How to Create an Easter Basket for a Toddler

Toddlers are God's gift to gift givers. A little boy or girl just starting to wobble through the world delights in everything and will love all the glittering treasures you and the Easter bunny tuck into a precious Easter basket.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Plastic eggs
• Grass seeds
• Egg dye
• Children's books
• Potting soil
• Toys
• Stuffed animals
• Planting containers
• Kites
• Eggs
• Kite strings
• Wood baskets

1. Plan a few weeks ahead and grow a "live" Easter basket. Your toddling friend will love running his or her fingers through real grass to find the treasures that await. (See How to Grow a "Live" Easter Basket.)
2. Nestle the grass-filled flat inside a basket that's just big enough to hold it snugly. Choose one that's large, attractive and sturdy enough to hold toys and stuffed animals long after this Easter has gone.
3. Visit your local toy store and let your imagination take over. Balls, stuffed animals, toy tools, blocks, cuddly dolls and bathtub toys will all fit tidily into an Easter basket. In keeping with the holiday spirit, look for things in springtime colors or bedecked with images of chicks, rabbits, lambs or eggs.
4. Tie a brightly colored, rolled-up kite onto the basket's handle and put a ball of string inside. Later, you and your small friend can launch the kite together and share one of spring's greatest pleasures. (See How to Fly a Kite.)
5. Tuck a couple of books into the basket: one with few words and lots of colorful pictures for the toddler to peruse; the other for parents to read aloud at bedtime.
6. Don't overlook the obvious. Toddlers love the novelty of brightly colored eggs. Dye a few and poke them in among the more lasting treasures.
7. Remember that parents enjoy visits from the Easter bunny, too. Make a gift certificate good for a night of baby-sitting services, either your own or those of a hired sitter, and nestle it into the basket among the toys and books.

Tips & Warnings

• When you choose books for reading aloud, think ahead. Though the toddler won't understand all the words now, the lulling sound of a parent reading a classic like "Winnie the Pooh," "Charlotte's Web" or "The Wind in the Willows" will lodge itself in a toddler's mind and work its magic in years to come.
• Avoid the temptation to give a toddler a real rabbit, chick or duck. These live and very fragile creatures need the responsible, lifelong care of a grownup. The attentions of small children can--and often do--prove fatal.
• Toddlers may rank among the world's most lovable creatures, but not its most coordinated or careful. Avoid anything with sharp edges that could cut tiny hands, or small parts that could lodge in eyes, nose, ears or throat.