Did you know that Lent is already halfway over? My spending freeze is going pretty well (only a few small infractions, mostly kid-related) and my new daily practice of reading the Bible every day has been wonderful, thanks to an app with a reading plan + devotional that I love.
Currently, I’m not sure how I’m going to handle Easter with my kiddos. I’m vacillating between staying strict on the spending freeze to include not making extra purchases for them, and another of my goals for this year which is to celebrate more holidays at home, especially relating to the church calendar.
Of course we do celebrate Easter already – we go to church and do an egg hunt there and with the cousins, as well as having an extended family meal – but I also like the idea of having a special breakfast at home with small baskets ready for them to discover a few well-chosen gifts inside. So while I don’t know yet if I’ll be making any extra purchases this year, I’ve put together some ideas for you of the kinds of things I’m thinking of for this spring celebration.
1 – The One Year Devotions for Preschoolers
2 – Wildly Co. clothing – A good excuse to buy a piece of ethically-made, classic clothing for spring!
3 – Rain boots
4 – Crayola Sidewalk Chalk
5 – Mini Madre Beads – Meredith wants all of these, but especially the unicorn one. ;)
6 – Resurrection eggs – Are these a little cheesy? Yes. But they tell the story of Jesus and would be a fun activity for the kids to do as well as filling up their baskets.
7 – Potted plant – One idea is to help them plant it, or just let them take care of it. And I like the idea of doing an aloe vera plant, because it has healing properties (so you could tie it in to a mini-lesson about Jesus being our healer). They are also very hardy, so bonus!
8 – Stamps
I’d love to know what you’re planning on doing for your kids for Easter. Or how did you celebrate growing up? My parents didn’t buy us non-candy stuff every year, but I remember being so pleased whenever those extra treats did show up.
From Nora:
My mom was the BEST at Easter Baskets. Yes, we had some candy, but we always had any combination of the following: a magazine (that went along with our personal interests); a book; a beauty item for me or a manly thing for my dad/brother; a game and then something totally silly, like a little wind-up chick that walked across the table, or a fun lip gloss. She excelled at making holidays really special for us. One of the things I miss most about her is her thoughtfulness and how happy she was when we were happy.
For the bonus girls we send a little Easter care package, but when we have had them we do sidewalk chalk for sure, a book, socks (boring, I know, but they had fun prints on them!), and some candy.
From Kara:
My girls have three sets of grandparents in town and they always hand out a shwack-load of chocolate for Easter. Norah will be too young for chocolate, but my oldest will probably only get one chocolately item in her basket. Aside from that, there will probably be books, sidewalk chalk, Jamberry nail wraps, and an outfit.
Growing up we got a lot of chocolate and maybe a stuffed animal in our baskets, and once we were teens it was maybe a magazine and a chocolate bunny.
From Holly:
My kids get TONS of chocolate and little stuffies from their grandparents and great-grandparents – this year we’re asking them to cut back, since Topher still has candy from Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day! We do a small Easter egg hunt before church – we hide plastic eggs with little goodies inside them (goldfish crackers, jellybeans, some chocolate.) We also do a basket with a new colouring book and a spring toy, like a jump rope or sidewalk chalk or bubbles. I love the idea of the resurrection eggs – I have a hard time finding ways to bring the *real* meaning of Easter into our celebration, since the kids are so much more interested in chocolate!
From Cait:
It’s probably telling that our Easter baskets as kids were primarily candy because as an adult, I am a full-blown sugar addict. My mom would usually include a few small, cheap toys, probably from the dollar store or the party favor section of Target/Party City.