Saturday, April 3, 2010

no junk easter baskets

Here is what the boys will be getting in their baskets tomorrow morning (the Easter bunny will hide these outside and the boys will have to hunt for them). I struggle with the question of "is this too much? too materialistic?" and balancing that with the very fond childhood memories I have of recieving an Easter basket every year filled with fun stuff. Same deal with Christmas stockings. This year on Christmas morning, when everyone was opening their stockings (teens and Ken included) and exclaiming over their loot, I thought "this is a good thing." But still. What I have done is to cut back on the contents a little and to include only non-junky stuff. There is way less candy in here than I received as a child (but there is still some). Here is what is included (most of this I placed with my Christmas order from Stubby Pencil Studio to save on shipping and on extra impulse buying that a separate springtime order would have entailed).
:: recycled crayons (for Rainer)
:: pencil crayons (for Dieter--he will love sharpening these)
:: recycled sketchbooks
:: little wood kaleidoscopes
:: chocolate-peanut butter eggs from Trader Joe's
:: Elsa Beskow mini-books

Later we'll have an egg-hunt at my parents' house and there will be candy in those eggs too (more Trader Joe's stuff, which I think is a little bit healthier than standard supermarket Easter candy. They're getting yogurt covered pretzels and dried fruit with chocolate and candy coating--kind of like an m&m of dried fruit).

We'll be dying simple Easter eggs tonight. Happy Easter weekend to all!

13 comments:

BellaBree said...

what fun baskets!....hope you enjoy your day! We do Easter a little differently over here....I brought the kids a animal origanmi book/paper to all do together at the table (ages range from 2-12years, tricky!), heres some of the things we have gotten up to thus far - dying eggs for our centrepiece, a giant easter egg communtiy hunt (came away with the tinyest egg ever! but was fun), a quiet celebratory dinner on friday night, friends over for brunch sat, and a small Easter kids party out our place, today a chruch service, followed by our traditional egg hunt that I do with a map etc...and a Easter reading dinner tonight....its been fun....Hope your Easter break is simply wonderful.x

Joy said...

Sounds perfect to me. We made very similar Easter baskets last year. We aren't doing them at all this year, since we just got back from London and the older kids are at their other parents' houses tonight. I did knit them each a small bunny and chick for the trip. I try to balance those same things too but it can be hard sometimes!

Jen said...

Love it!

Ariella said...

Doesn't it feel great to have a junk free easter?!! Your baskets are just perfect.! Love it.

Kristen said...

What lovely baskets! I know what you mean about not wanting to over do it, but it's still so special while they are little. Do you give your older children a basket of some sort?

SpiderWomanKnits said...

i've had it with the junk too. i hit my favorite antique store and each babe is getting some real, little and very unique treasures along with some sweets ( i *heart* pectin jelly beans)

have a lovely holiday!

melissa s. said...

I love these little baskets! Stubby Pencil is our favorite shop (and luckily, local for us!)

Happy Easter!

Sara said...

The baskets look great! I always got toys for Easter as a child, but my husband only got a couple pieces of candy. Each year, he's surprised when I show him what I got the kids for Easter. This year it's a board game for my girl and a root beer making kit for my boy. And candy.

Anonymous said...

these look like great baskets!

Nicola said...

Sweet! Ours are low junk but not no junk, which is a little pathetic, given my attempts to improve our diet (otherwise successfully)!
Nicola

pilgrimama said...

The baskets are lovely. I think you struck a nice balance of fun stuff,but not too much and quality.
We went to a Lamb of God play last night and now in the wee hours of the morning I am preparing hot cross buns and "chick"eggs.

Nicole Vangen said...

I always say ' do what feels right - and what is inside those baskets are beautiful gifts from your heart...I left it at that for us as our Easter Bunny was also very generous.

So happy it was a magical day for your family!

Nicole

Clare Mansell said...

LOVE the Easter baskets. So much better than a stack load of chocolate!