Do you do Easter baskets at your house?

[hana]

Just curious. We don't, though we'll do some sort of egg/treat (non-candy or only a little candy) hunt.

[Beth in Central TX]

Yes, we do. It's a tradition I've carried over from my childhood days. Easter brings back wonderful memories.

[mcconnellboys]

Yes, we do!

Regena

[True Blue]

Yes.

[Janet in WA]

Just curious. We don't, though we'll do some sort of egg/treat (non-candy or only a little candy) hunt.Yes, we do. I think they're fun.

[Brenda in FL]

Yes, absolutely - (But they aren't brought by the Easter Bunny, just from Mommy and Daddy)

[nukeswife]

Yep we do here. Just small things and no candy since my kids wouldn't eat it anyway.

[RoughCollie]

Yes.

[Jean in Newcastle]

No.

[Chris in VA]

We do. Chocolate bunny, Reese's Eggs, jelly beans, little silly gifts from Grandma, a note about Jesus and the Gospel from Daddy. My husband (priest) says candy is a symbol of the sweetness of life with Christ.
We hide them, too. And we dye eggs on Easter Saturday, then use the dye to make coffee filter butterflies, which I usually hang around the chandolier in the dining room. Our Good Friday and Holy Sat. are very, very quiet. Easter is a blast of joy.

[LN in WI]

And my kids get the same candy that I got when I was little and that my Mom got when she was little (bought from the same store!)

Chocolate marshmellow egg, chocolate peanut butter egg, chocolate easter bunny, ting nest, jelly beans, malted milk balls, and a small toy.

We love it!

[Gamom3]

.

[CalicoKat]

The bunny visited Walmart and the fixings are all in the trunk of dh's car. :)

I was really happy to see all the non-candy filled eggs this year. Our bunny isn't really big into candy stuff. We get a couple of chocolate bunnies from Palmer and of course a couple peeps. :)

[CalicoKat]

The bunny visited Walmart and the fixings are all in the trunk of dh's car. :)

I was really happy to see all the non-candy filled eggs this year. Our bunny isn't really big into candy stuff. We get a couple of chocolate bunnies from Palmer and of course a couple peeps. :)

We can't do a whole lot more because of corn syrup allergies and food coloring sensitivities. I miss jelly beans, but I LOVE chocolate.

[Ellie]

I don't think it's necessary to add anything to make Easter more special. It's the Resurrection! He lives! IMHO, bunnies and colored eggs just muddy the waters.

Now, we did decorate eggs around that time of year, and hide them in our house (note: be sure you know exactly how many eggs were hidden so you keep looking for them. Otherwise you might find an egg in one of your shoes several months later.) But we might have done it before Easter, or after, depending on what else we were doing.

[Michelle in MO]

we do them anyway----they don't mind, either! :)

[Jenny in Atl]

Yes! My mother also makes the girls these amazing ones with little gifts hidden among the chocolates.

[one l michele]

Yes, but non edible versions.

[EarleneW]

Yes. We don't do anything elaborate, but we do baskets and an egg hunt.
I like the coffe filter idea. I think we will try that this year.

[lynn]

Of course, it's tradition. Baskets and egg hunts for the 2 little ones and chocolate bunnies and peeps for the teens and a couple very well hidden eggs for them to find.

[LaMere Academy]

Yes and we hide plastic eggs with candy in them, but this year they'll have Legos in them.

[Sparkle]

Yes, my kids love them.

[Jill, OK]

We might do spring-themed decorating, and even some Resurrection-themed things (lilies, lambs, empty tombs, etc.), and I like to make treats for the kids, but no baskets, no decorated eggs.

Something we've done in the past is have warmer weather toys to give them; bubbles, etc. I'd like to get their new bikes by Easter, and give them to them, but I don't know if that will happen.

We also have an extended family dinner, if possible (my mom and stepdad, brother, and grandparents, depending on who can come).

[ereks mom]

Yes, we do. It's a tradition I've carried over from my childhood days. Easter brings back wonderful memories.


