Baby (0–18 months)
No candy at all. Board books, a soft bunny, a teether, pastel socks — and the photographs, which are half the point.
Spring’s sweetest tradition
Build a basket that makes Easter morning
From a baby’s first basket to the teenager who claims to be too old for one — the layer formula, age-by-age fill lists and stuffer ideas, without the 9 p.m. drugstore panic.
By age
Whose basket are we building?
The right basket at five is wrong for a two-year-old and an insult at fifteen. Age decides the fill list — here is how the bands break down.
Toddler (18 months–4)
Bubbles, chunky chalk, bath toys and one chocolate item. Check the age grade and the small-parts warning on every box.
Kids (5–11)
The golden band: egg-shaped chalk, painting kits, glow eggs, one character item and candy worth trading with a sibling.
Teens (12–18)
Reframe it as a care package: their snacks, a small gift card, earbuds or phone bits, self-care minis for the ones who like that aisle.
Adults
The fastest-growing basket in the house: coffee, dark chocolate, a candle, good jam, a paperback. Spring’s version of a care package.
What goes in
This spring’s stuffer picks
Kids gardening kits
The strongest non-candy anchor for a spring basket, because it lands in the season it arrives in. Check the stated age grading and whether seeds are included or bought separately.
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Sidewalk chalk
Cheap, consumable, and used the same afternoon it is opened, which is more than most basket filler manages. Read the age grading before buying for the youngest band.
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Board books
The infant and toddler answer that survives being chewed, dropped and read four hundred times. One good book beats a basket of small plastic items for that band.
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An Easter basket is five layers: a reusable vessel, the grass or shredded paper that gives it height, one anchor item that gives the basket a face, a modest candy layer, and two or three keepers — small non-candy things that still exist in May. Fill that structure by age and the rest is decoration.
For anyone under three, the fill list stops being a taste question and becomes a packaging question: read the age grade and the small-parts warning printed on the box, which manufacturers apply under the CPSC small-parts rule (16 CFR 1501).
We write buying guides, not lab reviews: we have not tested every product on this page. Prices, availability and ratings change constantly — whatever Amazon shows when you click is the authoritative figure.