) is getting a little wide for everyone to have the same basket and activity. My 9YO is still OK with receiving a stuffed animal, but you can tell his heart is in a different place.

[Guest]

We don't do Easter baskets, I buy plastic eggs and fill them with candy for an egg hunt and that is the extent of our Easter expenditures.

Ditto. I refuse to make resurrection Sunday yet another loot haul. We do practically nothing here in the way of baskets or candy.

[flyingaway]

I think my girls see their Easter baskets as an expression of love, which is very Easter Sunday in my way of thinking, and not as a loot haul.

[flyingaway]

Double post

Edited March 17, 2016 by flyingaway

[heartlikealion]

This thread has been inspiring. I am getting the kids water shoes for their baskets I am ordering online.

 

edited: darn I thought I had a coupon code for them but that didn't work without the store card. Still found a good deal though. It's been really hard for me to find these in stores in dd's size.

Edited March 17, 2016 by heartlikealion

[sewingmama]

I spend about $50 per kid but stuff is really expensive in Australia so you don't get much for that.

 

My kids have been eyeing off the Kinder Suprise chocolate easter eggs the past few years but they are mega expensive so I never get them but this year there was a really great sale on them so they are getting a bunch of those...the regular ones...a large one and a bunny one. They also get some mini eggs and a large chocolate bunny. Easter baskets are mostly chocolate in Australia..not gifts and toys ...but...my kids also get a new pair of winter pjs because the weather is starting to cool and a lego set each because I found some on sale.

 

So yes ...its a lot but we only have three kids and so they get a bit spoilt...they get nothing from relatives so we dont have to worry about overload.

[Joyofsixreboot]

Dollar store bubbles, chalk,outdoor dollar store stuff like a beachball, maybe a book. Inexpensive stuff.

[strange_girl]

What is it, Christmas all over again?!

 

I guess I must be the Easter Grinch. We don't do baskets. Like, at all. I might buy half price candy after Easter, though.

[athomeontheprairie]

We are another family that don't do baskets. It's yet another holiday we feel is overly commercialized. The kids go to the community egg hunt (which is awesome) and to a family hunt on Easter at grandma's. That's it.

[Critterfixer]

 

My grandbaby's basket costs more. Dd and her bf are struggling financially, and I try to help out by picking up a toy and little things that I know they might need for him: An outfit, a light jacket, socks, sun hat, a sippy cup, baby spoons.

 

That's an awesome kind of Easter basket, just sayin!

[Excelsior! Academy]

I have on super large basket that I stuff with everyone's things. It looks impressive, however it were spread out amongst individual baskets of wouldn't be. We stuff it primarily with summer toys like bouncy balls, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, kites, and such. We do add prestuffed eggs and hard boiled eggs. It might cost $50-$100, which for us is $5-$10 per kid.

[Kari C in SC]

When kids were younger, I could do pretty inexpensive baskets. Now that they are older, it's a little more. Mainly, because we don't gift them with stuff other times. Rather than a bunch of junk they won't use, I will spend a little more on something worthwhile. So, I put $20-$30.

[Bluegoat]

We are another family that don't do baskets. It's yet another holiday we feel is overly commercialized. The kids go to the community egg hunt (which is awesome) and to a family hunt on Easter at grandma's. That's it.

 

I think it is heading more that way.  I think of egg hunts as pretty traditional and low-key though, and baskets as useful for holding the eggs. 

 

Though I do find some of the more expensive Easter candies and chocolates so pretty. 

 

If people really fast during Lent, the idea of a feast at Easter has a certain logic to it.  So - you know a big dinner with meat, chocolate, a nice bottle of wine - all the things you've been missing.  When I was younger and had fewer responsibilities I used to go to a Resurrection party after the Easter Vigil. The vigil typically ended at 1am on Easter Sunday, and the party would go until first light, usually.  Just in time to shower and breakfast before the Easter morning service.

Edited March 19, 2016 by Bluegoat

[historically accurate]

I'm cheap, and I hate all the candy and junky toys that break easily. Now, with a teen, it would be pricey to get all of the little stuff - I had a hard enough time filling her stocking at Christmas this year. As for candy, they finally get through Halloween candy, and then there are Christmas stockings, and then Valentine's candy, and now Easter! I pared Easter way down a few years ago, and so far, no one has complained. 

 

I reuse one family basket. In it, there is a movie for the family (I don't buy movies except at Easter - they can sometimes talk DH into buying a movie) and 1 candybar per kid. So $20ish total for 3 kids. 

Instead of a movie, we ended up with a family board game this year, Carcassonne. The kids have been playing board games more often. Hopefully, it's good. Came to $25 for 3 kids. I'll purchase their candy bars closer to Easter.

[marbel]

When we did baskets, we put in a chocolate bunny, a few small wrapped candies such as Hershey's foil-wrapped eggs, a few jellybeans, and maybe a plastic egg or two with a few coins. $5 per basket tops, maybe?

 

 

[Matryoshka]

Until I came to these boards, I had no idea 'gifts' were a thing on Easter.   We only do gifts on birthdays and Christmas.

 

Our baskets have - jelly beans, chocolate rabbit, malted milk eggs, filled chocolate eggs, filled chocolate bugs, chocolate carrots.

