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For the last 5 or 6 years, I’ve participated in a really fun adult Easter basket exchange. My friend has hosted one for about 15 years and it’s truly so so fun. She didn’t quite have the bandwidth to do it this year, so I asked her if she’d mind if I adopted her idea to host one myself this year. She said she didn’t mind at all!
It’s been one of my favorite activities of the Easter season and a great way to focus on someone else. Here are all the details in case you’d like to do one yourself!
So often as women, and especially as moms, we tend to focus on gifts and Easter surprises for other people in our lives, but don’t always receive something special ourselves. The Easter basket exchange is a little way to put the kind of thought that we often do for our families and loved ones into another amazing woman, and receive a special, curated box for ourselves – one that we don’t have to share with anyone else. 😉
For this exchange, I emailed a bunch of my friends from all seasons of life and living in various parts of the country. (I kept it to the US to keep shipping simpler, but you could also extend it internationally if you’d like.) I told them the details of the exchange in terms of spending guidelines, timing, and sample ideas of what to include in a box.
Once I had enough confirmed participants, I had everyone fill out a simple questionnaire about their lives, hobbies, interests, and food preferences. I assigned each woman one other woman, and sent them a completed questionnaire to use as inspiration in creating a unique and lovely box for their recipient.
I didn’t know my friend wouldn’t be doing it until a little over a month before Easter, so that’s when I emailed everyone to ask if they’d like to participate. I asked them to confirm interest by 4 weeks before Easter so we’d have time to do the questionnaire, I could make the assignments, and everyone could get their boxes sent off in plenty of time for Easter.
Everyone filled out their questionnaires and I sent out assignments by about 3.5 weeks before Easter, and recommended that everyone mail their boxes by about 5-6 days before Easter.
Everyone should receive their baskets sometime in the week before Easter. It’s up to them whether they want to open it right away or wait until Easter day.
I ended up emailing about 50 women, and had about half confirm interest/availability/bandwidth. You could absolutely do it with a larger group, or even a very small one.
I chose to do it as my friend always has – with women who live around the country, many of whom don’t know each other. I tried my best to assign women to someone who did not know them in person – it’s really fun putting together a basket for someone you only know through what they write about themselves. (This didn’t work for everyone – obviously all the participants knew me, for instance.)
On the other hand, I think it would also be really fun to do with a small, local group of friends where everyone already knows everyone else. You could also obviously include men, non-binary folx, kids, family groups, or any other iteration you’d like. It would be delightful to do within a theme – like for a book club, cooking club, workout group, playgroup, etc.
The spending guideline for for our Easter basket exchange is $45-50 not including shipping, but you can obviously make it as simple or extravagant as you’d like.
If you’re planning on mailing for your Easter basket exchange, I’d recommend not trying to mail an actual basket. It just gets too complicated with the sizing, and stuff is more likely to shift around and break.
Instead, I’ve always packed mine in a medium or large Priority mail box. This works great to keep everything secure (I wrap anything breakable in tissue paper or bubble wrap) and arrives nicely. I recommend advising against using padded envelopes as they tend to get tossed around and the contents don’t arrive as nicely. Priority Mail boxes also include insurance and tracking, which is helpful in case anything gets lost. These boxes usually run me between $15-20 to ship.
I asked that if anyone has not received their basket by the Monday after Easter, to please let me know so we can try to track it down. I also asked everyone to please take two photos when they open their basket – one of the contents of their basket, and one of them with their basket. It’s so fun to see all the photos together!
Finally, I asked that everyone write down the return address from their box when they receive it. That way, they have it handy to write a nice thank you note for the thoughtful gifts.
Now the fun part! I love thinking of different things to include in my recipient’s Easter basket. The one requirement is to include some sort of Easter treat that you think she’d like. Beyond that, the Easter box is your oyster. I usually like to include a card or little sticky notes explaining each item and why I chose it.
Here are some things I’ve included, received, and seen in the past:
There really are a million options and it’s just so darn fun coming up with something you hope your recipient will love as much as you enjoyed putting it together.
Once I had enough people committed to participating, I sent out a questionnaire for everyone to fill out to share with the person creating their basket. This questionnaire is not meant to be prescriptive – you don’t have to send them everything they say they love, or even any of it. It should inspire and direct its creation, but the basket should also reflect the creator’s personal touch.
Here’s the questionnaire I sent out if it’s helpful to you:
1. Please write your name, email, and mailing address:
2. Tell a little about yourself (who you are, where you live, what your life/family are like, what you do on a daily basis, etc.)
3. Complete the following statements:
4. What are your favorite:
5. Answer Y/N:
6. Anything else you would like to share?
This really is such a very fun easter tradition for adults. I also think it would be a blast to do as a family – maybe each individual family within an extended family could send another family an Easter box!
Let me know if you try it, too!
