No More Easter Baskets!

     I have always enjoyed Easter growing up as a child.  Waking up Easter Sunday morning and tip-toeing out of my bedroom to see if I can locate a hidden egg before any of my sibilings wake up.  But like all sibilings on a holdiay morning the ears become super sonic and they would hear me and wake up and join me in the search of eggs and baskets.  Mom would soon come tumbling out of the bedroom telling us it is too early in the morning but by that time it was too late.  We were all on the search.  Mom takes her place on the couch while 3 young children zip all over the house looking for hidden treasure.  Afterwards my brother, sister and I would gather in the livingroom and open up our baskets looking at our goodies while eatting hard boiled colorful eggs and marshmellow peeps.  Life was grand.
    
     Having a family of my own I carried over the same traditions.  Being on the parent side made me look at things a little bit differently.  The premade baskets bought at the store were soon filled with cheap toys for too much of the cost.  After a few years all the baskets seems redundant.  Baskets with basketballs or footballs.  Baskets with sand toys.  Baskets with a cheap imatition of transformers or barbie or a plastic car that would break before the day was over.  There would be just a few packages of candy and mostly filled with Easter grass that you would still be vacuuming in the fall.  Easter was quickly losing its fun.

     So for a while I decided to make my own baskets.  I got to put what the kids liked in it along with other goodies of peeps, bubbles, books, etc.  The baskets were full and without Easter grass.  The older kids were starting to poke fun at where the hiding places would be and would tease that the Easter baskets are too easy to find.  I thought deeply about it.  They were right.  I was using the same spots over and over again.  Beind the couch, shoved between the fridge and the wall, in the bathtub, or behind the curtain.  I was feeling discouraged.  That bulky handle on the baskets made it hard to find creative places to hide for the older ones.  I needed a new plan. 

     In 2008 I came up with new plan.  No more baskets!  We would do "Hide-A-Gift".   They would each get 3 things, maybe 4.  One would be a big gift of something they want and the others would be smaller items like a kite, frisbee or chocolate bunny or bubbles.  I would buy 6 different designs of wrapping paper and each child's gift would be in that style of wrapping paper.  In the morning, on the coffee table, there would be samples of wrapping paper with their names on it.  They would know to find the present with the corresponding wrapping paper.   I had fun with it.  I hid some balanced on the drapery rod, tucked away in the bookshelf, on top of the bread box and under a cabinet.   For the younger children I would make it easy on them but the older kids had a hard time finding their packages.  In less than an hour a child or two would beg for a quick game of "Hot and Cold" to help tell where the gift was hiding.  Some would be determinded not to need assistance as they could find it themselves only to come back to me discouraged and needing help.  But I needed an idea for Easter candy.  So arrived another idea.  Pinatas!

     I loved Pinatas.  I remember in Kindergarten making one so I knew it couldn't be that hard to do.  A blown up balloon, strips of newspaper and lots and lots of glue.  After it dried I would make an opening and toss in all sorts of goodies like hand size bubbles, pixie sticks, ring pops, tiny Easter chocolates, pop rocks, a few yo-yos and other tiny toys.  I would seal it back up and duct tape the soft spots and add a few more layers of glued newspaper strips.  I would have the kids help me paint it.  Each child gets their own section to paint and design.  They enjoyed making it as much as they enjoyed wacking it open in the afteroon on Easter Sunday.  The youngest would always go first on up to the oldest so that each child hopefully gets a chance to wack it.   


Elizabeth (10) painting her section of the pinata.



Ashton aged 8 painting a bunny design on her section of the pinata.



Easter morning Elizabeth helps holds up the pinata while her sister Ashton takes a wack at it.  It was too cold that year to have the pinata outside.

Halvor aged 3 painting his section of the pinata with the help of his sister Elizabeth (age 10)



Christian (age 11) is helping his brother James (age 6) with his part of the pinata.

    

 We still color eggs and hide them as well.  They enjoy making different designs and writing sayings on the eggs with a white crayon.  The day is filled with eatting hard-boiled eggs and Easter candy just like I did when I was a child.  The tradition has changed for our family from baskets to gifts but the children really enjoy this way and perhaps they will pass this tradition on to their familes as well.