Non-Candy Easter Basket Ideas

Wow, it’s about to be April and Easter is just about here.  Are you ready?

If you’re like me and don’t want all holidays to be about fun-sized candy, you’ll need to find other items that fit neatly into Easter eggs and Easter baskets so your kids can enjoy the traditions without all of the sugar.

I’ve found that I need to snatch-up decent-sized plastic eggs early, otherwise stores are left with just the junky little eggs that only fit candy.  Now that I have good eggs, I store and re-use them year after year.  I keep a few huge eggs on-hand that came with other items special for items that don’t fit in the regular eggs.  Here are some ideas (yes, they are girl-heavy, we have 2 girls) for Easter egg fillers.  I do include one token candy item, partly because I need something to snack on while I prep eggs & baskets ;-).

Non-Candy Easter Egg Fillers

Items that fit in standard-sized eggs:

• Lip Balm
• Hair clips/bows
• Rolled socks
• Smaller matchbox-type cars
• Small character figurines
• Rolled or cut sticker sheets
• Small costume items (like the gloves above)
• Nail polish (if you’re brave)
• Legos
• Water (or regular) balloons

Pro-tip: remove items from packaging and remove tags so you won’t have to do this on Easter!

Items the fit in extra-large eggs:

• Crayons
• Mini Play-dohs
• Larger character figurines
• Bath bombs
• Rubber duckies
• Vegetable seed packets

For added egg-hunt fun, try color-coding eggs.  Each child has a color (or colors) to search for.  This is especially helpful for larger age differences so older kids can have a more challenging hunt while young toddlers can follow a low-lying trail.  It’s adorable to watch older siblings help younger ones when they aren’t in competition for certain eggs.  This year, I’m placing a golden egg in each basket with a note from the Easter Bunny inside.  It will instruct the kids that since they are big kids this year, they have a special challenge to complete by finding only eggs in their designated colors.  One child will be hunting or pink & yellow eggs while the other searches for blue and orange.  There will also be green a few eggs that are fair game.  This also helps so each child can get items specific to their own wish-list.

Then for the basket, stores always have specials this time of year.  I like to use spring-themed items and maybe another theme as well.  This year it’s My Little Ponies.  I couldn’t resist (plus, there were great deals to be had).  Our baskets contain items that didn’t fit into eggs and that are personalized.  Since we are going on a second egg-hunt right after our family egg hunt this year, we’re keeping it simple and not using the larger eggs that we have used in previous hunts and are instead putting these items into baskets.  I always remove packaging, tags, and wrappers so everything is ready to go, with the exception of the blind bags that my kids are into.

Non-Candy Easter Basket Ideas

• Watering can (ours will be personalized with Silhouette decals)
• Shovel & gardening gloves
• Tomato (or other vegetable) plant to plant
• Spring clothing like the festive shorts above
• A Blue-Ray/DVD
• Larger toys & figurings
• Blind bags or surprise eggs (ugh, they love them because of YouTube)
• Play-Doh
• Sunglasses

Have some more non-candy ideas that you’d like to share?  Comment below.

What’s your favorite Easter tradition?  We’d love to hear!

Make an Easter craft this year?  Egg decorating masterpiece?  Festive easter basket?  Upload your photos below!