Easter Baskets Are Easy Until Your Kid Becomes a Tween
Cute Easter Basket Idea for Tween Girls (What I Put in My Daughter’s)
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I used to be able to throw together my daughter’s Easter basket in about five minutes.
Chocolate bunny. A couple toys. Maybe a baby doll or something sparkly from the dollar store. Done.
Now she’s a tween, and suddenly I’m standing in the middle of Five Below holding a lip gloss and asking my husband if this feels like something a cool twelve year old would own.
Parenting really keeps you humble. 😂
This year, we actually went shopping for her basket together, which felt like a good idea in theory. Two brains are better than one when you’re trying to decode the interests of a tween. In reality, it mostly meant we walked in circles for a while trying to decide what to grab and reminding each other that we needed to chill.
Because if we followed our instincts, that basket would have ended up with half the store in it.
Shopping for a tween is just a weird stage. They’re still kids, but suddenly they also have opinions about beauty products and fragrances... expensive ones. One minute, they’re playing with slime, and the next, they’re talking about lip balm like a tiny beauty editor.
Not that long ago, she was obsessed with Summer Fridays lip balm. (The $20 a tube lip balm that I like to annoyingly call Sunday Monday.) That was the thing she talked about constantly. Then seemingly overnight, she switched her loyalty to the new e.l.f. lip balm like it was a corporate rebrand. (Way more affordable, so I'm not complaining! 😅)
Things move fast in the tween beauty economy.
It’s hard for a young old lady like me to keep up sometimes.
Shopping with my husband actually makes the whole experience even funnier because we each represent different sides of her personality. I get the side of her that wants all the girly things. The lip gloss. The little bags. The beauty stuff I also want, if we’re being honest.
He gets the toy side of her.
The squishy things. The weird gadgets. The chaotic little toys kids are obsessed with for reasons adults can’t fully understand.
He’s not even her biological dad, but sometimes I swear she’s just him in a smaller body. Same humor, same sarcasm, same love for random nonsense. Meanwhile, she also inherited my dramatic streak and love for anything cute or sparkly, which means she somehow ended up perfectly in the middle of both of us.
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The first thing we found was the bag, which technically replaced the basket entirely. I almost never use traditional Easter baskets anymore because it feels like a wasted opportunity. If I’m buying a container, I want it to be something she can actually use after the candy disappears and the plastic grass mysteriously spreads throughout the entire house. (Although I'm heavily rethinking this for the future. Maybe we need to return to our Easter morning roots!)
When I saw this little blue bag at Five Below, I grabbed it immediately. It’s baby blue gingham with a tiny bow on the front, little top handles, and a longer strap so she can wear it as a crossbody.
It is aggressively cute! Blue also happens to be her favorite color, which meant the entire basket suddenly had a theme, whether I planned it or not. Once the bag happened, everything we picked up had to pass the same test in my brain.
.png)
First up was candy, because Easter without candy would feel suspicious. We found Sour Patch Kids packs that come with a tiny Sour Patch plush attached. Whoever came up with that combination understands children on a deep level.
Sugar and a weird little stuffed friend in one package.
Perfect.
Then I spotted the cutest press-on nails. They’re a soft light blue with tiny bows on them, which felt almost too perfect because they basically match the bag. I can't wait for her to wear them for an hour to take photos, video herself tapping on something, and then rip them off because they're not practical at all. Welcome to girlhood. 😂
Next, we added a lip gloss and lip scrub, along with this little lip gloss holder keychain that comes with a tiny mirror. She's prone to losing her lip gloss, so she needs this. Once upon a time, she may or may not have had a meltdown over losing her Summer Friday on the bus. Can't confirm.
We also stopped at Bath and Body Works and grabbed the mini Champagne Toast set. It comes with a tiny body lotion, body mist, and hand sanitizer. If you’ve smelled Champagne Toast before, you already know why it made the cut. It’s sweet and a little fancy. It's her all-time favorite scent. She's real big on smelling good.
Have I ever told you about the time when I was her age and overheard my grandma telling my mom I was smelly .... no?... We'll talk about it later.
By that point, the little blue bag was filling up with candy, nails, lip gloss, and mini fragrances, and I had one of those quiet mom moments you don’t really expect while standing in a store aisle.
I kept thinking about how I used to fill her Easter baskets with baby dolls and little toys.
Now I’m buying press-on nails.
It’s cute. It’s fun. And I genuinely love watching her personality grow, change, and become more her every year.
