2021, animals, History, holidays, Kids, Uncategorized

Easter Baskets

40 Comments

I received a text from Daughter last week enquiring if she would get an Easter basket this year. I replied that of course  she would. She reminded me of her favorites (anything milk chocolate, Butterfinger eggs, anything sour) and I assured her they  would arrive in good time. I asked Son and Dil what Grandson should get in his basket, and they sent their suggestions (Cadbury mini  eggs, freeze dried mangos and raspberries, raisins, and pretzel chips).  Now I am sorting through our spare boxes to get everything sent.

I remember the activities of Easter more than the treats. It was a time I got a fancy new church dress and hat. I don’t remember dying eggs.  The Easter Bunny left white  tracks all over our house, deposited on the charcoal colored carpets by my mother,  who dipped oval shaped shoe polish applicators in flour and left bunny tracks through the house that led to the candy.

We plan to tell the children next door on Easter Sunday that we have rabbit problems in our yard, and would they please come over to get the chocolate eggs those darn rabbits have left all over the place. That will be fun.

What are your Easter memories? What do you want in your Easter Basket this year?

40 thoughts on “Easter Baskets”

  1. First answer is memories. My dad was just a big kid sometimes and Easter was one of those days when it really came through. So baskets were always hidden (with no flour footprint hints) and the egg hunt was a serious endeavor. I’m pretty sure I’ve told the story here before of my dad hiding the last of the eggs in a coffee cup covered by coffee.

    Easter these days is the opposite of yours, Renee. When asked if she wanted an Easter basket, YAs first response was no. She then backpedaled a little bit because she realized with no basket she might not get jellybeans. So I am going to repeat last year where I get completely carried away with my basket and then have lots and lots of goodies left over to give to the four neighbor girls and my good friends next-door.

    Liked by 6 people

    Reply

      1. Yes sour does seem to be the way to go. YA likes very sour things. I do not. Also the first bag of jellybeans that I bought were jumbo and I have been informed in no uncertain terms that jumbo is the incorrect kind. We won’t mention that she ate the whole bag anyway. Already.

        Liked by 6 people

        Reply

    1. True – but they make for good dioramas… (see also: Anna helps make a Peeps diorama of Jesus Peep riding into town on a unicorn on Palm Sunday…Peep Zaccheus was up a tree…)

      Liked by 5 people

      Reply

  3. I’m envious. To the best of my knowledge, there were no Easter-related traditions that involved hiding of Easter eggs in Denmark. In fact, I don’t even think there was such a thing as an Easter bunny. My sister and I would each get a large, hollow chocolate Easter egg, and that would be it.

    Danish Easter traditions centered around a big luncheon (det store kolde bord) on Easter Sunday. Danish breweries traditionally release an extra strong beer (Påskebryg) for the occasion, and no Easter luncheon would be complete without several samples of Påskebryg and snaps. Back when I was a kid, Easter was a pretty solemn holiday. Everything would be closed down from Thursday through Sunday. On Easter Sunday you couldn’t even buy a newspaper. I find it ironic that a country like Denmark, where very few people regularly attend church, puts such strong emphasis on closing pretty much all business activity during Easter. Another religious holiday that is observed this way in Denmark is Pentecost, a holiday that hardly anyone in the US pays any attention to.

    Liked by 7 people

    Reply

      1. Pentecost is the day the Holy Spirit visited the disciples and gave them the gift of speaking in tongues so they could go and make Good Christians of all of us (cough). Often depicted as flames or bits of fire.

        Liked by 4 people

        Reply

    2. Let us not forget Christi Himmelfahrt, either. That is a big day in many places in Europe. This year it is on May 13, I believe. Pentecost is the day the Holy Spirit decended on the disciples. It occurs after Christi Himmelfahrt.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

      1. Yep, Kristi Himmelfartsdag is also celebrated in Denmark. It’s 40 days after Easter, and is always on a Thursday. This year it’s on May 13th. Pentecost is 50 days after Easter.

        Liked by 3 people

        Reply

  4. Morning-
    I remember the tattered old Easter baskets. I’m sure they were hand me downs that had seen better days; I was the youngest so they had been through 4 kids already if not more.
    I remember coloring eggs with mom.
    I don’t recall too many toys or gifts in the basket; maybe just chocolate.
    It was news to me when Kelly said we had to have presents in the Easter basket besides the eggs. We have plastic eggs and we just scatter them around the house. Daughter has a good time finding them and the basket.
    One of my things has always been an eggs in your shoe. After son went to college I would contact a room mate and have them put an eggs in his shoe for me. I assumed they wouldn’t put raw eggs in one and I never heard otherwise.

