Gifts

​Bags filled with candy for Halloween, baskets and plastic eggs brimming with junk for Easter, stockings filled with sugar for Christmas.

Even Irish potatoes have taken over Saint Patrick’s Day. I’m talking the sugary cream cheese kind, not the ones the Irish actually eat.

I came up with 200+ awesome ideas for Easter basket ideas that are not only candy-free but also free of sugar and junk.

If you are looking for Easter egg filler ideas or creative Easter egg hunts, check out 20 creative things to fill Easter eggs with.

In this candy-free Easter basket, you can include all the things one would need for a summery beach trip. Then, line this summery basket with a beach towel, or instead of an Easter basket, use a beach pail. 

• Beach toys
• Flip flops
• Frisbee
• Visor
• Sunglasses
• Pool toys
• Beach towel – hooded towels for little ones
• Kite
• Beach books – board books for the little ones, beach reading for the older ones (Some great kids books – Beach Sticker Book, Pete the Cat, and Llama, Llama)
• Sunscreen
• Sun hats

For Kids Who Love Crafts

Crafty is the theme of this candy-free Easter basket. There are so many craft ideas out there that you can be as creative as you want. As a nice addition, line this crafty candy-free Easter basket with a plastic tablecloth, for easy cleanup after art activities, and an alternative to Easter basket grass.

• Markers
• Colored pencils
• Paints
• Paintbrushes
• Coloring books
• Craft kits from AC Moore – foam kits, suncatcher kits
• Stickers
• Sticker books
• Sidewalk chalk
• Play dough
• Mini canvases
• Crayons
• Dry Erase board
• Cute erasers
• Pencil Box
• Festive pencils
• Plastic Tablecloth – for easy cleanup

For Kids Who Love the Outdoors

Outdoor activities, games, and accessories make for a great candy-free Easter basket. Use a blanket, for picnics or relaxing outside, to line this Easter basket idea.

• Bubbles, bubble maker, bubble toys
• Sidewalk chalk
• Sand toys
• Jump rope
• Bat and ball set
• Mini football
• Soccer ball
• Baseballs or softballs
• Hopscotch Game
• Ball cap or spring hat
• Frisbee
• Sunglasses
• Kite
• Golf balls
• Golf tees
• Tennis Balls
• Badminton Set
• Garden tools
• Garden gloves
• Blanket for picnics or relaxing outside

Rainy Day Basket for Kids

With kids accumulating so many toys these days, why not make a rainy day basket as a candy-free Easter idea? Kids could pick a few toys to play with and the rest get saved for a rainy afternoon. Line these Easter baskets with a picnic blanket or cuddly reading rug.

• Match box cars
• Stuffed animals
• Card games – decks of cards, learning cards, matching games
• Coloring books and crayons
• Craft Kits
• DVDs
• Army men
• Blocks
• Plastic jewelry
• Books – board boards, chapter books, high interest books, etc
• Tea party toys
• Small or travel board games
• Mad Libs (Unicorns & Mermaid one!)
• Bingo cards
• Picnic blanket

An Entirely Homemade Easter Basket that’s Candy-Free

Whether you are trying to save money or your crafty side is running strong, make an entire Easter basket filled with homemade items. There are so many cool things you can make that guarantee hours of fun. Line these homemade Easter baskets with your knitting, hopscotch mat, or t-shirts, as a fun basket liner.

• Homemade finger puppets  (check out my tutorial on how to make felt finger puppets)
• Handcrafted matching game
• Photo puzzle
• Hopscotch mat (check out my DIY hopscotch mat made from felt)
• Dry erase board from a picture frame
• Scavenger hunt clues
• Felt busy boards
• Sticker Scenes – drawing/printing a landscape for kids to put stickers on
• Homemade knit scarf, hat, or blanket
• Iron-on or puffy painted t-shirts
• Homemade games – Bingo, Mad Libs, etc
• Popsicle stick bookmarks
• Painted Mugs
  ​

Easter Baskets For College Students 

For a candy-free Easter basket for college kids, the possibilities are endless. You can put together office supplies, tech items, healthy snacks, or favorite things from home. A cute spring scarf or a college t-shirt would make a great basket liner, rather than using Easter basket grass.

• Post-Its
• Highlighters
• Handy wipes
• Travel tissues
• Teas
• Notebooks
• Pens/pencils
• USB cord
• USB drives
• Hard drive
• Screen protector
• Cell phone case
• Headphones
• Totes
• Spring scarf
• iTunes gift card (Did you know you can get gift cards from Amazon?)

Easter Baskets For Adults that Are Crafty

This is another Easter basket I would love to receive (…hint hint Ash). It’s filled with so many fun crafty things – you can be as creative as you would like, and your craft-loving family member or friend will not even miss the candy. Instead of using Easter grass, use felt for a creative liner.  

