We spent a particularly magical Easter in California when I was seven. Visitng my cousins, our baskets were metal pails from the farm. I don’t remember what was inside but I do remember the trail of Cheerios we followed to find them.
The house was filled with people and laughter. We ate, we hugged, we might have accidentally slipped into the duck pond… but that was the joy of a simple, happy Easter on the ranch.
Easters like that make the current displays of plastic grass and day-glo baskets pale in comparison despite the bright colors. Easter means many things, and not one of them is spending a lot of money to share this spring holiday with your family. Here are a few ideas to keep the focus on simplicity, family, and togetherness– not breaking the bank on pounds of candy… um, most of which I’d devour myself anyways.
1. Easter Baskets: no need to buy a fancy basket, there are so many options that are free or close to it. Shop the house for baskets and dress them up with fabric and ribbons. Or use beach pails decorated with Easter stickers or paint pens. I found some adorable felt buckets at Michaels for only $1. The best part is that all these baskets and buckets can be reused around the house after the holiday ends– not gathering dust in the basement. If you do spring for a bunny basket (someone did for Noodle) then use it in a kid’s room for added decor. The pink one below holds stuffed animals when not in use for Easter.
2. Easter Grass: please, oh please, do not buy the plastic kind! There’s no need to clutter the earth with more plastic. Simply run tissue paper, construction paper or paper bags through the shredder and create your own– the type that can be recycled when Easter is over. If you do buy it, be sure to reuse it from year to year or purchase the paper kind that can be recycled.
3. Basket Stuffers: My weakness is candy. I can not have it in the house or I’ll eat it. For example, I’ve tried– TWICE– to create something for the blog using candy this spring and ate the entire bag both times. Darn you, jelly beans and bunny marshmallows! On that note, I try to keep candy out of the baskets so I’m not tempted. Instead, here’s some inexpensive yet awesome non-candy basket stuffers:
- books
- bubbles
- hair bows, headbands
- jump ropes
- matchbox cars
- themed bandaids (Dora, anyone?)
- stickers, sticker books
- sidewalk chalk
- pinwheels
- watercolor paint
- ribbon wands
- small single-serve boxes of cereal
- coloring books, box of sharp new crayons
- playdoh
- gardening tools for kids
Want to find inexpensive easter basket fillers? Check out my 6 Awesome Dollar Store Finds for more ideas, or use your CVS ExtraCare Bucks if you are a pharmacy pirate like me. 😉 Just got our Easter Basket items for $4 total, thanks to sales/coupons/Extra Care Bucks!
5. Easter Outfits: I found the cutest– and I mean, cutest— dresses at Marshalls and T.J. Maxx. The trick was to do it early in the season. For my son, I got a great outfit for $5 at a consignment sale– new with tags still on it. When we take the photos, no one will know I dressed them both for under $20— with plenty of occasions on the horizon to reuse their adorable outfits!
6. Decorations: Decorating on a dime starts in your own backyard. Bring in some forsythia branches, daffodils, or tulips for your vases. If you plan ahead, simple grass seed becomes something special– be sure to check out Darby’s adorable grassy eggs on her blog, Fly Through My Window.
You can also blow out the yolks of eggs and dye the shells for eggs that can stay out for weeks– no need to refrigerate! And, you don’t need to buy the fancy Pottery Barn ones, either. A little work with some dye and splatter paint and they’ll look legit.
7. Tablescape: Winter-weary and ready for a change? Since I’m not one to change decorations for every single holiday, I try to spruce things up seasonally. Lighter colors in spring, warmer ones in fall. This way, I’m not in a frenzy to get rid of an Easter egg patterned tablecloth the next day. A cheery yellow design will carry me through the summer. If you can’t find a tablecloth you love, make your own with a favorite patterned fabric like I did here:
Basic white plates are always in style, just add some spring colors to make them pop. Ikea has paper napkins for a steal; use ribbon, raffia, grapevine wreaths, or flower clippings for cheap but spring-y napkin rings.
8. Food: I don’t have any earth shattering tips for keeping the cost of the Easter meal to a minimum {do you? please share!} but here’s a link to $5 Dinner Mom’s website with a few recipes that use leftover ham. It’s a great way to stretch your dollars and make several meals from one. My mother’s side of the family is Greek, and lamb is traditional for us Greeks… and admittedly there usually isn’t much left over after a meal of lamb and orzo! Except guilt for eating too much. 😉
9. Games/Activities: For us, Easter morning starts with a trail of stuffed animals leading to the Easter baskets. Then there’s the inevitable egg hunt, the thrill of which is usually seeing how many eggs you can find and not necessarily what’s inside them. Thankfully a bag of jelly beans won’t cost much (especially if you use coupons or hit sales), but if you want to steer clear of sugar then fill the eggs with fun activities that the finder gets to complete. A few ideas: sing a song, choose the game for family game night, 5 extra minutes of t.v. time, etc.
Egg dyeing is also inexpensive and super fun; kick it up a notch by using crayons on the eggs before dying them to create pretty designs that will repel the dye. Martha has a few beautiful designs for wax-resist eggs on her website, though certainly any design will look pretty to the person who made it.
10. A few more things: Check your local paper for free egg hunts in the community. Also, many charities hold Breakfast with the Easter Bunny events– your donation will be used for something good while your child gets to meet the Easter Bunny. Most importantly, remember the real meaning of Easter. Whether you are religious or not, this season is about hope and renewal and rebirth. Share those ideas, and embrace it!
That, my friends, is free.
Carrie
Awesome post! Your blog is always good, but it has been SO ON lately. 🙂 I love the idea of shredding paper instead of using the plastic grass. Even green construction paper could be just as cute!
Great post! 🙂 I find a lot of things thrifting…and plan to include free Target games for my younger kids if there are any left at Target by the time I get there! Books, a few high quality chocolates, toothbrushes, what more does a kid need? 🙂
Super post! Happy Easter!! Pennies and coins in plastic eggs…super exciting for the kiddos (not probably a good idea for small toddlers though!!)
Great post! Although it seems obvious now, I never thought of making “grass” using the shredder! I love your list of ideas for the Easter Baskets. I decided this year to get some of the healthy snacks that my kids beg for but that I don’t buy because they’re expensive and use those for the treats (i.e. the fruit squeezes and dried fruit snacks at Starbucks.)