Easter Baskets- any have advice please?

[LoopyLisa87]

Does anyone have any suggestions for little items to include in an Easter basket for either girls or boys (ultimately I’m doing baskets for both boys and girls so any and all suggestions are welcome and gratefully received! 😊), in the age range of 11/12 – up to about 14.
To explain any potential ambiguity- my local food bank started a new initiative in the past couple of years that in the run up to Easter, in addition to the ordinary foodstuffs, they also accept small gifts and toys, which they then use to make up small Easter baskets which are given out to the children of food bank recipients (the thought being, if parents are struggling to put breakfast/lunch/dinner on the table, they are definitely not going to be producing lavish gift baskets for their children come Easter Sunday). However, just like at Christmas, most of their peers are very likely at least getting plenty of chocolates and other sweet treats, and in the age of Tiktok where everyone is busy showing off their extravagant Easter basket haul, Easter often comes with several small gifts with said sweet treats nowadays, but not the children whose parents are relying on food banks. So our local food bank now accepts small items for Easter baskets now, if if parents come in for an emergency food box over the Easter weekend, and it becomes known that they have children, at least one of the Easter baskets will go home with the family, in addition to their emergency food supplies.
Now I’ve got plenty to donate for younger children- tonnes of Easter themed chocolate and sweets, and plenty of small Easter toys and treats, from mini Easter themed Lego type kits, to small cuddly chicks, to Easter themed bubble tubes, coloured pens- all sorts- but I’m completely at a loss as to what I should donate for the older baskets! Does anyone have any suggestions at all? I’d be so grateful!

Thanks so much everyone! Really grateful! Have a super Sunday! 😊

Bath bombs or other toiletry products - lip gloss, lip balms, nice hair bobbles, shower gel, face masks
Small Lego set
grown up colouring books - the 'cosy' ones are popular

Maybe something like,socks,facepacks,deodorants,hair scrunchies,lip balm,water bottle. That's kind of things I'd put in my older ones baskets with some chocolate. 😀 x

Thank you both very much for your replies! Very much appreciated!
If anyone else has any suggestions please do feel free to weigh in- all ideas very welcome- especially ideas for boys!
Thanks again! 😊😘

op, whilst this is a lovely thought, I do think it’s missing the mark, I don’t know if anyone who does gift baskets, Easter eggs are all I’ve seen given. Are you not in the UK? Suggestions don’t always work from other countries so it helpful to know which country you are based in. Families would rather have full stomachs than extra little gifts anyway, a basic egg per child is all that’s needed - we give a joint of meat (or veggie alternative), fresh vegetables, gravy, dessert and custard for Easter for all registered families which is very popular

This.

Are you American OP?

Really hoping that this basket thing isn't going to cross the pond.

I don’t know anyone who does an Easter basket in the UK.

'everyone is busy showing off their extravagant Easter basket haul'

WTF?

But Easter Eggs, mini eggs and nice toiletries that appeal to young teens will probably be appreciated.

highlighter pens and other pens that are good for school

I would keep them unisex (not every girl wants a glittery bath bomb!), and it will make it easier for the people sorting things. Lego, pens, notebook, sweets, chocolate, (to be honest I’d just stick with sweets and chocolate as it’s Easter). It’s not something by I’m familiar with as I live in the UK, but Easter here just means chocolate, so I’d stock up on that!

This is very sweet but I don't know anyone who does Easter baskets in the UK. We have an Easter egg hunt for little eggs and then the kids get a big egg from us and some relatives normally give a small or medium egg too. When my niece was dairy free I did send colouring as well because the egg selection was limited and not much fun.

Stand firm in the face of unnecessary commercialism and don't buy tat for people who you don't know will need or like it. How much will just be wasted?

This illustrates why I think the human race is doomed - for all our concern about the environment, pollution, dwindling natural resources etc and the recognition that our future wellbeing depends on us drastically changing our consumption, as soon as something fun appears people pile into it. More tat at Christmas, tat for Halloween, tat for Valentine's Day, and now tat for Easter baskets? Is chocolate and all the packaging that come with it not enough? No, let's create a market for more tat!

i have definitely seen some of my kids’ friends getting Easter baskets. We stick to (too many) sweets but if you really want non sweet options (they might also have clients who can’t have sweets) you could add some fidgets? Agree it’s easier to think about typical ‘girl’ themes - hair ties, nail polish, etc. Not to say all girls would like this and no boys would of course.

Honestly I’d go all in with super fun Easter themed sweets and let them have an assortment of fun treats. My son actually doesn’t like chocolate much so I tend to get him loads of bunny shaped sweets or whatever is in Aldi that year.

People are utterly thick and brainwashed by social media that’s why. They don’t even correlate unnecessary shit like Christmas Eve boxes or ‘cozy autumn’ tat as being ruinous to the earth. Just ruinous to their social media feed if they don’t keep up. It’s actually moronic.

Thanks all.

I'm definitely 100% English. In fact living on the cusp of Surrey, Berkshire, and Hampshire, I couldn't get more Home Counties English if I tried, so I've no idea how or where American came from- in all honesty I've never even been! 😂 How strange!

