Growing up, I had a pretty typical Easter basket experience: some plastic grass, some yellow peeps, some tiny chocolate eggs wrapped in foil, and jelly beans. I do remember one year we got these cute, fuzzy chicks that would cheep when you held them in your hand, leading my dad to explain how we were creating an electric circuit. But otherwise, I don’t remember any particular Easter basket present, even though I always loved getting all the Easter candy and little pastel plastic tchotchkes my mother found.

When I was a senior in high school, my parents starting attending an Eastern Orthodox Church. And that year the Easter basket was a completely different experience. (I’ve written a little bit about that here.) The kind church ladies at Holy Trinity Orthodox Church knew that we would have no idea how to put together the basket of amazing foods to break the Lenten fast together in the wee hours of Easter morning, so they put a basket together for us: a big sturdy wicker basket filled with sausages, cheeses, wine, and this sweet butter spread that I still dream about. (Here’s an article on how to put together a traditional Pascha basket.) The whole experience seemed so much more weighty and real than the small plastic baskets of my childhood.

So now that we have children, we have created a family Easter basket tradition that is inspired by the big Pascha feasting baskets. We use one big woven basket for the whole family. Every year, it has some special Easter things and some special Easter presents. Each year I put a homemade bunny angel that someone made for my mother 30 years ago, little seven inch tied bundles of green merino wool yarn for mess-free reusable Easter grass, empty plastic Easter eggs (my children are crazy about finding them, even though they are empty), and a bunch of artificial, but surprisingly nice tulips.

Then there are the presents. Often we have a new Easter decoration that we’ll be able to use year after year. Usually something dress-up related: a play silk, or butterfly costume, or perhaps a kite. Of course there is chocolate! Although so far we’ve done bars of chocolate and not little eggs, since we all love good dark chocolate and it’s hard to find really good chocolate in egg form.

And then, because it’s our family, we usually have a new card or board game and a lot of books! We do have a few silly-fun Easter bunny books, and a handful of beautiful children’s books about Easter, as we can find them. But mostly we have quality children’s Christian books that aren’t necessarily Easter-focused per se, but this is the time we tend to bring new Christian children’s books into the house.

I’m listing some of our favorite books and chocolate and games below, but if you are interested in creating a family Easter basket, I’d encourage you to think about what your family enjoys doing together, and invest in those things. Pick out things you want to have in your house for more than a week: things that will help you celebrate the joy of being fully alive and happy as a family.