Eco-Friendly Easter Basket Ideas

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Many families enjoy celebrating the Easter holiday and/or beginning of spring with an Easter basket. The timing of Easter with the beginning of the season of new life is beautifully symbolic.

Personally, I have always focused my children’s Easter baskets on outdoor toys because I just get so antsy for nicer weather living in Minnesota. Spring is very much welcomed with open arms!

Our Easter baskets are also not huge in quantity or amount of money spent. Easter is an important holiday for my family, and while we are fine with giving some gifts, we don’t want that to be the focus of the holiday.

However, even though we don’t put a lot of time or money into the Easter gifts, I also can’t bring myself to spend a bunch of money on cheap junk as a basket filler that will just clutter the house and end up thrown away. While it is fun for a lot of people to get lots of cheap little trinkets, ultimately those sorts of things end up in the garbage.

I really believe in quality gifts over quantity. It is also better for the environment to focus on quality–that way we aren’t contributing as much to the astronomical amount of waste thrown out every day because we can (and want) to hang on to things longer!

Despite my own family traditions, I understand everyone has different traditions for this holiday–some go all out with the Easter bunny and egg hunts, some do big gifts with an almost Christmas feel, and some prefer to focus on the Spring Equinox and not acknowledge any religious aspects of the holiday.

We all have our own family values to uphold, and I hope these Easter basket ideas will be helpful to all of you no matter what your goals are!

The ideas here would be great for babies through age 5 or 6. I consider these toys eco-friendly because they are either made from sustainable materials, or they are a quality toy that can teach kids about taking care of the earth. I acknowledge that there is more than this that goes into making something eco-friendly, but these are my personal standards. You may have different standards than I do.

Basket Fillers

Instead of using plastic Easter grass that’s impossible to recycle, you can use this Eco-Grass made from 100{9994046f29331ee04cc0b5e07eb28364315ea03ccc2f01b5a43e8b85b372d1e9} recycled paper!

Chocolate bunnies and jelly beans are also important treats to fill a basket. I like to get mine at a local candy shop we have in my town. Jelly Bellies are the best jelly bean, in my opinion. 😉

I like to buy a quality chocolate bunny, which is why I shop locally. If you don’t have a good local chocolate shop, the Dove chocolate bunnies are pretty good and easily accessible!

Indoor & Outdoor Toys

Musical Instruments

Musical instruments are a great gift for an Easter basket. Many of the instruments made for small children are small enough to include in a gift basket, offer hours upon hours of entertainment, and are great for their developing brains.

This Musicube Colorful Wooden Xylophone and Harmonica would be a fun gift to encourage the start of musical exploration in your child. I know many parents aren’t excited about toys that make noise, but musical instruments offer so much enrichment for a child that it is truly worth it. This wooden xylophone is FSC certified and free from toxic substances, like BPA.

The Melissa and Doug Band in a Box is another option if you would like to give your child a sampling of different types of instruments.

From maracas to a tambourine, there are lots of fun little instruments to play with in this set!

Melissa and Doug’s high-quality wooden toys are always a great choice to make for any gift.

Nature Toys

This Nature Bound Bug Catcher Vacuum and Habitat Case is a great toy for the child growing increasingly curious about the critters we share the earth with! Children can use this toy not only on their fun bug-hunting adventures, but it can also be a great way for you to help teach your child respect for all living things.

While this bug catcher kit is made from a lot of plastic, it can be a great tool for kids to learn about the world around them. Learning about nature is a great way to foster an attitude of good earthly stewardship in our kids.

Outdoor/Active Toys

Getting your child a jump rope is a great addition to an Easter basket. This jump rope made by Green Toys is 100{9994046f29331ee04cc0b5e07eb28364315ea03ccc2f01b5a43e8b85b372d1e9} cotton, and the handles are made from 100{9994046f29331ee04cc0b5e07eb28364315ea03ccc2f01b5a43e8b85b372d1e9} recycled plastic free from toxins like BPA, PVC, and Phalates.

Jumping rope is great exercise and helps kids work on their motor skills and coordination.

Sometimes parents are too quick to think their kids aren’t going to be into “old school” toys like these, but there is a reason they are so timeless.

A bubble machine is also sure to be a hit. My kids love theirs and it never gets old for them. You can make your bubble solution yourself with non-toxic dish soap to make sure your solution is eco-friendly.

