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Easter baskets are the Christmas stockings of spring, and there’s an art to filling them with a mix of delightful surprises and practical goodies without spending a gazillion dollars. As both a parent of two kids and a Strategist editor, I deeply understand this challenge, so I’ve compiled a list of excellent Easter-basket fillers for kids of all ages, whether you’re shopping for a toddler, a 6-year-old, a teen, or all three.
We’ve written about many of these items before, and I’ve given a lot of them to my own kids or my friends’ kids, so you can rest assured that they’re expert vetted and Strategist approved. Each one is small enough to fit in an Easter basket or big enough to double as one and costs less than $40. A lot of them are also consumable, travel-friendly, and perfect for spring break — or easy to write off as “things you’ll be buying for summer anyway.” But there are plenty of adorable bunny- and egg-themed goodies too. And as long as you order ASAP, it’s all available to arrive by this weekend: Just in time for Easter Sunday, which falls on April 20 this year.
Update on April 15, 2025: Updated the gift guide with all-new product picks.
Easter baskets and fillers for kids age 3 and under
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Gund’s mini–Peter Rabbit tucks into an adorable carrot-shaped sleeping bag.
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Egg-shakers: a perfect “my first musical instrument” that also hits the Easter theme.
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If you prefer wooden shakers over plastic ones, each of the five in Haba’s set makes a different sound.
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Kids can build standard towers with the pieces from Melissa & Doug’s Blockables line of wooden blocks or use the included connectors to link them into shapes like the barnyard animals in this Farm Friends play set.
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A classic and heartwarmingly competitive tale of a parent and kid who love each other to the moon — and back — that gets even more poignant as the years go by.
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Mudpuppy’s pouch puzzles are one of the newest additions to our gift guide for 2-year-olds. There are several scenes to choose from, including Woodland Picnic, Rainforest, Under the Sea, and Construction Site; each one has 12 pieces and zips into a nearly flat storage bag that’s easy to take on the go.
DUPLO is LEGO’s larger cousin that’s easier for toddlers to build with and harder for them to fit into their mouths. These three sets are especially spring-y.
[Editor’s note: Order from Amazon or Target to ensure arrival before Easter; if you prefer to buy from LEGO, search by Zip Code to see if you can order online for local pickup at a nearby LEGO store.]
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These palm-grip crayons are one of our best-selling gifts for 1-year-olds with a shape that helps develop fine motor skills. They’re also nice for slightly older kids who tend to be a little rough with traditional crayons — and are especially apropos for Easter.
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For the kid who’s always coloring — even in the tub — Honeysticks’ Bath Crayons come recommended by multiple Strategist parents.
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The stylish kids’ sunglasses from Babiators are sized to fit small faces and come with an enticing guarantee: If they’re lost or broken within a year of purchase, the brand will replace them for merely the cost of shipping.
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If your child is obsessed with cars and trucks, this set of sturdy friction-powered construction vehicles is a favorite of multiple Strategist parents. Senior writer Liza Corsillo has a 2-year-old who carries one everywhere he goes, and she appreciates that, because of the inner mechanism, “very little effort or skill is needed to get them going and make them go really far.”
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Once the stickers phase hits, Corsillo also recommends Petit Collage’s combination sticker-and-coloring books because the stickers are pretty easy for her son to pick up and stick on his own, and the coloring pages are full of fun details. There are several designs, including monsters, mermaids, space, vehicles, and pets.
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This simple wagon from Green Toys is made from recycled milk jugs and has plenty of space to hold Easter loot. My daughters have had theirs for years and still use it to tote other toys around the house despite having grown way too tall for the pull string.
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Sturdy plastic buckets make great alternative Easter baskets, and they come in handy for backyard mud-making and summertime sand-schlepping. This heavy-duty, German-made option won’t crack even if it’s filled with heavy seashells.
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Whether you go all in on Easter bunnies and lambs or get creative with dinosaurs and rhinos, Schleich’s realistic animals are great for pretend play.
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When my elder daughter turned 1, this dump truck was her hands down favorite birthday present. It comes in three colorways (pink and purple, red and yellow, and blue and orange), and it won’t hold a ton, making it a perfect “basket” for younger kids who will be more than happy with a piece of candy and a trinket or two.
Easter baskets and fillers for kids ages 4 to 8
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Magna-Tiles are probably the most valuable toy my family has ever owned in terms of sheer hours of playtime. This set of mini-tiles comes in a tin that makes it conveniently portable for spring-break travel.
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Ooly makes some of our favorite kids’ art supplies; these nifty markers have regular brush tips on one end and emojilike stamps on the other.
[Editor’s note: Orders from Amazon will arrive before Easter. At Ooly, orders received by 8 a.m. PT will ship that same day; expedited orders will arrive in two to four business days.]
