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Last year, my baby was less than a year old. We filled her Easter basket with a few necessary items and a few fun ones, like Puffs. She enjoyed helping us empty it.
Now, she’s an active, adventurous toddler who loves to read, dress up and go outside. We’ve been spending a decent amount of time in doctor’s appointments lately for my husband, so this year we included a couple of items she can use while we’re waiting. We also added a couple of dress-up items.
Toddler’s Easter basket and egg hunt on a budget
We wanted her basket to be fun but inexpensive. It was going to be smaller but we added a few extra items.
Originally, we were just going to have the two wooden puzzles, bubbles, stickers, hair clips and snacks.
When I finished picking items out, we had everything but the snacks, plus fairy wings, a sun hat, a coloring activity, jumbo Easter eggs shaped like bunnies and two containers of Playdough
We still plan on getting the snacks, but we decided to put a couple of pieces in the jumbo eggs. Hopefully it will prepare her for the mini egg hunt we’ll set up for her outside. I have some Easter eggs left over from a hunt I set up for my siblings a few years ago, so we’ll set some of those in the yard filled with her snacks.
Cost breakdown
• Basket: Free. I’m using my former Easter basket that we still use to hold things.
• Easter eggs: Free (left over from a previous egg hunt. Normally would have been about $4.)
• Sun hat: $1
• Playdough: $1 each (purchased two)
• Peppa Pig coloring activity: $1
• Hello Kitty stickers: $1
• Pack of bubbles: $1 (contains three jars)
• Fairy wings: $1
• Easter bunny headband: $1
• Bunny-shaped Easter eggs: $1 (pack of four)
• Hairclips: $1
• Melissa and Doug Winnie-the-Pooh puzzle
• Farm puzzle: $0.50- $3 (I bought several puzzles at two consignment stores, some for $0.50 and others up to $3. I can’t remember how much this one was, but it was way cheaper than retail. We got some puzzles for young toddlers and some for when she’s a bit older and will give them to her throughout the year.)
We found these Peppa Pig gardening tools online at Target. Unfortunately, I don’t live near one of their stores, but my sister does, so she’s planning on mailing those down. If they come, they’ll be $5 (on sale from $5.99).
Her snacks won’t be expensive. We’re planning on little quinoa snacks or something similar to put in her eggs. I think they’re about $3 or so.
Total budget: $23 max for her egg hunt and basket, but probably less.
This would be cheaper if I only used the $0.50 puzzles in my toddler’s Easter basket, but I’m using some of the “pricier” $3 ones and will give her the slightly cheaper ones later. They’re all the same quality, but these have bigger pieces. If we don’t get the Peppa Pig tools, the max cost of this basket AND the egg hunt will have been $18, but again, it’s probably less than that.
Useful items
We wanted her Easter basket to be fun, but useful. Since we’ve been in medical appointments, the Peppa Pig coloring activity and stickers we found at the dollar store will make waiting easier. I’ll also bring her Wonder Paper
We’re almost out of bubbles, and she loves to chase them in the yard, so I would have purchased them anyway. She outgrew her straw hat from last summer, so again, I would have bought her another this year. I also wanted to purchase hair clips to keep her long hair out of her eyes. It just works out that I can put these items in my toddler’s Easter basket and let her have the fun of discovering them!
What’s going in your kid’s Easter basket this year? Did you make any good finds?
