It's that time of year to gather the Easter basket goodies and prep for the Easter Bunny's arrival. As usual, I'm waiting until the last minute to get ready. That means I'm right on time… much better than being late!
I was asked to share Easter basket ideas we can make from King Soopers as part of the Easter Basket Hop event. So, I decided a College student-themed basket would be great… big kids love to have fun!
My oldest son is 18 and heading off to college next fall.. so he's the perfect recipient for this project. He loves to make people laugh and is a lot of fun to be around, so when looking for goodies to put in his basket, I picked up some yummy treats and some silly games.
I'm sure he will love them. It's a good thing he doesn't read my blog… so I'm not ruining any surprises by sharing here today.
Tips for Filling Easter Baskets
Here's a few tips I follow when putting together Easter Baskets.
Not just candy. We all love the treats, but Easter baskets can be overload, so I try to come up with a good balance of candy, good snacks and fun games or goodies they can keep. Older kids especially love to play games, so picking up fun activities that can get goofy with friends is always a plus.
Keep the basket simple. Usually we use the same baskets year after year. You can only have so many actual baskets, so I prefer to spend the budget on what to put in the basket. I did buy this basket to show what King Soopers has to offer. They had some super cute baskets… I loved this Monkey head.
Not everything needs to come from the Easter aisle. Because I like to get things besides Easter candy and make sure I pick up some favorite items, I buy items from all over the store. I'll share a list a little later of all the goodies I picked up.
Great goodies you can get from King Soopers to fill your Easter Baskets
Traditional Easter candy from the Easter aisle. A big chocolate bunny is a must and so are at least one package of Peeps. There's also every kind of Easter candy you can imagine. Have you noticed how many companies are making Jelly beans now? We did a taste test and found our favorite brand was the Starburst Jelly Beans.
Easter games and fun extras. The King Soopers Easter aisle always has so many cute and fun toys and treats. For my son's “college” themed basket, I picked up a mini bunny basketball hoop, a frisbee, a butterfly yoyo, a funny face football rocket kind of toy and a cute green frog. Sometimes I make the mini plush toy, this year I decided the mini hugging critters were too cute to pass up. I added Reese's Pieces carrot bag to the arms of the frog for this basket and I picked up a little duck and little rabbit for the other kiddos.
Don't forget gift cards! You can also gather up various gift cards to put in your Easter baskets. Think $10 iTunes, $15 Starbucks, Facebook, etc. It's all there in the gift card display at King Soopers. A cute Easter egg card would be a perfect way to hide the treat. I think I need to make a printable version for you. I'll get right on that!
Single candy from the store's candy display. Instead of buying a giant bag of mixed chocolates or other candies, I like to pick up a single favorite for each kid. In this case, I picked up a 4 pack of Almond Joy.. because I'm going to eat 3 of them.
Bags of snacks to fill plastic eggs. Instead of filling all our plastic Easter eggs with candy, I like hitting the snack aisle for some favorites. Annie's always has bunny-shaped crackers and mini cookies that are perfect for Easter.
I also picked up mini OREOs and a bag of Chex Mix.
Oh how I love these funny face eggs I picked up at Kind Soopers Yesterday. They crack me up!
Tips for making your Easter Basket:
If you want to fill the entire basket to show off everything you've included in it, it helps to start by adding some crinkled paper or tissue paper at the bottom of the basket, then covering with the grass. This will give a little bit of lift to your basket and hopefully help support all those fun treats.
Put the larger items in the basket first and then add in smaller items to fit until you have everything in place as you'd like. It's ok to stack items or conceal some items.. that makes the basket more fun to dig through.
Finish off the basket by sprinkling in some smaller candies like Jelly beans or I used Peanut Butter M & Ms. You can also add a big bow, wrap the basket handle with ribbon or add other accessories to pretty up the basket, especially if you've selected a basic basket like I did. My boys don't even pay attention to the basket, so I'm going with the low-maintenance approach.
That's it! I'd love to hear how you like to make your Easter baskets… do you have favorite things you like to include or special extras that your kids always look for?
Find more Easter Basket inspiration, tips, tricks and Easter ideas on King Sooper's Pinterest board. Click here.
Disclaimer: I was asked to share Easter Basket ideas that can be found at King Soopers and will receive compensation for the assignment. All opinions and photos are my own.
