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Yeah. It's far too much for my liking. Grandparents do the baskets (2 each) and my aunt brings them gifts. They got tons of candy but also 3 books each, swimsuit and rash guard/hat, sunglasses, water shoes, an outfit each, 2 sets of pajamas, several smaller toys (like kickball, art supplies, matchbox cars, bubbles, action Heroes, and a stuffed animal each. Not to mention over 20$ in egg hunt spoils. It's way too much and my husband and eye just sort of eye roll.
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@bluestriped bee:
I much prefer the US way of doing it with baskets of stuff. In England it is ALL about the chocolate. I don't know anyone who gives their kids anything else, other than maybe a stuffed animal or book. And all the parents whine about how much chocolate their kid has been given (typically parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and even friends buy big Easter eggs) but they are as bad buying them for other kids
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LO only received one plush bunny from MIL because MIL knew we wouldn't let her gift chocolate this year.
I sso however notice this on Facebook this morning when my friends started to post their kids "baskets"
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@2PeasinaPod: I'm Orthodox too, so the time that will pass before our Easter is here means less chance of chocolates.
Some of these Easter gifts sound really overboard to me, we just give an Easter bread (tsoureki), some red dyed eggs and Easter biscuits (koulourakia). If our Easter is close in dates to "chocolate" Easter, we will have an egg/bunny, but not toy gifts.
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Wow, that all sounds nuts. This hasn't really pervaded my social sphere, and I'm glad. I don't know anyone who does a big thing for Easter. Is this more of a midwestern thing?
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Not really for my family I don't think? I mean, LO did get easter baskets from both my parents and also my FIL and MIL but 1) they look for any excuse to buy her stuff and 2) none of it was big. We got LO an easter basket but it had basically 1 toy and then some art supplies.
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Well I think if your not celebrating the purpose of Easter then yes it could be seen as just another holiday to give gifts, candy, the Easter bunny, egg hunts and gift baskets, no different then Christmas if your not religious. We can forget the whole reason of why it's Easter but it's hard to not partake in all the nonsense when you have kids
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Meh - my brother and I always had overflowing baskets from our parents (still did as adults until we had kids!) and we still celebrated the real meaning of Easter and were active in our church and now we're the same with lo. I'm sure we do more than some families but we're happy to be able to do holidays up big.
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I think any and all holidays can become an excuse to gift and be gifted extravagantly, if that's your thing. Growing up, finding clues leading to a basket of small goodies was part of the egg hunt, and we've kept that tradition going. We don't go balls to the wall or opt for any big ticket items. Luckily, our family doesn't go especially crazy, either. The treats are a fun addition to the day, but not the emphasis. Should you choose, I think you can still celebrate the deep, religious meaning of Easter (and we do) and get some chocolate, on the side.
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Hm. We gave DD a modest basket: Easter book, toy cars, play set of eggs, 101 Dalmations, and a small beach bucket with a shovel, sifter, etc. inside it.
One set of grandparents gave Goldfish, a book, 3 outfits, and a box of cookies.
Looking back, I think both gifts were appropriate. DD's grandparents don't get to see her super often and love shopping for deals on clothes.
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Yes I was just talking about this with my husband yesterday, how insanely overboard it seemed people went based on IG and FB. I saw a woman post that the "Easter bunny" brought her a Michael Kors purse. What the heck?
We always got little gifts in our baskets - a book, nail polish, lip balm, whatever. We did egg hunts and just had little pieces of candy, joke eggs with things like dog treats or something, and "money" eggs that would have a few pennies.
My parents actually still do Easter bags/baskets for us which is nice, a $10 sbux card, Lindt chocolates, etc, but nothing super expensive. They got the grandkids each one small gift that fit in a basket plus an egg hunt.
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I think it stems from parents trying to stay away from candy/sweets...which tend to get replaced with an abundance of cheap plastic junk, which is fun for a few days but you end up wanting to toss out within a week. So then it creeps into bigger and pricier "gifts".
