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When did Easter turn into a gift-giving occasion?

Looking at fb this morning, several people are posting their Easter morning pictures with their kids and it looks like Christmas. All kinds of toys - big ones. One comment from someone else says they gave their kid an xbox? WTF?

Easter was a lot more humble when I was a kid. Hmmph. Hardboiled eggs we'd dyed earlier that week and jellybeans, a few chocolate bunnies, an empty basket to collect stuff and we could eat what we found. The end. 

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Re: When did Easter turn into a gift-giving occasion?

  • Same here. I hated hard-boiled eggs too. Jelly beans and one chocolate bunny each. Maybe some marshmallow peeps.
  • I know! We each got a book and a small basket of candy. Another way for parents to show off on Facebook.
  • I totally agree.  One of my friends has a picture of her son on his new bike.  I like to call the Easter basket a 'gesture'... nothing more, nothing less.  Some candy and maybe a dollar store type toy or two.  People wonder why kids can be so greedy. 
  • ::shrugs:: all I keep seeing are the jelly beans and  homemade all natural dyed eggs (like "how do you dye an egg with an onion skin?") and I just saw a picture of a kid with homemade rabbit glasses on.

     


  • Oh man, really? Easter was pretty simple when I was a kid, too. Now it's a spending competition like Christmas?? Wonderful......
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  • Not a clue.  This was the first year that even my husband and I exchanged little gifts.....I'm thinking it will be the last.
    And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this Rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.
  • We use it as an excuse to give her things for Spring we were planning on buying anyways. So yea, my kid got a bike and a bucket for her sandbox and a chair for  outside, but we would have bought those things no matter what. Her birthday is in Sept. so we don't get those types of things then.
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  • My parents went overboard... but always with candy only. I think I maybe got a toy bunny once.
  • The only time we got gifts is when our birthdays fell so close to Easter (my brother's bday is April 11, mine is April 18) that it was mushed together with a party or something like that.

    Otherwise we got a basket and books. We got books for every occasion and non-occasion though. And we always got an Easter outfit because that was one of the Sundays when we went to church as a family and extended family.

    image
  • I always got one non candy gift in my basket. This year I got a gift card to my fav clothing store, And DD got two DVDs fain her basket ( all from my parents).
  • I suspect it started with people trying to give less chocolate to small children, so they threw a book and some crayons into the chocolate egg basket, then marketers caught on and started putting out things with springy themes, and then people just went crazy.

    Personally, I'd like to know why the shops are full of summer dresses being sold as "easter dresses" when it's way too cold to wear spring clothes, let alone summer ones.

  • imageKnitty:

    I suspect it started with people trying to give less chocolate to small children, so they threw a book and some crayons into the chocolate egg basket, then marketers caught on and started putting out things with springy themes, and then people just went crazy.

    Yeah, I think this is where it went wrong. :) 
    "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
    ~Benjamin Franklin

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  • I still want to know when St. Patrick's Day became a junk food bonanza for kids, i.e., Easter lite.  

    ETA: as for Easter, I'm a fan of cutting back on junk so about 1/3 of the kids' eggs had pennies. They are both learning about money and math, so the timing was good. They were more excited about the coins than the candy.  

  • When I was kid, we would get candy and small gifts. Nothing like an Xbox. My parents used to hide our baskets and we'd run from room to room finding little rhymes that would give us a hint to where our baskets were. That was the fun part! Then at the grandparents house, we did an Easter egg hunt.

    But my wealthier cousins would get bikes, Barbie jeeps, big games, you name it. And of course, my brother and I would see that and automatically feel bad, like the Easter bunny didn't like us enough. My Mom hated having us feel that way. But looking back, I want my future child to have an Easter like I did. Nothing big and fancy! 

  • Edith got stickers, very little candy, sidewalk chalk, bubbles and a rubber snake...and her basket was a bike basket because she needed one. I thought I was going overboard, but then I saw bikes and stuff on Facebook and felt chintzy LOL
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  • we gave grace 2 toys (which i got for $5 instead of $18, SCORE!) 3 packs of pencils and some peeps. the boys got 2 Cars each.

    i know what you're talking about, though.  my FB page blew up with toys to the point that i had to shut it down so grace wouldn't see it.

    proof that i make babies. jack, grace, and ben, in no particular order
    imageimageimage
  • And then there's my one friend who posted a pic of her kids baskets with one small chocolate rabbit and a small stuffed animal in each. And a note that says, "Dear Kids, since you constantly fight and don't listen to your mother, I brought less candy than last year. -Easter Bunny"  LOL
  • I'd always get an Easter basket of goodies. Some candy, a bunny stuffed animal, a book or two, etc. It was more like a stocking in my house.