My kids can chase bubbles in the backyard for a long time. It’s an easy way to entertain them on a nice spring/summer evening while my husband and I kick back and enjoy some fresh air.

There are also more durable bubble machines made of metal that you may be interested in for sustainability purposes.

A beautiful wooden swing would also be a great Easter gift idea.

It can be used indoors or outdoors making it a great option for many families. Wooden toys (and swings especially) hold up much better than plastic. Last (but not least) it is very attractive and would look adorable next to any garden or hung from any backyard tree.

This swing would even be great as the actual basket if you were to include more gifts (like candies).

Garden & Nature Ideas

This Clever Kid Gardening Set is one of the highest-quality children’s gardening tools sets I have seen! It comes with everything kids will need to help mom or dad out in the garden or maintain their own little patch.

I believe it is really important that we teach kids where food comes from, and by doing so we can encourage healthy eating. I love getting my boys involved in gardening. They absolutely LOVE reaping the rewards! They eat so many fresh veggies when we grow them ourselves.

Even if you don’t have a garden or a big yard, you can grow many vegetables in containers. I do a lot of my gardening in containers. For example, I planted my cucumbers in a big pot I got for $11 at Costco, set it up against the fence so the vines would have something to crawl, and we enjoyed so many fresh cucumbers.

Along with that gardening kit, a great idea would be Wildflower Seed Packets. Wildflowers are great for encouraging wildlife like hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees to spend more time around your home. They’re beautiful and so easy to grow!

These seed packs are large, so it would be plenty to share between multiple kids and even split with another family.

A bigger gift for a child really into gardening would be an Aerogarden. The Herbie is a model made specifically for kids. It even comes with a pizza party kit! It would be a lot of fun for kids interested in growing food.

Check out my review of our Aerogarden here to see how we love ours!

Lastly, we really love this Butterfly Garden for watching the amazing lifecycle of something so beautiful right in front of our eyes.

You receive a voucher in this kit to order the caterpillars separately (there is a shipping fee for those) and you can watch them grow, create a cocoon, and come out as a butterfly.

There are also instructions for releasing them back into the wild. It’s a fun, educational toy that will bring much excitement and learning.

Books

I always love to give a new book on holidays. We do utilize the library for most of our books, but I find my kids cherish the books they own the most and want to read them again and again.

This Jesus is Risen Pop-Up Book would be a great choice for families that observe the religious aspects of Easter. If you don’t have a children’s bible already, Easter is also the perfect time to gift one to your child.

We have a few different children’s bibles, but my kids really love this beginner’s bible from Zondervan.

If you don’t (or just want a different book), here are some other great Easter or spring-themed books:

Count on the Easter Pups is a Paw Patrol story. My kids are obsessed with all things Paw Patrol. I also find they LOVE holiday-themed books 24/7/365…

I am reading a Halloween or Christmas book almost every day to them. If your kids are anything like mine, this Paw Patrol book will get plenty of use out of it beyond the Easter season.

We love the Paw Patrol books because they usually work on various skills with the kids in a fun and entertaining way. Everything is more fun when you can do it with Marshall, Chase, and Skye. 😉

If you want a spring-themed book, here is a springtime version of a modern classic: The Little Blue Truck’s Springtime

The Little Blue Truck stories never get old in this house! We love them so much, my oldest’s first birthday party was Little Blue Truck themed. This springtime book is the perfect addition to and Little Blue Truck collection.

Need More Options?

Our Green House is a company that specializes in eco-friendly gifts that are organic, fair-trade, and incredibly unique.

They have several high-quality toys for babies, toddlers, and young children to choose from. It is a great company to support if you are looking for eco-friendly and ethical gifts.

This wooden backyard creature matching stack game is one example of the high-quality green toys you can find on this site. You’re sure to find the perfect toys for your children that will last for years.

You can even design your whole Easter basket on their site with the “Make Your Own Gift Basket” feature!  You can create your own gift basket down to the kind of basket you use and the color ribbons you have, or you can choose a pre-made basket for babies or for older kids.

They have so many great products and they make incredible baskets. Even outside of Easter, this is a great place to shop when you are looking for ethical gifts.

I hope these items gave you some ideas for creating your child’s eco-friendly Easter basket. What would you add to this list? Let me know in the comments!