    We’ve got a neighbor who does large outdoor Easter egg hunts; they have an acre or so with lots of trees and it’s quite the party. They do two; one for the little kids and one for older kids. Adults get to help out.
    Last year they cancelled it of course; not sure what this year will bring.

    Liked by 6 people

    Reply

      1. We still color eggs here at our house. I love egg salad and deviled eggs so boiling up a bunch of eggs … that’s no problem. It’s funny though because for the last three years YA has said she doesn’t want to dye eggs. But when I get out all the dyes and I’m sitting at the dining room table, it’s funny how she always shows up. In fact three years ago she dragged the boyfriend long. (Of course that won’t be happening anymore.)

        Liked by 5 people

        Reply

        4. I know I didn’t talk about it right away because I kind of wanted some time to go by to make sure that it’s stuck!

          Liked by 4 people

  5. Easter memories are few – I know the bunny hid some candy, and I remember one particularly beautiful chocolate egg, but that went away as we got older, and I do remember we sometimes had an Easter ham for midday dinner after church. I DO remember at least one year having new dress, shoes, and even a hat and gloves – I would’ve been around 10.

    I will get my usual 2 or 3 packages of Cadbury mini-eggs when they are on special, and try to ration them so I don’t deplete the stock too early… I suppose I could hide them from Husband for Easter morning – and as Anna once observed, we are now at the stage where we can hide our own Easter eggs.

    I love what some of you are planning with your neighbor kids.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  6. A question for vs. The photo in the header made me wonder if you do anything with your Ukrainian Easter eggs at Easter? I’m assuming that the eggs in the header are not ones you’ve made since this is a post by Renee.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. Every now and then I will do a couple of Ukrainian eggs at Easter time but not that often. It’s a big production to get everything out and make the dye and for one or two eggs it doesn’t always seem worth it to me. Of course I’ve already started the design for this year solstice egg so who’s to say that the table might not be up around Easter time and I can do a couple of non-Solstice eggs to add to my collection?

        Liked by 3 people

        Reply

  7. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    When my son was little, about age 4, we went to church and he would participate in the Children’s Sermon. He always wanted to talk into the microphone a long with the minister. The Sunday after Easter he went up to the front for this and the minister asked, “Did any of you get an Easter Basket last Sunday?” Then I heard a little, very familiar voice say into the microphone, “Yeah, I got one, but my mom ate all the chocolate.”

    Unfortunately that was true. I ate his chocolate.

    Liked by 6 people

    Reply

        1. If he’s anything like my husband, he’ll be short of those chocolates you ate forever. Here’s the story.

          Husband, like most Danish kids brought up with “good manners” of the day, was taught that you don’t accept anything that’s offered to you on the first offering. You politely decline, and then the offerer is supposed to give you a gentle nudge, and again you decline. The third time it’s offered is the charm, and that’s when you can accept whatever is offered, almost as if you’re doing them a favor. Once, as a kid, he was offered a “flødebolle” which is a delicacy that most Danish kids adore, and he politely declined. The person offering it apparently didn’t know the rules and made no further attempts to foist the treat on him. To this day he feels cheated.

          Another, more recent incident happened in Minneapolis. We had been invited to dinner by my Danish friend, Ingelise. She served pork chops. Small, thin cut pork chops, not what husband was used to. We were four people at the dinner, and there were five pork chops. When everyone had finished their first pork chop, Ingelise asked if anyone wanted the last one, specifically gesturing to husband. Before he had a chance to decline, which protocol would have dictated, John, Ingelise’s boyfriend piped up: “If no one wants it, I’ll bring it for my lunch tomorrow.” Need I tell you that you no longer need to nudge husband if you’re offering something he wants? He’ll be forever short a flødebolle and a pork chop.

          Liked by 4 people

  8. Hey Steve, if you’re on today, wanted to let you know that I’ve binge-watched all of The Derry Girls. I enjoyed it quite a bit so thanks for the recommendation.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  9. We had Easter baskets when we were young – chocolate eggs, jelly beans, maybe a chocolate bunny. Most of our family traditions revolved around church. We got new Easter outfits (dresses, shoes, and the dreaded hats) most years. Thankfully the hats only lasted a few times. During my elementary school years, church would serve a scrambled egg breakfast between the sunrise (6A) and regular (9A) service. During those years, we almost always had Easter dinner (lunch) at my Grandma’s home. And it was always ham, scalloped potatoes, and scalloped corn. Later, the church quit the Easter breakfast, and dinner at Grandma’s turned into Easter brunch – scrambled eggs, fried ham, toast with jam, and orange juice. If I were to get an Easter basket now I would like some good dark chocolate and Skittles classic jelly beans. Nothing sour!

