Easter Candy Roundup

DammitKaren: Easter Candy Roundup

What's the Bunny bringing this year?

Alternate title: A bunnified win for IKEA*

Easter is coming! I thought I'd open a discussion/review of our favourite Easter treats.

On Easter Eve, I sit down with our big box of reusable plastic eggs (the kind that are hollow and pop apart) and a glass of wine. I fill the eggs, empty the wineglass, then hide both. (Just kidding! I fill the wineglass again!)

On Easter morning, the children search our flat for their treats. Once they're all found, we try to moderate the distribution somewhat fairly between them, they dump the contents into their Easter baskets, and the plastic eggs quietly disappear over the next few days.

Fillables:

For younger children, you just can't go wrong with cereals. They're far less of a choking risk, and the fun is in finding the eggs, after all.

We started out with Cheerios, Corn Pops and Froot Loops, which blew our then-two-year-old's little mind. We still find it easiest to just buy one of those Variety Packs (so there's less evidence to ... dispose of).

As the kids got older, we added chocolate and candy to the mix. I can't stress enough that you need both. There was one year when we didn't pay attention and had only chocolate. We agreed that jelly beans were essential to add "sugar balance" to Easter.

Eggies vs. Mini Eggs: Always a contentious debate, but always addictively good, whichever way you lean.

M&Ms: Classic. Necessary. Personalizable!

Smarties: The proper, British and Canadian ones, not those abominations from the US.

Jelly beans: Because it's all about balance, people. Brand names not needed.

Don't forget to brush.

Stand-alone treats

(caution: may lead to Eggstreme Eggcitement)

This year, we're taking things in a bit of a different direction by adding some bigger treats into the hunt. Namely:

Giant Cadbury Fruit & Nut Egg: Do you remember those chocolate bunnies from when we were kids? Mr. Solid, Mr. Munchy, Mr. Milky? Well, we've been on the hunt for the elusive Mr. Fruit & Nut for years. However, they either stopped making him in our 80s childhood, or they get snapped up first - we don't know which, but they're my husband's absolute bestest favouritest thing ever, so of course I had to pick one up for him at Costco.

Cadbury Chocolate Popping Bunny: In December of 2005, I went on a quest for "Magic Elves", which were little elf-shaped chocolate treats with popping candy. I really wanted to give them as stocking stuffers, but nobody had heard of them, so I had to ask at a lot of stores before finally finding them at Walmart. Fun fact: every clerk at every store thought I was high.

See? It's real! This time will be different!

Giant Kinder Surprise Egg: NOT on this Bunny's menu this year because of the insane price point of £13.99 at Costco. But I bet they're cool.

Cadbury Creme Egg: Not big, not new, but essential. Aside from the whole "resurrection of Jesus" thing, it's the reason for Easter. (too far?)

Mmmm.... sacrilicious.

And, for the win...

IKEA VÅRKÄNSLA: A flat-pack chocolate bunny that you assemble yourself. If the brilliance of this doesn't affect you, then we can't be friends.