We try not to do anything out of control - they each got a stuffed bunny basket (to use for egg hunting) with a pair of pjs they needed and two eggs with a couple of bunny shaped marshmallows in them from us. The bunny brought them their "real" baskets, which I thought were modest and contained: 2 plastic frozen figures each, sunglasses, a pair of barrettes, a Koosh for Dd2/jump rope for DD1, a mosaic sticker craft, and a chocolate bunny. The bunny eggs had easter erasers, jellybeans, plastic jelly bracelets, and some hair bows. They did get a bunch of Easter-themed books, stickers, craft stuff, and a stuffed animal apiece from relatives, but I expect that to stop when they get a bit bigger. I don't mind that type of stuff because it gets tucked away with our Easter things and used year after year.
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Eh? I don't know. Easter is a celebration, but I wasn't trying to go all out, even if our basket looked ridiculous on IG
As long as the material stuff isn't the focus, I'm not fussed.She did get a bunch of art supplies and some fun spring things, like a watering can, sidewalk chalk, a swimsuit, and bubbles. Most of that came from her aunts and grandparents. My mom also got her a bunch of pouches. We got her two dolls and some books, mostly as a way to break up her birthday presents so she doesn't get overwhelmed.
Now the candy, on the other hand, took over completely. We had a basket of candy for the adults and a whole bucket of candy-filled eggs. But I am not complaining about that!!
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@PinkElephant: I think you hit the nail on the head. Staying away from candy leads to stuff leads to more and bigger things. The answer is clearly to eat more candy.
For what it's worth, I thought your baskets sound fun! And yes to the seasonal books. Eventually, that will lessen, because we will have them already. But for now, giving them as a gift helps build our collection.
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@deerylou: well put
Also, for Catholics, which we are, Easter is supposed to be more important than Christmas. I like making it important, so long as the "stuff" doesn't take over!
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We opted to go to Vegas for Easter. We brought her a Llama Llama book and bought her a small toy. My mom got her a jellycat stuffed bunny and MIL did an Easter basket- not sure what's in it- last year it was some nice stuff like HA jams. Absolutely less than Christmas.
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I dunno....I tend to think that social media makes it seem like it's become bigger and that might not be the case. I'm sure there's always been people who've had bigger Easters than others, and it just wasn't photographed and blogged and fb-ed for the world to see.
That being said, I used to get an American Girl doll for Easter, plus an outfit or two, and a piece of their furniture. So.....my son's Easter is much smaller than mine were.
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@hellobeeboston: In the case of TJ's, was it just people buying food for their Easter lunch or dinner? Because in that respect, we definitely do it up like Christmas. I think that a proper celebration is important! Easter lunch is something I plan out weeks in advance, go to the (3-hour!) vigil Mass the night before so we can work on it early the next day, and spend hours preparing (all by choice, because I think cooking is fun
). It's just like, if not bigger than Christmas in the food/booze arena, although instead of cookies, there is Easter candy!
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I remember growing up and doing a gift hunt with my grandparents. So we would get our baskets (mostly filled with small necessities) and then do an egg hunt and hunt for presents around the yard. Mostly they were things we needed like clothes or summer necessities. But still, looking back, it was a lot of gifts. Maybe it was the way that my parents did the baskets and my grandparents did the gifts?
Anyways, my point being, some of it may just be family traditions versus commercialization.
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Maybe I'm mean, but LO gets one Easter basket from the Easter bunny... and I am the designated Easter bunny assistant.
My MIL sent a small basket and I didn't use it. I did incorporate most of what she sent into LO's basket.I did feel like she had a lot more in her basket than she really needed but it at least all fit in one basket!
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I said it's worse than Halloween! We didn't get a lot of stuff but we got TONS of candy. Seriously. Ridiculous amounts
As long as the material stuff isn't the focus, I'm not fussed.
Also, for Catholics, which we are, Easter is supposed to be more important than Christmas. I like making it important, so long as the "stuff" doesn't take over!
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