With Easter come chocolate bunnies and chocolate eggs; a child’s Easter basket can often resemble a candy store. However, there are other fun goodies the Easter Bunny can leave that the kids will be just as excited to receive and won’t lead to a sugar rush. Here are 11 Fabulous sugar-free Easter gift ideas.
| Easter Baskets |
It doesn’t have to just be what’s in the basket that gets kids excited. Hallmark’s Basket Bendies and Flower Friends are fun, fuzzy creatures with bendable arms or legs making them perfect to decorate an Easter basket and be played with afterwards. $4.95 Cdn for 2 (see Hallmark stores). Hallmark’s Easter Web Cam Greeting Cards are a great way to extend your message. Using a web cam, kids can play games on their computer, triggered by their Easter cards. Cost varies by card. (see Hallmark stores).
| Easter Egg Hunt |
Kids of all ages love a good Easter Egg hunt. You can use chocolate eggs or hallowed plastic eggs filled with your own treat or try Hasbro’s Spring Eggs. Each of the 12 pastel coloured eggs contains 1oz of Play-Doh matching the colour of the egg. Available at department stores.
| Easter Toys |
Lego is a great for both boys and girls, young and old and their mini Easter themed kits make a nice addition to an Easter basket. Lego Easter Bunny comes with a buildable bunny and carrot ($11.95 Cdn). For younger kids Hasbro has the Furby Ferblings Creature.
| Easter Books |
For the wee ones in the family, the ones too small for toys in their Easter basket, holiday themed books make a great gift and can easily turn into a traditional read. Board books are sturdy and offer fun surprises for little hands and eyes, like Sterling Publishing’s Easter Has Eggs for beginner readers and Little Simon’s Where Are Baby’s Easter Eggs has flaps for kids to open and reveal the hidden eggs.
Hallmark‘s Storytime Buddy’s are a great gift too, especially Abigail the Bunny. Each starter set comes with a large soft friend and storybook. The friend interacts with the story as you read it. You can even download a free app for most of the stories to have it read to your child and discover fun games. Some characters even come with additional books. Even if bunnies aren’t for your child, there are other great characters to choose from. $29.95 Cdn (in Hallmark stores).
| Easter for Older Kids |
Even if your pre-teen doesn’t believe in the Easter Bunny anymore, you can still surprise them with a cool gift. For those who are a fan of the popular TV series GLEE but have struggled with the idea of letting their kids watch the show due to the mature content, on April 19 Fox Video offers GLEE Encore. This DVD contains over 30 of the song and dance scenes from the show, running back-to-back, without any of the mature storylines included. ($16.99 Cdn).
For more action and adventure, Fox Video has also just released The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Damn Treader the continuing struggle between good and evil in the world of Narnia ($32.99 Cdn Bluray). Visit Narnia.com to send an Easter e-Card or play online games. If you’re pre-teen is more a do-er than a watch-er, Xbox Kinect’s Dance Central will have them up and taking over the living room following the dance moves to some of their favourite songs ($49.99 Cdn)