Same here, Beth. ER & EK leave their empty baskets on the kitchen counter or table the night before Easter (the same little baskets they've had all their lives) and the Easter Bunny fills them. Each gets a chocolate bunny as well as the same kinds of goodies that Santa leaves in their stockings at Christmas: a DVD or CD, markers/pens, paperback books, assorted kinds of candy, playing cards or card games, toothpaste & toothbrush, etc.

HERE (http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r11/ecmom/Easter05.jpg) is a picture of their baskets from 3 years ago. (That year, they shared the Incredibles DVD.)

[Diana in OR]

Yep we do here. Just small things and no candy since my kids wouldn't eat it anyway.

Please tell me your kids wouldn't eat candy b/c you won't let them :o

I really try to limit candy around here, and anytime it is around, my kids are all over it like flies to honey.:cool:

[beansprouts]

I have been avoiding the idea this year just because my kids DON'T need all that candy...

Still the kids do enjoy it. Dd is looking forward to getting a new spring dress. Maybe I will look into the "egg hunt" idea with small toys/trinkets instead of candy...

[Rich with Kids]

We're not this year. For more than one reason:

1. With 5, it can get quite expensive.

2. We are trying to simplify. With my teaching schedule, I'm trying to scale back on extra "stuff"

3. Dc are getting old enough where they can take it or leave it.

4. It usually generates a ton of clutter that I have to deal with for days.

What I am doing:

Big Easter lunch

1 Chocolate Easter bunny with ginormous ears for each one :)

[Basketmaker Amy]

Yes...chocolate is always welcome!

[Darcy from LWM3B]

Yes! Such a delightful childhood memory that my children have enjoyed, too. We love hunting for eggs and the thrill of what's inside - usually coins, jelly beans or chocolate.

They also get one basket which usually has a book or two, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, candy, etc.

My children look forward to this very much.

[Jennifer in MI]

Yes. We do like some of you do - stock up on spring toys - bubbles, sidewalk chalk, etc. One year we did matching monogrammed beach towels with bathing suits. Another year we bought them their baseball equipment (catchers equipment, new mitts, bags, etc). Stuff we'd buy anyway usually. This year we may get them a basketball hoop.

No candy in the baskets!! We get enough of that at church on Easter morning and at the brunch we attend that day.

[partyof5]

No baskets, just one homemade filled chocolate egg from our in-town candy store. I had them when I was young so it's sort of a sentimental thing for me too...

We enjoy making "resurrection cookies" on Saturday night for a surprise on Easter morning. Ever seen these? They are a wonderful way to read Scripture with each ingredient you add, all symbolic in some way of the crucifixion, and when you open the oven on Sunday and look inside the cookies, they are actually empty like the tomb where Jesus was!

If anyone is interested, I'm sure I can post the recipe...

[beansprouts]

We're not this year. For more than one reason:

4. It usually generates a ton of clutter that I have to deal with for days. ...

Unless you use Easter grass - that stuff gets scattered to every nook and cranny of the house. We have found Easter grass in the oddest places a year later :o

[Shannon]

until last year. I read Martha Zimmerman's book "Celebrating the Christian Year" and we've incorporated some of her ideas into our Resurrection celebration.

I don't remember all of the suggestions in her book, but I know we put in a book about Easter...hmmm:confused: I'm drawing a blank on what else we included. I guess I better reread the book! :)

Shannon

[Melinda in VT]

We don't do baskets, but we do have an egg hunt with real dyed eggs, plastic eggs stuffed with candy, Cadbury eggs, etc.

Neither my family nor DH's did Easter baskets when we were growing up, and we think the hunt is more fun. Easter doesn't really come during spring, here in Vermont. So it's much too early for outdoor toys.

