Cheap Gifts for an Easter Basket

Every time I go to Target and see the Easter goodies in their aisles, I squeal inside (and sometimes out loud…).  Easter is coming, y’all!  First, I love it because of what it celebrates.  I love the hope that comes with Easter through the resurrection of Christ.  Makes my heart happy.  But I also love the spring decor and festivities.  Easter baskets, Easter egg hunts, Easter dresses and spring bow ties, and eggs of any and all varieties – deviled, Cadbury, Reese’s.  I just love it all!

One of my favorite parts of Easter are the baskets.  I love them because, in our family, they are full of little things.  I start buying for my kids’ Easter baskets about now, and collect small little things for them right up until the night before when I stuff them all in a basket.

As a general rule, I try not to spend more than $10 or $15 on each basket, not including the baskets themselves (which we already have), the grass, and plain plastic eggs.  In past years, I’ve gotten all of the kids Easter basket goodies at Target.  But this year, I have discovered two other places that I think I’m going to try instead.  I have been in Party City a lot lately for various reasons, and I found a TON of fun, cheap little goodies.  They have entire sections for themed birthdays, which make finding specific things easy.  I can shop for Gracie in the Disney princess party section, and Bean in the Spiderman and Superheroes party section.  They also have a few aisles dedicated to cheap favor bag fillers, and these were perfect for little basket stuffers.

Another place I’ve discovered is Michael’s craft store for little dollar items.  What specifically caught my attention were $1 coloring books with actual recognizable characters.  My kids don’t like the generic coloring books with characters they don’t know, and that’s usually all you can find in dollar bins.  But at Michael’s they had all their favorite characters (Spiderman, Tinker Bell, Hello Kitty, My Little Pony, Toy Story, etc.).  Another thing that I loved at Michael’s was cheap plastic jewelry for Gracie.  They have packs of plastic bangle bracelets, all tied up super cute, for only $1.  And they also had necklaces and rings, too, all for $1.  My Michael’s just created two dollar bin aisles where everything is a dollar or less, and they had some really cute things there for Easter baskets.

After a few weeks of scoping out the goods, I’ve got a pretty good list of ideas I could include in both kids’ baskets.  Here are some of my go-to, tried and true Easter basket items, along with a few new ideas I’d like to try this year:

1. Bubbles

2. Stickers

3. Washable tattoos

4. Bubble bath

5. Washable crayons for the bath

6.  Glow sticks for the bath

7.  Coloring books

8.  New pack of crayons (Crayola has $1 packs)

9.  Rubber bouncing balls (make sure they aren’t the small ones – choking hazard!)

10.  Plastic bracelets

11.  Plastic necklaces (make sure they are super long so your child can get them on and off easily and safely)

12.  Movies (from the $5 bin at Target or Walmart)

13.  Veggie Tales movies

14.  CD for the car

15.  Fun socks

16.  Fun underwear (my kids love underwear!)

17.  Small boxes of Cheerios

18.  Small bag of Gerber toddler snacks

19.  Snack packs of Motts fruit snacks (these are the holy grail at my house)

20.  A cookie cutter in a shape or character your child loves

21.  New snack cup (the Dollar Store has some nifty ones)

22.  New character sippy cup

23.  Books (I like the clearance racks at Barnes and Noble and Family Christian Bookstores, or the dollar bins at Target)

24. Small figurines (these can be found in dollar bins, but, again, watch the size for choking hazards)

25. PEZ dispensers

26. Flashcards or Go Fish cards

27. Deck of cards (Bean loves these right now)

28. Fun, silly straws

29. New dinner plates

30.  New drinking cups (character cups sell everywhere here for $1 – check your drug stores or Walmart)

31. Sunglasses

32.  Flip flops

33.  Play clothes (I get these for $5 and $7 at Target in the mix and match kiosks)

34.  A character cold pack for boo boos

35. Batch of their favorite homemade treat

36. Hand toys for babies

37.  New eating utensil sets

38. New binkies for babies

39. Puzzles ($5 at Target)

40.  Wooden trains for kids with train sets (Ikea has cheap ones)

41. A wall calendar (Bean’s class has been learning about the days of the week and the months of the year, so this is a perfect gift for him)

42.  Sand bucket (My mom and I found character sand buckets at Old Tyme Pottery for $5 last week)

43.  Plastic shovels and gardening supplies (perfect for gardening OR the beach!)

44.  A beach ball

45.  A new pool float

46.  Swimming goggles

47. Playdoh

48. Character Band-Aids

49. Candy bracelets or necklaces

50. Silly putty

Just writing this list makes me so excited to get started!  Happy Easter Bunny-ing!!!!