Hello friends! I cannot believe I am actually writing a blog post to you all. It’s been quite a while. I thought it would be helpful to give you some ideas I have had for kids’ Easter baskets.

First off, I think it is important to say, you are in absolutely no way obligated to give your children an Easter basket. You don’t need to give any gift at all, much less a basket. We never have before, and we plan to keep it extremely simple. Whenever we have given our children a gift at a holiday, we do so explaining to them that we are celebrating the Great Gift Giver: we give gifts as a way to celebrate and remember the gift that God gave to us. God the Father, giving us the gift and sacrifice of His Son in order to rescue us. At Christmas we celebrated this rescuer’s birth, and at Easter we celebrate how He rose from the dead! The gifts we give are a way to mark the occasion as something to be celebrated. God and what He did for us is the greatest gift and worth celebrating everyday.

So, without further ado, here are a few gift ideas that could be fun and encourage play/time outside/learning more about God. The links will take you to amazon. They are affiliate links so I make a small percentage. If you buy through them, thank you!

If you’re looking for a direct link to a round up of products you can buy now,
hop over to the Amazon Shop here.

Some are links to websites for products I love. And some are cheap ideas to not buy anything! FREE! Holler!

1. A book: Nate and I plan to give each of the children a book to further help them understand who God is. I linked some of our favorites, though there are many more out there.

• Who Sang the First Song by Ellie Holcomb (this book goes along with her song, “Sing,” which you can find on Spotify. My kids LOVE it!)
• Read A Loud Bible Stories (this is great for younger kids who aren’t ready for The Jesus Storybook Bible); we have volume one and are getting Scout volume 2.
• The Jesus Storybook Bible (great for older kids; I would say 3+ years at least. If you don’t have this book, it is AMAZING. One of the best by far.)
• The Big Picture Bible (we are getting this for John Robert)
• God Made All of Me, God Made Me Unique, and God Made Me and You have all been incredible resources for giving language to some heavier topics. Cannot recommend these enough!

**FREE #ballinonabudget IDEA: Write a few of your favorite verses on notecards and commit to memorizing them with your child. You can practice them together and have some reward if you learn them. Candy, or baking cookies, or whatever sounds like a fun reward to you!

2. Gardening gloves and tools: this is a wonderful way to get your child outside and to be able to spend time with them in the yard. John Robert and Scout both love to rake (hilarious, very UNLIKE their mother) and love wearing their gloves. The Target Dollar Spot also had gardening stuff there last time I checked, but here are a few amazon links.

Kids gardening gloves

Gardening tool set

Child size rake, hoe, shovel set

**#ballinonabudget idea: buy a bag of soil and a few hearty herbs (parsley is a good one) or plants (again, something hard to kill!) and plant a small garden somewhere in the yard.

3. Items to encourage them to help in the kitchen: The kid-safe knives are an item I am splitting between John Robert and Scout, and they both wear their aprons my aunt gave them often! Mind you, the knives will be kept in the kitchen and only used with me around supervising.

Toddler apron

Toddler-safe knife set or these when they are ready to graduate to the next step. The 3 levels I recommend can be found here.

**FREE IDEA: give them a certificate for homemade cookies or brownies; tell them they can cash it in on a day of their choosing and bake with them. Or, give them a box of brownie mix (you probably already have one in the pantry you can use!) and tell them that you are going to make them together that next week. They will love it!

4. Items that are for them, but also help you! Sun hats for the beach, little shoes, goggles, a puddle jumper (be sure to get the safe one I have linked below)…these are all things they will use and enjoy, but also things you are going to have to buy anyways! Count it a win, win.

• Toddler bucket sun hat
• Cotton zutanos for spring
• safe puddle jumper for beach and pool
• new bathing suits
• Practical baby bibs

**ballinonabudget TIP: think through this summer. Are there any camps they are going to? Swim lessons? Perhaps there is something required for one of these that you could go ahead and gift them now.

5. Things to encourage independent play/family play: a sensory bin (I use water for mine; rice is the worst!), tools for that bin, bubbles for the bath. These are little things that they can enjoy in multiple ways, and let’s be real, they also make your day a bit easier.

• small sensory bin
• tools for sensory bin
• aquapad
• bubble bath
• water wow pads
• a board game (our favorites are chutes and ladders (this is John Robert’s FAVORITE! and it’s helped a lot with his counting), candyland, and card game Monopoly Deal.

**FREE IDEA: save plastic bins and scoopers from things like laundry detergent and items you buy at the store. These are perfect for sensory bins! The dollar store is also a treasure trove of things for a bin. You probably even have a plastic bin lying around your house you could use 🙂

OK, that’s it! 5 little ideas. I grouped them on my amazon shop in a category called “Kids’ Easter Baskets” to make it easier to see most of them. Please don’t do all 5. That would be way too much. Pick one item and give it with purpose. And when you do, tell your little ones about the Greatest Gift Giver there ever was.

Happy Easter everyone!