    Liked by 6 people

    Reply

  11. I have probably talked about the Easter egg hunts at my grandparents house, but will again just because it was so silly. Cousins would usually be in town for part of the week ahead, so eggs were generally dyed and colored on Saturday. Sunday was for the chocolate egg hunt – always foil wrapped eggs (plain chocolate), always individual eggs. Baskets were only for gathering. When the time arrived after lunch (and yes, there was a certain amount of scoping out what you could from the Easter dinner table), then the kids would be let loose to go hunting. Somewhere long about when the youngest cousin arrived, it was determined that there needed to be an even-ing of the playing field as the age gap from youngest to oldest was several years. So, if an adult saw that a child (any child) was near an egg that the adult could see, the adult would commence to clucking like a chicken. This sent all of us kids on a scramble near where we were as we knew one of us was close. When you heard the Exclamation of Discovery, then you knew you could move on to new places. The adults would get to giggling at each other while they clucked (especially my mom and her sister) – my uncle was a stealth clucker and you had to listen closely to catch him. As a kid I never put together why they were clucking – the eggs were left by a bunny after all and bunnies don’t cluck… but I still loved the tradition. And eventually I put together the connection to a real source of eggs that did not have long ears and a fluffy tail. 🙂 Guaranteed if any of our five cousins sees a chocolate foil egg, we will cluck. It is an imperative. Cluck cluck.

    Liked by 6 people

    Reply

  13. Easter Day

    The silver trumpets rang across the Dome:
    The people knelt upon the ground with awe:
    And borne upon the necks of men I saw,
    Like some great God, the Holy Lord of Rome.
    Priest-like, he wore a robe more white than foam,
    And, king-like, swathed himself in royal red,
    Three crowns of gold rose high upon his head:
    In splendour and in light the Pope passed home.
    My heart stole back across wide wastes of years
    To One who wandered by a lonely sea,
    And sought in vain for any place of rest:
    ‘Foxes have holes, and every bird its nest,
    I, only I, must wander wearily,
    And bruise my feet, and drink wine salt with tears.

    – Oscar Wilde

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  14. we did some egg hunts with 2 or 3 dozen eggs for the four kids and egg salad followed in the coming days
    the tradition of the chocolate hunt goes on m&m plain and peanut hidden in jars on window sills in all the drawers and jars bowls and places like the nooks and crannies of lamps sculptures or candle sticks on top of picture frame and all the ceramic knick knack i have sitting around

    easter is when it dawned on me that when i have easter dinner it’s the same as everyone but without garvey meat or a few other things but the salads mashed potatoes sweet potato wild rice buns green bean casserole cranberry frozen fruit salad green salad and usually two kinds of pie
    that’s enough
    ari is at the priceless age where he is full of cute
    remarks that are great.
    new brother denver got his first taste non breast milk chow i gave many lip touches with popsicles and the other food was rice boring but he went wild at the wonder of life
    i got in big trouble on easter being an alter boy for the big deal mass at noon and the catholic service includes all the good friday follow up and the pre sermon portion which is usually 35 minutes is over an hour on easter sunday
    i was the alter boy and after 1/2 on my knees on the alter waiting for. the hour to pass. the priest has monotone presentation and i got off onto side stories in my brain and was kneeling up in front of everyone while the priest doing his somber reading from the bible and i started doing mouth noises to the skiddly do dah ba bit rot daddy that i did in an oblivious day dream while the other alter boy tried to signal me but a was unaware i was doing anything. the priest looked back glaring many many times but i didn’t get it. i served a week of 6 am alter boy
    duties i think to simply pay me back for bad behaviors. usually you’d be in the schedule 2 days in a row then switch with another kid so… it was unusual to see a solid week of being an alter boy was weird but seeing it a second week i had a message for my mom when they called that i was scheduled again and i was never called back
    i said i didn’t want to a week was enough and they never called again
    uppity priests…
    waahhh

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  15. This is a great story. My memories? Hiding Easter baskets and finding them. Big Dinners at home and as the years past at other famly homes and once or twice at a local Restaurant or banquet place that was serving a meal. We also went to church.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.