But sometimes you miss your baby baby a little too. A lot, actually.
.jpg)
If there’s one thing I know about making an Easter basket for a tween, it’s that the perfect one is basically a tiny collection of everything they love right now. A little kid, a little teenager, a little chaos.
And two parents wandering around Five Below trying to figure it out.
Now she’s a tween, and suddenly I’m standing in the middle of Five Below holding a lip gloss and asking my husband if this feels like something a cool twelve year old would own.
Parenting really keeps you humble. 😂
This year, we actually went shopping for her basket together, which felt like a good idea in theory. Two brains are better than one when you’re trying to decode the interests of a tween. In reality, it mostly meant we walked in circles for a while trying to decide what to grab and reminding each other that we needed to chill.
Because if we followed our instincts, that basket would have ended up with half the store in it.
Shopping for a tween is just a weird stage. They’re still kids, but suddenly they also have opinions about beauty products and fragrances... expensive ones. One minute, they’re playing with slime, and the next, they’re talking about lip balm like a tiny beauty editor.
Not that long ago, she was obsessed with Summer Fridays lip balm. (The $20 a tube lip balm that I like to annoyingly call Sunday Monday.) That was the thing she talked about constantly. Then seemingly overnight, she switched her loyalty to the new e.l.f. lip balm like it was a corporate rebrand. (Way more affordable, so I'm not complaining! 😅)
Things move fast in the tween beauty economy.
It’s hard for a young old lady like me to keep up sometimes.
Shopping with my husband actually makes the whole experience even funnier because we each represent different sides of her personality. I get the side of her that wants all the girly things. The lip gloss. The little bags. The beauty stuff I also want, if we’re being honest.
He gets the toy side of her.
The squishy things. The weird gadgets. The chaotic little toys kids are obsessed with for reasons adults can’t fully understand.
He’s not even her biological dad, but sometimes I swear she’s just him in a smaller body. Same humor, same sarcasm, same love for random nonsense. Meanwhile, she also inherited my dramatic streak and love for anything cute or sparkly, which means she somehow ended up perfectly in the middle of both of us.
.png)
The first thing we found was the bag, which technically replaced the basket entirely. I almost never use traditional Easter baskets anymore because it feels like a wasted opportunity. If I’m buying a container, I want it to be something she can actually use after the candy disappears and the plastic grass mysteriously spreads throughout the entire house. (Although I'm heavily rethinking this for the future. Maybe we need to return to our Easter morning roots!)
When I saw this little blue bag at Five Below, I grabbed it immediately. It’s baby blue gingham with a tiny bow on the front, little top handles, and a longer strap so she can wear it as a crossbody.
It is aggressively cute! Blue also happens to be her favorite color, which meant the entire basket suddenly had a theme, whether I planned it or not. Once the bag happened, everything we picked up had to pass the same test in my brain.
.png)
First up was candy, because Easter without candy would feel suspicious. We found Sour Patch Kids packs that come with a tiny Sour Patch plush attached. Whoever came up with that combination understands children on a deep level.
Sugar and a weird little stuffed friend in one package.
Perfect.
Then I spotted the cutest press-on nails. They’re a soft light blue with tiny bows on them, which felt almost too perfect because they basically match the bag. I can't wait for her to wear them for an hour to take photos, video herself tapping on something, and then rip them off because they're not practical at all. Welcome to girlhood. 😂
Next, we added a lip gloss and lip scrub, along with this little lip gloss holder keychain that comes with a tiny mirror. She's prone to losing her lip gloss, so she needs this. Once upon a time, she may or may not have had a meltdown over losing her Summer Friday on the bus. Can't confirm.
Have I ever told you about the time when I was her age and overheard my grandma telling my mom I was smelly .... no?... We'll talk about it later.
.png) |
AUBS 2016 EASTER BASKET 😠|
By that point, the little blue bag was filling up with candy, nails, lip gloss, and mini fragrances, and I had one of those quiet mom moments you don’t really expect while standing in a store aisle.
I kept thinking about how I used to fill her Easter baskets with baby dolls and little toys.
Now I’m buying press-on nails.
It’s cute. It’s fun. And I genuinely love watching her personality grow, change, and become more her every year.
But sometimes you miss your baby baby a little too. A lot, actually.
.jpg)
If there’s one thing I know about making an Easter basket for a tween, it’s that the perfect one is basically a tiny collection of everything they love right now. A little kid, a little teenager, a little chaos.
And two parents wandering around Five Below trying to figure it out.
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