So far I only have three items, sans candy, for my son's Easter basket: a book, a musical toothbrush, and a turkey call (hubby's idea).  I've been planning to include a certain Imaginext dinosaur but it doesn't exist (LOL!) in this town.  I'd have to drive thirty miles to the toy store in another town and I refuse to do it!  I'm kicking myself for poor planning---I've been to that town twice this year and didn't go to the toy store.  Gas is $3.14/gallon and my car gets 23 miles per gallon.  I'm just not willing to spend that much on gas for this item---My son will have to wait until his birthday or Christmas to get this particular dinosaur!

 I'm going to put candy in his basket but I also want to include 2 or 3 additional non-candy items.  Any ideas?

I wouldn't drive 30 miles either! The Easter Bunny has to shop close to home! I did some outdoor things. I found a bubble machine on clearance (batteries included) and with my mom's cheap bubble recipe, we will have bubbles galore! I also had some sidewalk chalk hidden from a clearance sale that I found recently in my closet challenge purge.

What about books or the $5 DVD bin at Wal Mart or Target? Our grocery store even discounts DVDs. If he is older, would a movie pass work?

Personally, I am ok with a basket of candy!

lets see....

andrew

 basket$1.00 blue plastic bucket/can be reused for toys

2 cool cars(little ones) purchased with walgreens $ from when they paid me to buy soap

1 small simon says game purchased with walgreens $ from when they paid me to buy soap

1 crayola duel ended twistup crayons purchased with guess what, more walgreens $

1 sinlge serve skittles in smoothie flavor (walgreens money)

1 play doh canister in orange(i got this great deal on playdoh after xmas with 12 canisters total for $3.00)

grass for $0.25 at walmart

plastic eggs 12 for $0.78 at walmart

4 little airplane cars for 1.00 at walmart

1 activity book(coloring book) $1.00 at walmart

1 mini travel fm radio (free with a hoodie that FITS me for $8.50 new clearanced at fredmeyer 5 weeks ago or so)

dakotas basket (pink, same stle as andrew), all same costs but

skittles

playdoh

coloring book

crayola twistups

cabbage patch kid keychains(2)

lip gloss

coloring book

pencil set

jump rope for$1.00

for both baskets as i had used 90% of my walgreens money (register rewards for stuff i would have gotten anyways, good towards your next purchase), i have full baskets for less then $7 including tax and candy(jelly beans, m an ms and russel stover bunnys) and most of it is stuff they enjoy :)

I'm making playdough, I have some crayons, little notepads, I bought Valentines toys with hearts on for 75% off.  I don't have much candy this year, we might make our ugly homemade Cadbury eggs, or some peanut butter candy.  The older kids will enjoy a candy item the bunny will leave on the dining room table, super long twizzlers from Walgreens!  

I will need to rustle up the baskets from around the house, I just use what I have.  Last year ds used a clemetine box, which was bigger!  The kids can find a container wherever-and put their name on it.

The bunny also bought a cute snap top container and jelly beans to share from Walgreens. 

It's funny how things change. When my kids were little, they got candy in their Easter baskets and that's all. There were a few kids they knew (but not many) who got gifts of some sort at Easter and they were the spoiled ones.

i dont think my children are spoiled, but i didnt have anything that could have been re-used(as leaving the ex, i lost over 90% of my holiday stuff--for all the holidays so i am slowly replacing everything to be re-used) my dakota loves to draw and color, andrew likes activity books so these were both usefull items with the crayola things,my kids have VERY few toys (between the 2 of them they only have 2 totes -total, not apiece) most of which are stuffed animals, they also have had EXTENSIVE dental care done, so the less candy and junk they have the better:) so for $15(inclucing the cost of my hoodie as i dont have a coat still, reuseable supplies--grass, buckets, eggs,(chocolate can be made into cookies or breads) i did very well and i am pleased with the results of what we have

would i ever spend MORE then $15 to put together baskets for my kids? no, but i will spend $15 putting them together with useful things, next year (since ill be able to get some stuff discounted this year) will probably cost $15, but i will have more that can be reused other then just what i listed

arianasilver:

I think partially its because of the childhood obesity/healthy eating push.  Less candy for the kiddies  

That could be. But I think they're pushing the wrong buttons. My kids and most kids were never fat like they are now, but they got plenty of exercise and we ate more real food then. Anyway, I didn't mean to imply that kids are spoiled when they get Easter things, because everyone does it now, but only that times have changed a lot in the last 15 to 20 years.  

When I was young we just got an easter bunny and the same with the other kids.  Kids are using the baskets from last year to hunt for the plastic easter eggs with candy inside (in the house) plus a couple of extra goodies. I think I have some books from value village or a discount book store for them.  My mil gave me some of those sugar easter eggs which will go into the plastic eggs (recycled from last year). don't do hard boiled eggs because no one eats them.  They will get goodies toys and candy from the grandparents and easter event at the local park on sunday.