Just to clarify- my specific local food bank have actually put out... not a request per se, but they've made it known that small gifts are welcome and would be appreciated because THEY are doing the baskets. I just want to make sure that I'm donating a full baskets worth of goodies- both sweeties/chocolates, AND the treats/gifts mentioned by the organisation. I will of course be donating extra food, both checking their website to see what they are low on and needing, plus some extra treats for the season too so boxes/tubs of celebrations, jelly beans, Haribo Easter mix, mini eggs, creme eggs, and chocolate bunnies etc.

Finally as to the concept of Easter baskets; my equally English cousins, and several school friends- although certainly not all school friends- were getting Easter baskets back in the late 80's (my parents/The Easter Bunny never gave an Easter basket to me or my brother, which I think is WHY I can remember so vividly all the school friends who DID get Easter baskets, and that the Easter bunny set up an egg hunt AND gave a basket to my cousins, because especially when I was little, I was forever wondering what I had done wrong, in which ways was I THAT bad, that all of those people got baskets from the Easter bunny, but I didn't. At 5/6 it very much broke my heart), so the concept of Easter baskets is something I've been aware of my whole life, but in the past...I'd say at least 10 years or so they certainly seem to be growing in popularity, at least from what I've seen personally.
I used to teach, and I'd say over half of my classes over the years were given either Easter baskets, or non-food gifts.

But obviously we're all different, have different life experiences etc. so I probably ought to have thought about the fact that there would be people unfamiliar with Easter baskets, so I apologise if I came across as far too gung-ho/bolshy. It was genuinely coming from a place of good intent.

Anyways- apologies again for any confusion and/or annoyance, and many thanks to those who offered suggestions. And for anyone who LIKES the Easter basket concept and likes to contribute to charitable programmes like Christmas gift appeals, it MIGHT be worth checking in with your local food bank to see if they are doing anything similar. It's probably a no, but my local one surprised me, so MAYBE yours might too.

All the best everyone! 😊😘😊

We had Easter baskets growing up (I'm from Germany) and the things were very simple, sweet, traditional type bits and bobs. Vegetable or flower seeds, a fancy bar of soap, a little wooden hare decoration, a shaped candle, a cute egg cup, that sort of thing.

If you're looking for practical gifts maybe good quality nail files? Socks? Toothbrushes (maybe those mildly vibrating ones would be a bit of a novelty?) Notebook and gel pens? Teenagers like lego too. Cress head kits could be cute? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254597673414

I think it’s a very nice thought op.

It’s difficult to avoid gendered presents because things like socks, toiletries and stationery for older dc are all aimed at either boys or girls. .

Maybe more practical stationery like post its, study cards, highlighters etc? You can buy all of those in Easter pastel colours.

Maybe get around the gendered thing by sticking to mini generic shampoos and shower gels that have yellow or green packaging to make them look Easter-themed? Search for “mini” or “travel sized” if ordering on-line?

Or buy totally neutral things that are yellow-ish like some muesli breakfast bars, Tuc biscuits, popcorn for microwave, jars of peanut butter, mini jars of honey, individually wrapped waffles etc? Maybe mini tins of fizzy lemon or lime flavoured water? Perrier and San Pelligrino do some I think.

Or just donate the money you might spend directly to the food bank?

Literally never in my 50 years have I received a gift for Easter, nor have I heard of Easter baskets! As a child we would get one Easter egg on Easter Sunday, maybe a creme egg around the time too as a treat. I went to church with the brownies. That was it for Easter. Here’s hoping Easter isn’t turning into the vastly over-commercialised nonsense that Christmas has already become.
OP, surely any money spent or items donated to a food bank would be better focused on healthy, nutritious, filling food for meals - full stomachs always better than little treats! But if you’re going ahead, perhaps look up the Christmas board/topic where there has been lots of threads posted with stocking filler ideas - many of them will be adaptable to spring rather than winter.

I think it’s a lovely idea OP. For all those saying it’s better to buy nutritional food to fill tummies consider that people using food banks may not havd the inclination, knowledge or money to put the oven on to produce a meal . A nice Easter gift may be one chance for kids to get something ‘ normal ‘ away from the day to day routine of having nothing .

New clothes is an Easter tradition (although obviously gendered).

A book? As it's the national year of reading. Trawl the charity shops for secondhand ones in good condition.

When you were little, OP, did you get Easter eggs / do an Easter egg hunt? Trying to work out if you did this but didn’t have an additional gift basket, or if you didn’t have either?

The only baskets I’ve ever seen for Easter are ones that people do an Easter egg hunt with, putting the eggs in the basket as they go. Maybe it was particularly something the other side of your family did so you were far more attuned to it than most people.

But if you’re looking for gift ideas for the food bank, I’d go for fun coloured shower gels (the original source ones are popular with my teen boys), jelly bean tubes, haribo, maybe marshmallows (bulky and fun!), maybe balls like new tennis balls? Highlighter or sharpie pens, toy squashies.

This. I don’t get it OP. It seems like a massive amount of over thinking on your part and frankly I don’t think the food bank should be focusing on giving kids tat for Easter, influenced by social media ‘hauls’ for goodness sake. Chocolate eggs and Easter sweets, fine. It’s not Christmas.

soaps ?