Easter -candy free ideas for small kids, pre-teen, and teenagers.

Kids get enough candy these days and can really get loaded up on holidays, like Easter. If you have dietary restrictions, this makes the holiday challenging, because so much of the holiday involves food! Here are some ideas to relieve some of the candy and food overload, for you and your kids.

 

Easter Baskets and more

Every egg hunter needs somewhere to put their loot! Traditional basket or some other idea? There are so many things you can do! I like the idea of a new pail and shovel for an Easter basket, but you are only limited by your imagination. I recently saw cute backpacks stuffed with fun Easter gifts.

Plastic Eggs

Jumbo plastic eggs are great for some larger things. You can find plastic eggs in many sizes and can even find pre-filled options as well! How cute to have small stuffed animals in an egg!!!

Wanting to make sure things are “fair”; not wanting a lot of fighting for the holiday. We have rules left by the bunny. Some examples:

• Eggs are marked with names or numbers and you need to only pick up your eggs with your name or number on it.
• There are family gifts to find, but remember they are for the family and not yours alone.
• Everyone has a certain number of eggs or treats to find. If you find more, (usually because you are older) don’t give it away to the younger ones, let them find them, too. If you have ever had a hunt with older and younger kids, you know it can be hard for the younger ones and the older ones want to grab all they can find and give away the hiding spots. Older kids can help younger kids, after they have had a chance to find things themselves.
• Eggs easily seen are for the younger kids, older kids need to look a little harder.

 

 

 

Fillers

Party favors make wonderful little trinkets to put in eggs for kids. Be careful of the size of the trinkets, when filling plastic eggs, for small children. You don’t want to give them things they will choke on. That could really put a damper on the day.

 

Pre-Filled

If you aren’t into filling and finding the right size toys and other articles and matching the right size eggs, go for the pre-filled ones. These make things really easy!

Family Gifts

We always do some family gifts. These could be things like an Easter book, movie, newly released movie, movie tickets, a game or a puzzle.

My Grandparents’ Tradition

My grandparents made Easter a lot of fun! There was a plastic egg for each grandchild, with their name written on it. (21 grandkids) Inside the egg was a $1.00 bill and it was so much more fun than just getting candy! However, we weren’t totally without candy at grandma and grandpa’s house. They hid a Hershey’s chocolate candy bar, along with the egg.

An uncle, was usually sent to hide the eggs and chocolate. We knew we were to let the little kids find their own and only help them, if they got stuck and frustrated. It was so much fun that my grandparents did the same thing for my girls when we would visit them on Easter. My grandparents were awesome! (I miss them.)

I like the idea and when I have grandkids, I think it will be a better use of the $20-$30 we would spend on toys and candy.