There is, on a message board I visit, a phenomenon known as "Carnival Christmas." It is used for households where Christmas is worthy of, obviously, carnival like status. Wall to wall gifts, several big ticket items, a sense of the "give me's" as opposed to the season of giving. Carnival Christmas are roundly poo-pooed as over the top, unnecessary, and the opposite of the true meaning of the holiday.
It is on this same message board that I have seen shades of something I am calling Carnival Easter.
When I was a kid we had an Easter egg hunt in the morning. There were baskets sitting out with a chocolate bunny each, then we went 'round the house finding chocolate eggs and dyed eggs. The big treat was the allowance of the bunnies' ears before breakfast.
Now I hear tales of enormous baskets filled with gifts galore. Movies and Crocs and dolls and Legos and art supplies and cars and games and more are making their way into baskets across the country. The egg hunt has become secondary to what "stuff" awaits Easter morn. I even read about a kid who was getting a tricycle from the Easter Bunny. A tricycle!
I refuse. Easter is NOT the second coming of Christmas and the Easter Bunny is NOT Santa revisited. I may be guilty of bordering on Carnival Christmas each December, but my house will not participate in Carnival Easter.
I have 4 kids....My max is $7 per basket and that is generous and yes that does include the candy and the dye and the eggs. They will each get a container of bubbles, a chocolate bunny, a sticker book from the Dollar Tree and a new pool floaty, also from the Dollar Tree. Well, BabyGirl won't get that stuff. She'll get a sunhat and some biter biscuits or something.
They will have an egg hunt. I have plastic eggs left from last year. We fill some with candy, but a bulk of them have blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and grapes. My kids LOVE it and the berry eggs are often eaten first.
Then we will go and hang out with aunts and uncles and cousins and maybe have another small egg hunt and get a few more pieces of candy and have Easter dinner. Then we will come home, eat some chocolate bunny ears and go to bed.
It'll be a good day. And there won't be a carnival anywhere in sight.
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GUILTY! LOL! To be fair though, it's what I got my kids plus what MIL got the kids all going in the same basket. She went the most crazy. They are only getting some candy, a $5 webkinz, an outfit (I always put clothes in the basket), and a couple small dollar crafty items from me. MIL got jump roaps, chalk, markers, toys, MORE candy (even though I told her no), and more stuff I'm not able to think of this morning. I'll take a pic Sunday.
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