[Dayle in Guatemala]

celebrate by doing a seder and doing a passover basket for the whole family with things included for a fun family night together. We do color eggs and things, but, Easter Sunday morning is crazy enough without us having to sugar our dc up before service!:D

[KristineIN]

We don't, only because it would be an extra expense, I do usually buy clearance candy and new spring/summer clothes if they need it. I might try and find something small. Also, this year we will probably be involved in an egg hunt and we are having a big brunch at church, so we will have plenty to eat and be busy all day.
I did just see some cut baskets make out of foam, basically it was foam that was stapled upward and then had a foam handle. I might try and do something like that.
Kristine

[Rich with Kids]

Unless you use Easter grass - that stuff gets scattered to every nook and cranny of the house. We have found Easter grass in the oddest places a year later :o

I had a very eager 18 month old. Let me just say that he did not discriminate on his Easter treats that year. How do I put this gently...I pulled it from a place that the sun don't shine. So, for all of the environmentalists out there, I'm pretty sure Easter grass is non-biodegradable. I'm just sayin'...

[Karin]

No. We don't do any of that stuff. My kids have dyed eggs before because I can remember doing it with them, but I don't remember if we hid them. If we did, we would have said we hid them because we don't do easter bunny/tooth fairy.

[Rich with Kids]

I had a very eager 18 month old. Let me just say that he did not discriminate on his Easter treats that year. How do I put this gently...I pulled it from a place that the sun don't shine. So, for all of the environmentalists out there, I'm pretty sure Easter grass is non-biodegradable. I'm just sayin'...
And to continue to completely gross you out...we had the same experience with the red band from around bologna. My MIL at the time thought it was edible, apparently. I didn't feed that to him and he'd been at her house the day before. Ohhh, the things that have gone through my ds's bowels...anyone ever had to retrieve a penny? There's one in my baby book...again, I'm just sayin'...

[Calming Tea]

because I had easter baskets all my life and it never occured to me that I was a little pagan. Also, I had easter baskets all my life and i still understood the resurrection message. Also I had easter baskets all my life and I am by God's grace saved.

We do resurrection eggs.

Another reason is that my sister is *very* generous for an auntie and my mom sends huge easter baskets in the mail. So no matter what I do my kids have an easter basket. I may as well use mine to explain to them why we do all this, and how it turned into candy and the good and bad of all of that.

I don't give my dc candy though. I give them colored eggs, and small toys and stationery. My mom and sister however, send enough candy for an entire small country of children who want to rot their teeth out.

I love those gals! They're so different but God gave them to me and it means a lot to see how they reach out to my kids, in their own way!:D

[Karin]

I had a very eager 18 month old. So, for all of the environmentalists out there, I'm pretty sure Easter grass is non-biodegradable. I'm just sayin'...

Funny! This reminds me of a story my mother tells. When I was 2 the neighbour whose bed I "helped" make daily sent me home with dyed eggs. My mother knew nothing about it until she found the shells the next day. Apparently, eggshells are undigestible.

[Peek a Boo]

We do!
I love any reason to include traditions and parties :-)

Like Calming Tea, we celebrate the resurrection every day, so focussing on one day doesn't hold a lot of scriptural relevance for me.

Just the smell of vinegar gives me warm fuzzies of dying easter eggs as a kid.

However, like most other parties, we do bring God to the focus:

We took a break this year, but our Lent studies usually include studying 40 verses of a passage, copying one verse each day, and putting it in a plastic egg. By teh end of lent we have 40 eggs w/ bible references on and in them. I add a piece of candy.

Their baskets are Christ-centered, and they have a Scriptural Scavenger Hunt to find them. The first note they receive has a bible reference: John 6:35. That would lead them to the bread box, where they would find another reference: John 10:11. That would lead them to the stuffed sheep upstairs in their bedroom, where they would find another reference. And so on, and so forth :)

Our dyed eggs usually have references and crosses and such also. We all have fun.

[BarbaraL in OK]

Definite yes on Easter baskets! But very modest. Small baskets that hold just a bit of candy and several plastic candy-filled eggs, and a single small gift that usually fits in the basket. There's a lot of Easter celebration happening around the baskets, though.