     

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  • imageSparrowSong:
    And then there's my one friend who posted a pic of her kids baskets with one small chocolate rabbit and a small stuffed animal in each. And a note that says, "Dear Kids, since you constantly fight and don't listen to your mother, I brought less candy than last year. -Easter Bunny"  LOL
    Lololol
    image
  • Please don't assume it's always the parents though. Both MIL and my mom sent DD a PACKAGE of crap. She got a huge stuffed bunny, clothes, a DVD, a book, some more dang Critter Corner crap, a pretty box to store her dolly clothes, and stickers to last until the end of time. This is from the same two moms who gave us not much at all for Easter when DH and I were growing up. Go figure. I know my friend got a ton of candy from her MIL.

    The dollar stores make it so easy to buy a ton of crap, too. I got DD some dressup bracelets to put in some of her Easter eggs - 6 bracelets for $1. 9 sleeves of stickers for $1. They also have tons of outdoor actively stuff like others have mentioned - sidewalk chalk and bubble stuff galore. It's so easy to go overboard!

    image
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  • I piled my kids' baskets full of candy so we could put it all in a community bowl and DH and I could eat it. 
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    CO Nestie Award Winner-Prettiest Brain-Back to Back!
    2011 Bests
    5K-22:49 10K-47:38 Half Mary-1:51:50
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    1/1-New Year's 5K-22:11
    2/11-Sweetheart Classic 4-mile-29:49
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  • I give my child more on Easter because it is one of the only holidays where she is not being spoiled by grandparents or other people. I did not buy my kid a birthday present this year because she gets so much from other people that I did not see the point.  She did not even notice that I did not give her a gift on her birthday.  I think that I am going to continue this when she is old enough to understand and give her the choice of having a party or a present.  

     

    I also do not give her anywhere near as much candy as I received as a child. She is four and this is what she got this year:

    10 plastic eggs filled with Aunt Annie's cheddar bunnies

    small package of peeps

    2 books

    Disney Fairy Barbie type doll

     Sky ball

    play doh

    flower barettes 

     

    It is not as over the top as an x box but she is still very spoiled compared to what I had as a child.  I feel guilty for spoiling her but I want to enjoy giving her gifts on occasion without being outdone by the grandparents.

  • we always got big gifts at Easter when I was a kid.  I am 36.  It was right up there with xmas and birthdays!  NICE
  • Growing up we got jelly beans chocolate bunnies and a summer outfit.  My daughter got a few books doodling pad bubbles and fridge phonics the zoo. My parents went overboard but I did not 
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  • Personally I spent this morning dashing the diabolical Id-serving hopes of other people's children.  I busted a friend's son for trying to stash away more than his 6 allotted eggs at the church egg hunt, and also sent him to the back of the line when he tried to line-jump in front of my family for the breakfast.  

    Easter B!tch. 

    ChallengeAcceptedMeme_TwoParty
  • My mom sent me an Eiffel tower with $20 bills.

    I don't think it was over the top. 

  • I was wondering the same thing. My kids got small easter baskets and we did a small egg hunt at MIL's. We are not religious, it was a candy excuse. 

     

    You should have seen the over-the-top baskets my religious friends had for their kids. I didn't know I was supposed to go all out. I never heard "Jesus is the reason for the season" on this one.  

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  • Only tasteful easter baskets with a small # of wholesome gifts for everyone!

     

    Meh who cares?

    image Josephine is 4.
  • We always got a white chocolate cross, chocolate rabbit, jellybeans, peanut butter eggs (my mother's favorite, she bought a 6-pack).  I don't remember toys.  My sister gave my nephew (22 mos.) 2 small stuffed dinosaurs, a Batman lego car, a book, and I bought him Easter stickers, alien stickers, and pirate tattoos at the con last weekend.  No candy.  His birthday is in May though, so I'm holding the good stuff in reserve.  There was some communal candy.  The special dark minis came in handy when littlest sis and her FI did an impromptu wine tasting for us. 
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  • We always got one gift.  The only one I remember was Air Supply tickets when I was 7.  My first concert.  It, umm, rocked.

    I STILL love Air Supply. 

    Marisa got candy and a skirt.

    Natalie got a smaller version of Marisa's basket, minus the skirt. 

    I got a MiniVan.  The Easter Bunny likes me BEST. 

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