 

The $ problem is I get nice stuff - for the chocolate I pretty much shop at the Lindt store, and I really like those Jelly Belly beans so much better than the cheap ones.  For three kids' baskets I think it runs me about $50 a year (for all three together).

 

We color and hide real eggs, not plastic, so the basket is the only place there's chocolate/sweets.

 

Sometimes I buy Peeps, but they're too disgusting to eat, we put them in the microwave and watch them puff up to enormous proportions. :lol:

[creekland]

I can finally answer this one as we just finished shopping last night.  It cost us $40 per boy, but mine are college age now and due to previous "trip" things the two younger ones are getting $25 IHOP gift cards as their main, non-candy, attraction.  (IHOP being both a place we've enjoyed with them and a pun off the Easter Bunny.)  The other $15 includes a real chocolate rabbit, some chocolate eggs (small), peeps and bunny marshmallows, chocolate covered marshmallows, chocolate covered peanut butter, and M&M eggs (1 each).

 

Obviously, we don't mind candy at Easter... 

 

The baskets we use are the same ones they've had since birth.  We buy new paper grass each year though.  

 

Only youngest will be here to find his in his basket though (we hide them each year).  Middle is at college, so will have his in an Easter box once it arrives this week.  Oldest our DIL actually got a $40 check in a card instead of goodies as we're not positive there's an IHOP around them (nor will it have the history the other two have) and he's told us he's not as into chocolate, etc, as he was in his youth.  The directions in their card are to use the $40 for any tasty treat or fun activity they want...  

 

We debated dropping him from our Easter Bunny rounds, but just couldn't.  Once a parent, always a parent I suppose.

 

Other years we've kept the candy and give a plant of some sort as a center piece (so probably $20 per boy).  But plants don't ship well and even youngest will be flying back to college after Easter, so we needed to come up with something different this year.

 

I've no idea if the Easter Bunny will continue with IHOP or not.  I guess it'll depend upon whether we remember it next year or not!

[AnnE-girl]

I just spent about $20 on candy because I went to the grocery store hungry. Each big kid will get a Lindt bunny, a small pack of chocolate covered peeps, and a Cadbury egg. I also bought an assortment of Hershey miniatures, mini peanut butter cups, snickers, and Twix. I'm not sure if I'll put those in their baskets and just have them find their baskets or fill and hide eggs separate from their baskets. We'll see how tired DH and I are after Easter Vigil Mass. They big kids will also be getting new mitts for baseball and softball in their baskets. We've traditionally done candy and one or two things for spring or summer. A couple years ago they got beach towels and goggles, last year it was kites. Easter isn't a big gift holiday, but they get something besides a basket full of candy. We also reuse their baskets every year.

 

I bought Baby Boy's basket, but I'm not quite sure what will go in it yet. He has two more months until he starts solids. Maybe a teething toy and book.

[Ali in OR]

We all enjoy an indoor Easter egg hunt and baskets with fun stuff in them. I think after Lent and seemingly endless rain in Oregon, it's a nice, colorful treat. I have often bought warm weather clothing type items that the kids would need anyway (shorts, tees, flip flops, swimsuits), but not this year. They have a bunch of Annie's bunny shaped treats (crackers, grahams, fruit snacks), nail polish in fun colors, and will hunt for good chocolate and sour patch jelly beans in plastic eggs. We've reused baskets from when they were little for years and years, but the baskets live in their room and were falling apart, so no more. I got box things at the dollar store that could go into recycling whenever we're done with them. It adds up--I voted $20-$30 (it was good Essie nail polish).

[Mergath]

Zero. We don't celebrate Easter. We aren't Christians and I decided when dd was a baby that we didn't need another candy holiday. So far she's survived. :P 

[OnTheBrink]

I don't spend much on Easter baskets. Usually a bag of candy and a small trinket. 

 

However, this year, I plan to change it up. There's a local popcorn shop that makes candied popcorn in the shape of an easter bunny. They're really cute. But the cutest (and most hilarious) ones are the mistakes. They label them as ROAD KILL! 

[LisaKinVA]

They get their favorite sweet cereal. I'll buy robin's eggs, jelly beans, and sweet tart things (these aren't available for us most of the year). I was going to buy kinder eggs....About $7 a child.

[sophiasapientia]

DD is getting braces a couple days before Easter so we'll be forgoing most of the candy and are doing more in the way of non-edible treats. She'll be getting a chocolate bunny, 2 fandom t-shirts, a new game for the Wii-U and a kuttari of her favorite Pokemon character. With the video game, we are definitely spending more than usual but she will love it and be very surprised. I feel bad that she'll likely be in pain over the holiday and wanted to do something special. We reuse the same basket every year.

Edited March 20, 2016 by sophiasapientia

[Runningmom80]

Probably too much. I have lots of fun doing it! We have food allergies too, so they don't get a ton of candy. I don't like buying cheap stuff that will make it to the landfill in a month either. I'm at around $60 a basket I think. 😬

[BigMamaBird]

I voted $20-30 this year.  That's quite a bit more than we usually spend, because I was at a homeschool expo where they had an Usborne booth and I wound up getting each of my kids a really nice book for their baskets.  I also got them candy and sidewalk chalk which are their usual basket treats.