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I first learned about Wikki Stix at a restaurant that handed them out to kids in place of crayons; they’re made of yarn that’s coated in food-grade wax, and they’re bendable and sculptable into all sorts of creations. Plus the colors don’t mix and get muddy, the wax doesn’t dry out, and the pieces never get tangled or permanently stuck. Playing with them is almost like having an extremely lo-fi 3-D printer.
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Jump ropes are a classic outdoor toy that kids can start getting the hang of around age 7 or so. The beaded ropes in this set of two are easy to carry in a backpack for practicing at school or the park, and have a good weight to them that makes it easier for beginners to learn.
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The novelty of a ball that lights up makes spring soccer even more fun. (Choose size 3 for younger kids, size 4 for most elementary-schoolers, and size 5 for ages 12 and up.)
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It’s easy to get obsessed with this one-player, Tetris-esque brain-teaser game that prompts kids to place one of the 12 shapes in a specific spot on the board and fit all the rest into the surrounding grid. I put it in my younger daughter’s Easter basket right after she turned 6 years old and was impressed by how quickly she grasped the concept; if you have puzzlers in your midst, I’ve seen a range of age groups get totally hooked (my 9-year-old is also a fan), and there are lots of more advanced versions too.
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Clixo is one of our favorite open-ended building toys. This 18-piece pack also happens to be road trip– and restaurant-friendly.
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For the kid who’s already in a summer state of mind, these easy-to-adjust swim goggles look like sunglasses and are gentler than most on delicate hair. They come in lots of colors and styles, too — even a slick pair of aviators.
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These big-eyed “fidget pets” are small enough to tuck into eggs for a candy-free hunt.
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Each of my kids has one of these, even though I’m a noise-sensitive person who sometimes has to claim they are “out of battery and need charging.” But the entertainment value they’ve brought to our household’s frequent Descendants, Chappell Roan, and Taylor Swift covers is undeniable.
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I have begrudgingly made peace with the tactile appeal of slime (though I still force my kids to play with it on a plastic tray). My best tip is that the “cloud” and “butter” varieties are the least sticky.
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If you just can’t make yourself give in, here’s another worthy compromise: berry-scented “slime” bodywash they can play with in the tub.
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This six-pack of real-looking, Superball-esque bouncy eggs is best played with outdoors, where they can unpredictably ricochet off sidewalks and walls to keep kids guessing.
No matter which age group you’re shopping for, LEGO has something for everyone. My fellow Strategist parents and I especially love the three-in-one sets.
[Editor’s note: Order from Amazon or Target to ensure arrival before Easter; if you prefer to buy from LEGO, search by Zip Code to see if you can order online for local pickup at a nearby LEGO store.]
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The latest Beyblade tops come with a rip cord to start each one spinning. If you’re shopping for more than one kid, get a few so they can battle with each other.
Some of the very best fidgets come from NeeDoh, which makes all sorts of satisfyingly squishy shapes.
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My 7-year-old is going through a big Barbie phase; this doll from the brand’s Fun and Fancy line has extra-long hair and comes with extensions, clips, and a comb for endless styling possibilities.
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Easter is the perfect time to crack open a fresh box of sidewalk chalk.
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If they’re more of an indoor kid, Crayola has a line of battery-operated nightlights that they can decorate over and over again with the brand’s washable markers.
Easter baskets and fillers for tweens and teens
The bag-charm trend knows no bounds; here are three to add to their cluster, including an adorably glum Jellycat frog and a LEGO stormtrooper whose foot is a flashlight.
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A popular gift for teens, this silicone suction phone mount will let them stick their phone to nearly any flat surface.
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Speks’s more grown-up fidgets are both cool-looking and hard to put down.
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This collectible Rubik’s Cube is part puzzle, part room décor featuring very of-the-moment Stitch.
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One of the most teen-friendly Easter “baskets” imaginable is a Baby Baggu filled with their favorite candy, snacks, and gift cards. Once the goodies are gone, they can reuse the bag for whatever they want.
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A spinoff of the classic board game that’s portable, easy to learn, and playable in ten to 15 minutes.
While a lot of the Strategist staff are pretty firmly on Team Owala, whatever status water bottle is on their wish list will make a splash; Stanley’s new cabana-stripes Oasis collection has a lot of people reconsidering tumblers this spring.
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Just some delightfully nostalgic red-velvet-flavored Lip Smacker in a carrot-shaped package.
Squishmallows are still beloved by lots of older kids, and there are new styles launching all the time, from Pokémon characters to the latest “It” animals to a carrot in a bucket hat.
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For the frag head in training, Sol de Janeiro’s hair and body mists are a favorite in this age group and come in over a dozen scents.
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One of our favorite gifts for bookworms (that isn’t a book), a clip-on reading light is handy for readers of any age.
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These tween-approved paint markers are beloved by more advanced artists.
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Why not throw in a new pack of socks for their fresh spring fits? (I’m getting my elder daughter these pretty shades of blue.)
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