A list just for you – 14 Awesome Non-Toy Easter Basket Ideas.
I absolutely love putting together gifts for my children, which makes it a struggle to not go overboard on their Easter baskets. This year my goal is to gift for their needs and hobbies in a Non-Toy Easter basket! That way, if I go overboard, I know that the items will be useful and long lasting. If your children are anything like mine, they need approximately 2.3 million LESS toys, not any more. Can I get an amen?
First of all, I like to hide plastic eggs because I’m paranoid about losing the real eggs and having to deal with the smell of rotten eggs permeating my house. Or my animals eating them. Or them being crushed. I try to be semi-creative with what I fill them with because we all know that most of the junk that fills plastic eggs ends up being enjoyed for about a millisecond. These are some of my ideas:
- bento picks – My kids LOVE using these when they eat. I love that they will all end up sharing these and that we will have them for much longer than some of those cheap filler toys.
- Money – I’ve learned that filling too many eggs with money is very disappointing for my kids. Now I fill a few with coins and maybe one or two with a dollar bill.
- Candy – I don’t get much candy (maybe two different kinds?), and I mostly buy from Trader Joe’s because they use natural food dyes. Don’t get me wrong, I let me kids eat candy and they love it. It just normally ends up going to waste since we don’t eat it all that day.
- Legos – I’m not above taking apart Lego sets, putting them in separate eggs, and letting my children work together to find all the pieces to put them together.*
*Okay…technically these are toys. But they are reusable! I don’t mind extra Legos lying around because they can be re-imagined in unlimited ways!
As for some bigger Non-Toy Easter items?
- Toothbrush – We are trying to get more eco friendly, so these bamboo toothbrushes seem like a good choice. Plus, we can split the pack up between our boys.
- Toothpaste – I’m pretty sure my children have gotten toothpaste as a gift for every holiday for the past…forever.
- Swimsuit
- Craft supplies – Our house is full of allllllll the coloring pages lately. So I’m stocking up on these to keep them busy when it gets too hot this summer to do much outside!
- Books – We tend to borrow books from the library, so a new (to us) book is very special!
- Re-usable snack bags – I am sick over how much plastic we use. I’m trying to be better and thought my boys would like their own special bags for their snacks. Bonus? Dishwasher safe!
- Special water bottle
- Name Labels – Is it just my kids who love to see their name on things? They love their name labels!
- Water Beads – These are so much fun to play with. I promise your children will love them. A little goes a long way and they can be dried out and reused!
- Reusable Stickers – We have had these stickers for a couple of years now. I love them because they can create scenes on our windows or put them on the pages in the book, but not get stuck on all the places you don’t want stickers.
All the Easter basket lists I’ve found have had very specific “niche” items or just more “stuff” to collect. I’m hoping this list of ideas will help you fill your children’s baskets with items that will help you make memories instead of add to the pile of toys. I would love to hear more of your ideas in the comments!
