When I was a kid, my mom always did Easter baskets for us. I remember the green plastic grass. I remember a few jelly beans nestled in the bottoms of the baskets. I remember often receiving a white chocolate bunny, because my kind, thoughtful mother remembered that I didn’t like chocolate but still wanted me to have a bunny. (I have never liked white chocolate, either, but back then there weren’t all the options we have now. Plus, we didn’t have a Target or a Walmart in my hometown, and Amazon hadn’t yet been invented, so she was really limited to what she could buy in the grocery store. This makes it sound like I grew up one hundred years ago, doesn’t it?) The only other thing that I got reliably each Easter was a beautiful Easter dress.
Oh, how I loved those Easter dresses! They invariably came in soft pastels – frothy milkshake pink, pale robin’s egg blue, duckling fluff yellow. They were always twirly, and often had things like petticoats and lace. I felt SO fancy when I went to church with my family.
We don’t really DO Easter, these days. We don’t go to church (and I find myself growing fuzzy on the Easter Story details, which I should really brush up on). We do dye eggs, for Carla’s benefit, and we do buy candy. The Easter bunny still visits, which means we still hunt for eggs.
I think we have mainly stopped buying Carla Easter dresses – although I loved getting her fancy frocks when she was teeny. This year, she gets a Passover dress because we have been invited to a seder at a friend’s house.
And we do Easter baskets. With the green plastic grass. I don’t put jelly beans in the grass though – a) I really dislike jelly beans, which is immaterial but needs to be stated, b) they tend to get lost in the grass year over year, which I find gross. To me, the only thing less appealing than a jelly bean is a stale jelly bean that may be five years old.
We usually get Carla a chocolate bunny of some sort, and then a few other little candies. I don’t really like chocolate, but I DO like Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs, which are not only the best Easter candy, but are by far the best iteration of the peanut butter cup. There is something about the specific ratio of chocolate to peanut butter that I find irresistible.
I also like Sour Patch Kids, bunny-shape pleasant for the holiday but not necessary:
And this year I asked my husband to include some cinnamon bears if he could find them. (He is doing the candy shopping this year, bless his heart.)
My husband also likes Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs. And the confusingly named Reese’s Pieces Eggs, which are VERY DIFFERENT and also I hate them. I would put Reese’s Pieces of any kind right down there with black licorice and jelly beans and those weird styrofoamy circus peanut candies. But to each his own! We are still able to enjoy a happy marriage despite our opposite feelings on the subject.
He will also enjoy some Cadbury Mini Eggs in his basket.
For Carla, we also get an assortment of whatever candy she might like, which is ALL candy, honestly. But I also usually get her a few little things that aren’t candy. Often, I do socks or underpants, but we recently replenished both of those staples so I was able to focus on less practical and more FUN little gifties.
Some spring-y stick-on or clip-on earrings, like these darling bunnies:
Some books. She has been a huge fan of the Magic Bunny series, but she has all the books. So this year I ordered her the first of the Lucky Bunnies series. This appeals to me because bunnies are Easter-y. (I mean, secular Easter-y.)
I found this silly LEGO bunny in the dollar section at Target (although it was NOT a dollar):
Carla (and her father, honestly) are obsessed with these Extreme Dot-to-Dot books, so I ordered her another one:
This triceratops taco holder has nothing to do with Easter, secular or otherwise, but Carla is still really into dinosaurs (and tacos), and I think it will be a fun Easter basket filler:
I’m not putting it in an Easter basket, but I did order myself some sunless tanner (I know I read about it on someone’s blog – let me know if it was yours!). Sunless tanner is one of those things I am VERY attracted to, despite the fact that they rarely work as promised and almost always smell nauseatingly chemical-y. I will let you know how this one works out.
And I ordered myself an Easter dress as well. It fits well enough, but I’m not 100% sure I love it enough to keep it. The model in the photo seems pretty young, but I can’t tell if the dress reads more Mother of the Bride in person. In case you aren’t sure, that’s not the look I’m going for. I would prefer Stylish And Springy Without Trying Too Hard.
I also plan to buy myself some more irises this week. They are my all-time favorite flower, closely followed by tulips. I spotted some last week for $6 a bundle and paired them with a bunch of yellow tulips and the arrangement made me SO happy all week long.
My brother doesn’t like chocolate either, and when he was little someone gave him a white chocolate bunny. He was all excited, took a bite, and his face fell: “I don’t know what this is, but it tastes like chocolate.”
I adore the iris with yellow tulips, they look amazing together.
Yes the Reeses BP cups are the best. I was at Target last night and stocked up since once Easter is over there won’t be any more until Halloween.
I wish I had known about the triceratops taco holder when the boys were younger. Actually scratch that, I wish such a thing had been around when I was a kid!
I miss the days of making Easter baskets, so learning about yours brightened my day. 🙂 And oh, those flowers! Glorious colors, perfect combination. Splendid!
That dress is really pretty! I know what you mean, though. Some things I LOVE on fashion blogs and then absolutely do NOT love on me.
I love PB and chocolate, so Reece are great. I have an affection for Cadbury mini-eggs too. I used to LOVE those Cadbury Easter Creme Eggs and oh god, are they gross to me now.
