Happy Easter: Easter Baskets On A Budget (With Oriental Trading Items)

Oriental Trading provided these items to Drugstore Divas for this post. All thoughts and opinions belong to Drugstore Divas.

Easter is one of those holidays that I love. It was the first holiday that Pete and I spent together in North Carolina. I had just moved down about two weeks before it and we weren’t able to go back North just yet. We didn’t have any friends yet, so we celebrated just us.

Pete made an amazing special dinner (a photo of which is actually hanging in our kitchen) and we had a great time. The next year, it was just the two of us again. But this year, my parents and my grandma are stopping by on their way up North from Florida. I’m so excited.

What I love most about Easter is getting the chance to make everyone an Easter basket. I know a lot of parents want to make them for their kids each year, but the cost just seems to skyrocket when you try to fill it.

Not if you shop at Oriental Trading.

The site has a ton of budget-friendly, high-quality Easter items (some of which are actually on sale and even cheaper than usual). I’ve never been disappointed with anything that I’ve purchased from Oriental Trading.

To put together a dozen Easter baskets from start to finish (including the basket and grass), I ended up with a final total of $4.66. Under $5 for a full basket. The most expensive item was the dinosaur plush — and he’s only $1.49 each.

Love that.

I picked up the following for my baskets (links are followed by full price then in parenthesis is the cost divided by 12, since I’m making 12 baskets from these)*:

• Pastel Round Easter Baskets — $6 for 12 ($.50)
• Non-Flammable Multicolor Easter Grass — $6.25 for 12 ($.52)
• Chocolate Easter Candy Eggs — $4.38 for 88 ($.36)
• Marshmallow poles — $6 for 30 ($.50)
• 6 Super Suction Cup Catch Game Sets — $5.28/6 ($.88)
• Plush Easter Dinosaurs — $17.99 for 12 ($1.49)
• Tropical Fish Bubble Bottles — $5 for 12 ($.41)

Add that up and you’re at $4.66. That’s awesome. Everything comes packaged in its own plastic bag, which is something I really appreciate. You don’t have to worry about the chocolate potentially melting over the contents of the rest of your order (being in North Carolina, that’s something we have to worry about).

*Pricing was done in 2014. Prices and links may have changed.

Assembling the basket was super easy. Fill the basket with grass, and start with the largest item (for me, that was the dinosaur). That will take up the most real estate in your basket, so you want to make sure it fits. Then, fill in decreasing size (for me, it was the ball from the catch game, then the bubbles, then the chocolates, then I stuck the marshmallow poles in back). I sat the entire basket on the “mitts” of the catch game because there was no way they were fitting in the basket. Plus, it just looks like a little plate on the bottom.

The baskets I picked were mini, which helps them look fuller with less. I picked the marshmallow poles for height. Sticking up, they really make the basket look bigger, which helps you get away with a smaller basket. Oriental Trading has a ton of toy and game items, so I definitely wanted to fill these with those (plus, they last a lot longer than candy).

If you do create baskets this year, my biggest suggestions would be to play with heights and to add a lot of color. Easter, to me, it definitely bright and bold. Oriental Trading has a ton of items that can help you achieve the wow. And that’s what you want. You want your children to wake up Easter morning, see a basket, and say, “Wow.” And I know the baskets I created (again, for under $5) will do that.