• Ribbon
• Squiggly scissors (I love these so much)
• Card stock
• Markers
• Colored pencils
• Acrylic paints
• Nice set of paintbrushes
• Coloring books for adults
• Stickers or embellishments
• Washi tape
• Journal or notebook
• Stamps
• Inkpads
• Fabric markers
• Sharpies
• Window markers
• Patches
• Embroidery floss
• Hoops
• Yarn
• Needles
• Felt or cute fabric

• Stuffed animals
• Framed photo
• Books – think about hobbies –trains, crosswords, crafting, eating health, etc. Some people love biographies
• Fresh flowers
• Photo presents – photo puzzle or photo book of recent trip
• Coloring book for adults with colored pencils
• Tickets to the movies or a restaurant
• Spring scarf or cap
• Socks
• Mugs
• Magnets
• Cozy blanket

​

Easter Ideas for Dads

Having your kids make a basket for their father – or you making an Easter basket for your father is such a thoughtful gesture. You can fill these candy-free Easter baskets with all kinds of dad things – like socks and batteries – and I’m sure they would mind a few fun things too like an iTunes gift card. Use a dad t-shirt to line the basket, as a green alternative to Easter grass.

• Hearty mug
• Batteries
• Honey
• Duct tape
• WD-40
• Lint roller
• Tie
• Watch
• Totes
• Socks
• iTunes gift card
• Wine key
• Flashlight
• Crafts from the kids
• Small tools
• T-shirts – homemade are great!

Easter Baskets for Mamas

When putting together Easter baskets, don’t forget about your mom. There are lots of fun things you can fill the candy-free basket with that she will love. I’m sure she’ll love that you thought of her. A cozy blanket makes for a perfect basket liner.

• Candles
• Teas
• Cute mug
• Crafts made by the kids
• Photos of the kids
• Lara bars
• Almonds
• Sunglasses
• Cute post-it notes
• Fresh flowers
• Sharpies
• Jewelry
• Totes
• To-go wipes
• Favorite magazine or book
• Gift card for a night out
• Cozy blanket

Practical Easter Basket Ideas

If you are stuck on ideas for a candy-free basket for a friend or family member (who probably has everything), why not make them a basket with one of these practical Easter basket ideas. Fill it with practical things that you always need – like scissors, batteries, and sharpies. My sister filled our stockings one year with practical items, and they were a big hit! Line the basket with bubble wrap or packing paper, something practical that will be reused.

• Sharpies
• AA batteries
• Rubber band ball
• Pencil sharpener
• Thumb tacks
• USB wall plug-in
• Scotch tape
• Magic eraser
• Scissors
• Lint roller
• Handy wipes
• Ziplock bags
• Travel sewing kit
• Extension cord

• New plates or cups with a favorite character
• Utensil set with favorite character
• Silly straws
• Healthy snacks – puffs for toddlers, honey sticks, fruit pouches (read the ingredients)
• Travel Tupperware
• Game Plate – these are so cool. They help toddlers finish food on their plate by making it a game. My son loves this one 🙂
• To-go cups
• Waterproof splat mat
• Fun place mats

Easter Ideas for Filling Eggs

Just as I was stressing out about filling candy-free Easter baskets, I was also wondering what I was going to fill Easter eggs with. I came up with two lists – a small toy list and a toy-free list. I LOVE the toy-free list – it has so many creative, fun ideas. 

• Match box cars (fits in the big eggs)
• Stickers
• Finger puppets
• Small figures
• Rings or bracelets
• Keychains
• Legos
• Bouncy balls

Creative Easter Egg Ideas for Hunts

• Legos – Fill all the eggs with legos. After the eggs are found, have kids each build something with the legos from their eggs.
• Alphabet magnetic letters – After collecting all of the eggs, see if you can spell any words from your collected letters. Use cookie trays for a magnetic surface for word building.
• Jokes – Everyone loves a good laugh 🙂
• Silly actions – Fill each egg with a little piece of paper that has silly actions or tasks – i.e. hop around the yard like a bunny, give your little sister a kiss, do 5 jumping jacks,etc
• Scavenger hunt clues – Start by giving every participant an egg. Participants will open the given egg for the clue to the next egg.

From crafty baskets to summery baskets to outdoorsy baskets, kids will love these creative items and not even notice that they don’t include candy or junk. And, adults will love the time and thought you put into creating these candy-free Easter baskets.

Additionally, the creative Easter egg hunt ideas are perfect for friendly competition or a good laugh.

With hundreds of ideas for Easter baskets and egg hunts, you can totally pull off a candy-free, junk-food free Easter without any stress.