I grew up in a very churchy Lutheran family and Easter was a huge deal. We don’t really celebrate it religiously now. I used to do egg hunts with the boys, leaving clues around the house, but this is the first year I’m not doing it. M is 18 and J probably could have left that behind years ago anyway. I did buy a big bag of Lindor Easter chocolates though, and I made little nests for the mini-eggs.
I don’t love jelly beans either, but I do love fruity candy.
I grew up in a non-religious household and we did baskets and the secular celebration, but it wasn’t a big deal to me (I do not care for plain chocolate and I’m scared of rabbits, so many of the draws of the holiday were lost to me). My husband is from a big Catholic family and Easter is a THING and now that I’ve been part of the celebrations for the last fifteen years, it’s hard to imagine how low-key I once thought the holiday was.
I like jelly beans and black licorice, so maybe I could come and enjoy all the things that you don’t like!
I love the name of that self-tanning lotion.
I’m keeping it low-key this year, but still have to do Easter baskets because it’s tradition. I got Reese’s eggs (mostly for me) and Lindor eggs – first time I’ve seen those! Haribo also had bunny-shaped gummies – immediate buy. Our Easter favorite is SweetTarts Chicks and Bunnies, instead of any type of jelly bean. We’ve tried them all – Jolly Rancher, Starburst – no jelly bean entices either of my kids. And we always give them the Lindt gold bunny. Mostly for aesthetics. 😉 I got each of them a t-shirt this year — the one I got Kate is one she’s been searching for without success, so I’m stoked to surprise her — and a Visa gift card. Teens FTW.
The focus at Easter has always been on faith elements in our family. Ironically, my parents never did anything with Easter candy on the actual weekend (it was all about church services), but because they didn’t have much money and chocolate Easter bunnies always went on sale after Easter they would stock up and we’d end up having a bin in our freezer FULL of the bunnies. One of my enduring memories from childhood is of my mother hitting a frozen bunny (I think the freezer was to keep the chocolate fresh?!) over the edge of the counter to break it into pieces…in the middle of the summer. They would also buy white chocolate bunnies which is an enduring taste memory from my childhood. I loved the white bunnies, but haven’t had one in decades!
Aside from the fact I still aim to focus on the spiritual elements of Easter, I’m also just too much of an under buyer/minimalist to do baskets. Pre-COVID a friend always hosted an egg hunt and a church in our town, also pre-COVID, used to do a massive scavenger hunt which we participated in one year. The kids always seem to get loads of treats from other sources, though, as Easter is just a huge deal in terms of candy, spring items (chalk, bubbles, etc). Friends and neighbours always end up giving them things. Plus, I swear about a pound of candy seems to make its way into my house each week already. Where does it all come from? My kids are just magnets for candy. Between birthday parties and prizes at this or that event…
I love Reese’s eggs; I don’t mind Reese’s Pieces, but they are WAY down on my list of favourite candy! I am NOT a fan of jelly beans, though.
That dress for Carla is DARLING.
I love Reese’s PB Eggs, too, and agree they are the best form of PB cups. My MIL handles most of the Easter buying. My husband brought back the back of goodies this past weekend in case she isn’t feeling well enough to celebrate with us and I see she found these dinosaur easter eggs – our son Paul will LOVE them. It looks like there is something to assemble inside the eggs? I got Paul a couple of puzzles that were on sale at Target, and got a 3rd for free that I will stow away for Christmas or next birthday or something. The 16m old is getting one book. That’s the extent of their Easter baskets, though. No fake grass for me – the texture of it makes me squirm just thinking about it for some reason! But my mom put that fake grass in our Easter baskets when we were growing up, too! One year she hid our Easter baskets and there was a series of clues to find them. That was very fun and something I would like to try when our kids are old enough to read!
WHEW! I’m so relieved to learn that despite your loathing of peanut butter that the Reese’s Peanut Butter eggs are a favorite (who couldn’t love them?) and I whole-heartedly agree that the eggs are the best iteration of the whole Reese’s family of candy.
I also remember the lovely Easter dresses every year – they were so “fancy.”
I usually do some sort of basket for Man-Child but that kind of fell by the wayside last year due to my exhaustion with *everything.* I’ve thought about re-instating the tradition this year but then just realized that Easter is on Sunday…maybe next year?
Wait. You LOATHE peanut butter?
I could overlook the oatmeal, but peanut butter is…my favourite food ever!!!
I KNOW I AM A MONSTER
I think you are redeemed with your love for the Reese’s Eggs. 😉
😂 thanks Gigi
I love that you have a whole blog category for holiday candy. When I bought Easter candy for the kids I set aside a few jelly beans, mini eggs. and one Reese’s egg for myself. I’ve eaten the egg already.
As a kid I was your opposite. I only liked chocolate and couldn’t stand jelly beans or peeps. Now I’m more open-minded about candy, but don’t crave it so I rarely buy it. Even at Easter. I remember those pastel Easter dresses, with a hat and gloves when I was very young.
I don’t have kids so I haven’t celebrated a proper Easter weekend until last weekend (when I was back home in Germany and we did an Easter egg hunt for my niece and nephew) 🙂
I usually just bake a sweet Easter bread (like a brioche) and maybe color eggs, if I am in the mood.