Easter is the New Christmas, or so the mass retailers would have you think given the advertising push of bigger and bigger "treats" to fill those Easter baskets.
Which leads me to wonder this:
What do you put in your kid's Easter baskets?
Just candy? A couple of small toys from the dollar bin at Target? Or do you go all out and buy toys that are big enough to be considered presents?
I'm a candy filled egg and chocolate bunny kind of mom; if I can find a good deal on sidewalk chalk or Crayola's latest whiz-bang coloring system, I'll grab that, too.
But I'm leery of overdoing it; don't we as a culture already suffer from overdoing it when it comes to consumer goods and our kids?
Which leads me to wonder which holiday will evolve into the next big gift-giving bonanza (and by evolve, I mean strategically marketed to children and to parents as well)?
Will my future grandchildren one day expect to receive green teddy bears on St. Patrick's Day?
Or a cornucopia filled with trinkets on Thanksgiving?
{sigh}
I keep hoping that the silver lining of our nation's current economic fiasco will be a decline of the Consumer Culture; however, I think that it may be too ingrained to change easily. People like their stuff.
What about you? Do you think Easter baskets are way overdone these days? Are we ready to be a more frugal nation for the long haul? Or do you think that I'm off my rocker?
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I do a little bit of candy in the basket and in the eggs and then small change in some of the eggs. Then he also gets a few small items from the dollar store. To me his basket looked kind of bare this year but when he got it he was yelling about how much the Easter Bunny left him.
ReplyDeleteRecent blog post: Easter happenings
We haven't done anything at all for gifts. My kids are homeschooled and the oldest is only 6 so they just aren't aware of the way anything is 'supposed to be' unless we tell them about it. I grew up with the whole Easter bunny, baskets, choc bunny/candy, gifts thing and it was just meaningless to me - another day to get stuff. Sure it's fun as a kid, it's always fun to get anything.
ReplyDeleteI was very leery of turning Easter into another Christmas. We try to be careful to make Christmas not very gifty and have traditions that focus on Christ first and throughout the event, but we DO do the presents thing. We hold back compared to most in the U.S. probably, but grandparents always send big stuff like a Wii so it's kind of hard to avoid. I've noticed how it turns quickly into a "me" thing and a "where's more?" thing during present time EVEN with all the focus we try to put on Jesus. So I've gone with not even mentioning that there is supposed to be a basket and candy and gifts and stuff for Easter. I want it first to be in their memory about the POINT of the day. Maybe when they're older I'll want to give them some candy treats for fun? But mainly we try to make the day special by dressing up nicer than normal for church, taking pictures, going out to eat somewhere special or making a special meal and/or dessert. I made a cake with the kids this year and asked what my oldest wanted to cut it into if she could think of a special shape that represented the day (I gave her ideas about the tomb and even explained how people use chicks and bunnies to mean new life and that's why we see them around so much now) and she picked a cross (phew that's easy to cut!! lol). I do want to add some more traditions (previous years we've read about it in the children's bible, but this year we are just getting to it this week, after the fact; and other years made 'empty tomb' cookies, or did crafts about it, or went to the egg hunt at a church we used to attend.) But I'd really like to be careful about what traditions we set so I'm kind of taking it slowly to add until I know for sure what I want to do. I like not putting pressure on myself to have to do what is our society's usual, and conscientiously choose meaningful and fun (for our family) traditions. :)
I like the idea of the family video. =)
Natalie: I've noticed the same thing; ours are happy with what they get even when it's not a HUGE basket (or a huge pile of gifts at Christmas).
ReplyDeleteAmy: What a great idea about the cake! We make a birthday cake on Christmas for Jesus every year but I hadn't thought about having them come up with ideas for an Easter cake.
All: Thanks for commenting!
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