Easter is just around the corner and you may already be dreading the sugar-high hyper activity and sugar-crash crankiness that comes with the usual Easter traditions. If you cut out the basket and egg hunt your children and nieces and nephews will be devastated. Keep everyone happy (and healthy) by incorporating a few healthy Easter candy alternatives and even non-food alternatives into your usual traditions.
Read More: A Healthy Easter Dinner
Healthy Easter Candy Alternatives in the Baskets
Let’s start with the baskets. Easter morning your children wake up and find their baskets beautifully laid out on the kitchen table. Instead of filling them with pure sugar, here are a few ideas:
- Hard boiled eggs that the children have dyed the day before
- Sports ball (basketball, soccer ball, football, etc)
- Jump Rope
- Cute cartoon socks
for the toddlers or warm, fuzzy socks for older children
- Activity books like crossword puzzles, word searches or mad libs
- Paint by Number
for older children
- Water color set for younger children
- Paint with Water book
for toddlers
- High quality dark chocolate
- Jacks and/or bouncy ball
- String cheese and meat sticks
- Fresh fruit
- Joke book
for the toddlers or warm, fuzzy socks for older children
for older children 
for toddlers
Healthy Easter Candy Alternatives for the Egg Hunt
After Easter dinner it’s time for the egg hunt! Along with putting some of the dyed hard boiled eggs in the children’s baskets, you can use these for hiding along with plastic eggs.
Also, clementines and oranges are great to hide with the plastic and real eggs. I wouldn’t recommend other fruit because it will get bounced around and bruised up in the child’s basket.
And now here are some healthy alternatives to stuff your plastic eggs with:
- Strawberries, blueberries, etc
- Dates
or figs
- Nuts
- Trail Mix
- Jacks and/or bouncy ball
- Costume jewelry
- High quality dark chocolate
- Marbles
- Coins
- Matchbox cars
- Chapstick
- Hair barrets/bows
- Raisins
or figs
Make Your Own Healthy Easter Candy Alternatives
I gotta say, I didn’t get my first Easter basket until I was 24 years old.
No, I wasn’t a deprived child who never had any fun.
Every Easter morning my mom would lay out a chocolate Easter bunny or cross for each of us four children.
Rarely did we get candy in our house so this was a huge treat. We would see who could make theirs last the longest! [Not always a good competition…]
So don’t hesitate to do Easter your own way.
- Read the resurrection story that morning.
- Organize a scavenger hunt
.
- Have a baking day for special treats instead of store-bought candy.
- Make or buy your children special outfits
- Form raw bacon into fun shapes before you bake it.
- Serve cross or bunny pancakes.
- Go visiting and singing at a nursing home.
- Play board games
.
- Play yard games
.
.
. 
. Read More: Easter Breakfast Bake
Hopefully these ideas can keep you in the “cool Mom/Auntie” category! Just remember, as long as the kids have lots of fun stuff to remember (and eat) from Easter day, they won’t even miss the candy.
Let me know how you manage your healthy Easter candy traditions without anyone going diabetic!
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