Wednesday, April 20, 2011

What Goes in Your Easter Basket?

When I saw the movie Hop with my kids the one thing I tucked away was the image of a beautifully stuffed Easter basket. An elegant basket can be hard to do amid the over-abundance of cheap candy, beanie baby bunnies and baskets pre-stuffed with things - Fun Dip, Tootsie Roll pops, and Pixie Stix to name a few - that have no business in an Easter basket.

My kids are getting older, but we still really enjoy the tradition of the basket and our annual in-house egg hunt. Our baskets haven't changed much over the years. There are five things that always go in, and then a few random things I pick up when inspired. The five mainstays:

1. Hershey's mini eggs. Gotta have em. They're just reshaped kisses in pastel foil.

2. Cadbury Creme Egg. One time in college my boyfriend (now husband) received an Easter basket in the mail from home. It included, among other things, a Creme Egg and a basketball hand toy (ball on a string that you had to swing into the basket). I bet him that I could make the basket on the first try, but before waiting for him to accept the terms of the bet (if I succeeded he had to relinquish the Creme Egg), I shot and made the basket. Wahoo! What followed was a lengthy discussion of the terms of the bet that lasted until one of us had to go to class. By the time I resumed the debate it was moot: he had eaten the egg! Grrr.

3. Big Chocolate Bunny. It's just not an Easter basket without one. I've been buying the Cadbury Dairy Milk ones. They're solid.

4. Jelly Belly Sour jelly beans. Best beans. I buy big bag and portion them into plastic eggs for our hunt.

5. Peeps. My children have inherited intact my genetic disposition for Peeps-love. This makes me proud even though the fact they prefer Peeps to #3 is a real mystery to me. When I was a child my Peeps usually went stale. My kids gobble them right up.

There's other things I love putting in there, like an old-fashioned swirly lollipop or a cute stuffed bunny, or even an egg of Silly Putty. One year I put shaker-eggs (find them in music stores) in their baskets. One year I found those gorgeous crystallized sugar egg dioramas, but I haven't sourced them since. I had one when I was a kid and couldn't take my eyes off it.

Critical reading to balance your sugar consumption: Is Sugar Toxic from the April 13, 2011, New York Times Magazine.

Critical reading to increase your Peep knowledge: How Peeps are Made

Peeps photo courtesy Big Sis Lil Sis.

2 comments:

Jenny Achuthan said...

My kids don't expect a basket and for that I admit to being quite grateful, bur maybe I'll surprise them this year! So now to the nitty gritty about where you have the best luck buying your basket goodies. Target comes to mind. I'm a one-stop shopping gal or it just won't happen.

Love the ideas!

Curtis' Outlet said...
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