I just love this wire basket – it’s rustic yet modern looking.

​It came with the burlap ribbon wrapped around it, which meant no additional fussing or ribbon was needed later on 🙂

Gathering Winter Picnic Basket Items

I picked up the red snowflake plates and napkins to go with the mugs (Dollar Tree finds).

Navy and red are one of my favorite color combinations.

I put together some snacks to go in the basket. We love Mary Gone Crackers (vegan and gluten free!) as well as Lara Bars. The chocolate coconut ones taste like brownies 🙂

When picking snacks, don’t forget to think about refrigeration. If you are giving it as a gift, you probably want to stay away from things needing to be refrigerated – like cheese.

You could also include a thermos that could be used for hot chocolate or soups.

Assembling the Winter Basket

To assemble, I simply laid the blanket at the bottom of the basket, wrapping the extra around the back, and arranged the items.

The blanket worked great for the lining because it made propping up the items easy – and it served as cushion for the fragile mugs.

I had a little “help” with the arranging… our buddy Zeus. He actually wanted the crackers in the basket and was begging 🙂 He looks huge next to the basket.

As a side note, in this picture, I was attempting to use tissue paper at the bottom of the basket, but the drab tissue took the elegant basket down a few notches. That’s when I decided to make the blanket work.

The basket took minutes to put together, and the total cost was around $30. The basket, mugs, plates, and napkins were $8 – you can’t beat that!

​​The snacks and blanket brought it up to $30, but the blanket was on sale too 🙂

The winter picnic basket is not only a unique, creative gift but it’s something friends and family will find so thoughtful. You can put a romantic spin on it for husbands, wives, boyfriends, or girlfriends, too 🙂 Especially with Valentine’s Day coming up 🙂

And, I have to say buying things you love at the right price definitely results in some creative, cute gift ideas 🙂

However, one Christmas I had just had my son, so I made my niece this little box, so she would still be able to decorate Christmas cookies that year.

​​In addition to putting together a holiday cookie decorating box for others, you could also make one for your family.

Save it until Christmas Eve, when you can then decorate cookies to leave for Santa:)

​​Not only is this box super easy to make, but it doesn’t involve screen time nor is it another toy.

​And, if you are even a little bit of a baker or crafter, you probably already have a lot of the materials.

Cookie Decorating Gift Box Materials

• About a dozen roll-out cookies – Baking the cookies ahead of time cuts out on the mess, and let the kids go straight to the fun part – the decorating.
• Candy Melts – I used chocolate and red
• Decorating Materials – sprinkles, candies, etc
• Small containers for the sprinkles/candies – You can use condiment containers, small tupperware, or you could buy the the sprinkles/candies in small containers
• Decorative Box – Michaels always has great ones
• Ziplocs – to put the cookies and candy melts in
• Ribbon – to spruce up the ziplocs

Holiday Cookie Decorating Box Instructions

First, you’ll want to bake your cookies and let them cool.

My family eats pretty healthy these days (one day I’ll share that story). So, I always make things as healthy as possible.

Additionally, ​I made these cookies without dairy, egg, or gluten. I’ve gone through quite my share of recipes, as well as trying to use substitutes on my own recipes.

Hands down, the best one is from The Unconventional Baker. She also shares recipes for chocolate roll-out and vanilla roll-out cookies. ​Her instructions were great. And, the cookies rolled out very well! Also, they don’t use cane sugar, and they taste just as a roll out cookie should.

After they cooled, I placed about eight of each type of cookie in a stack and put them into a ziploc bag. I folded the bag, so you wouldn’t see the zipper part when placed in the box.

Then, ​I adorned the top gingerbread man from each pile with a little bow:)

Next, I took the candy melts and poured them into ziploc bags.

Afterward, ​I also tied ribbon around these to make them look more festive.

Additionally, I found these cute little containers at Dollar Tree (10 for $1) and filled them with sprinkles and candies for decorating.

​I also had all of these items in my pantry – so no additional cost for decorating materials 🙂

Next, I arranged everything into this Michael’s box. They have the cutest boxes for all holidays and seasons – and I always seem to shop when they are 70% off, which made this box $3!

The last thing I did was add a few candy canes because they make everything look so festive.

​If I had a little more room in the holiday cookie decorating box, I would have added hot cocoa, paper cups, and cute straws, which would have made for a nice touch.

I spent only around $7 on this holiday cookie decorating box, as I already had everything but the box and candy melts.

​Spending only $7 on a gift is quite amazing, right?

This year, as you get caught in the whirlwind of the holiday season, remember that decorating cookies is something simple, thrifty, and delicious to give!

And, I’m sure if you start this Christmas Eve tradition of decorating cookies for Santa, your kids will remember and blissfully look forward to it each year.