The baskets appear on the dining table on Easter morning, along with... our collection of kid-painted ceramic eggs that we add to every year at church on Palm Sunday... a popsicle-stick Lent/Easter stand-up cross on a hill of flowers, which one of the kids made in Sunday school some time ago... lots of gold ribbon winding amongst everything... the 7-8 paper "All-lu-a! Christ is Risen!" cards (can't have that "A" word 'til Easter!) the boys made and decorated and put away before Lent one year that now appear every Easter.... Finally, I bring out home-dyed eggs from the fridge in the morning to add to the visual feast; we dye the eggs on Holy Saturday.

As for gifts, last year each boy received his own "regular" (not children's) Bible, and I had also found the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles in comic-book format, so fun! In previous years the boys got little picture books about Easter or the Eucharist, or stories of Jesus, or about prayer. Some years they got seeds to plant, too.

We don't do a family egg hunt because our families didn't do them. The thing is, our kids have grown up doing 2-3 every year anyway! Our church has one as part of the Easter morning celebration, my MOMS Club chapter does one every spring, and our neighborhood/subdivision does one in the park behind our house within a week of Easter.

I consider candy a traditional part of the Easter celebration. After a Lenten fast that might include no sweets and/or other treats, Easter candy and rich Easter breads are a wonderful sign of the great festival celebration of Christ's resurrection. Bunnies and chicks and eggs are also signs of the new life of the Pascha/Easter celebration, but I must say I can't stand "Easter" books and cards that don't mention anything of Christianity.

[strider]

We focus on the story of Jesus' resurrection. They get some token piece of candy and some sort of lamb item (a stuffed animal or pretty picture) and then one or two other things of a more spiritual nature, like a story book. My kids enjoy hunting for the basket and then we snuggle together and look at the other things they got.

We also tie in the theme with a lamb cake at Easter dinner.

[clane]

Yes, with a book, a small bit of candy and usually new swimwear (we're in FL).

[Plaid Dad]

We do have a basket for dd. We hide hollow plastic eggs filled with candy around the house, and she has to search for those in the morning. We also give her small gifts - a book or craft kit - and new clothes. She gets similar things from relatives at the family Easter dinner.

[Tami]

we also focus on Passover and Resurrection. We give gifts in celebration of the Greatest Gift, but bunnies and eggs have nothing to do with that. I'm not sure that bunnies and eggs communicate what we personally are celebrating. ;)

[Tami]

celebrate by doing a seder and doing a passover basket for the whole family with things included for a fun family night together. We do color eggs and things, but, Easter Sunday morning is crazy enough without us having to sugar our dc up before service!:D


Dayle, I'd love to hear more about your seder. Along with 4 other couples, we are actually doing a seder (for the first time) with the 2nd-4th graders at our church this Sunday.

Any tips?

[Tami]

No baskets, just one homemade filled chocolate egg from our in-town candy store. I had them when I was young so it's sort of a sentimental thing for me too...

We enjoy making "resurrection cookies" on Saturday night for a surprise on Easter morning. Ever seen these? They are a wonderful way to read Scripture with each ingredient you add, all symbolic in some way of the crucifixion, and when you open the oven on Sunday and look inside the cookies, they are actually empty like the tomb where Jesus was!

If anyone is interested, I'm sure I can post the recipe...



Interested here! Would you mind posting it?

Thanks in advance.

[Just Me]

We do a basket of candy, and a book, but we give them on Saturday instead of Sunday. We reserve Sunday to really focus on the "meaning" of the day, and I really do not want that morning rushed with having to inspect a basket full of goodies first! :rolleyes: So, Saturday for the basket and Sunday for the Resurrection!!

[Ellie]

Interested here! Would you mind posting it?

Thanks in advance.

Check out Annie's Resurrection Cookies Page (http://www.annieshomepage.com/resurrectioncookies.html).

[Kay in Cal]

Though that is always their favorite part!

Our tradition is that they wake to find a "Bunny Trail" leading from thier bed... a trail of small wrapped chocolate eggs that lead them downstairs and around the house to thier hidden basket. The basket is full of non-edible gifts--stocking-stuffer type things usually from the educational store. Pencils, small toys, and 1 larger game or toy.

Usually we organize an actual egg hunt later in the day at church.