3 Easter Basket Ideas for Young Adults or Older Teens

This Easter Basket Ideas for Young Adults or Older Teens post is sponsored by Cost Plus World Market. Get tips and inspiration for creating an Easy Dinner Night Easter Basket, College Student Easter Basket, and a Movie Night Easter Basket.

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Hippity Hoppity! Easter is almost here! It’s a favorite holiday in our home, one that we celebrate every year and is full of memories and traditions.

When I was growing up, Easter always meant an Easter basket, dying eggs and an egg hunt, and a ham dinner. When I became a mom, way back in 1990, we started the same exact same traditions with our kids. On Easter, every year, they would get a basket, with usually some little Easter toys or coloring books and, of course, candy.

The kids are older now — ages 16 to 26 years to be exact. You might think that the Easter basket tradition had decreased over the years. But it hasn’t. Every year, they get a basket and I have no plans of stopping.

There are a couple things you need to know about the Easter baskets I make for my teens and young adults:

1. The container I use for “baskets” is almost never a “basket”. My kids don’t have a need for a traditional basket, so I always use something that can be repurposed into another non-Easter use. For example, last year, I made the kids Easter baskets in glass jars from World Market. The kids loved it and they all have reused their jar in some way – everything from holding change to movie tickets.

2.The Easter baskets are still brought by the “Easter bunny” and they always arrive late at night after the kids are sleeping.

3. All Easter baskets must have Peeps. Do my kids like Peeps? No, they don’t. But, I put them in their baskets every year, placed on top, without any packaging (a Peep that has dried out just a bit is the best). My motive is simple: they will give their Peeps to me. It’s a tradition I refused to break. AND THEY WILL NOTICE IF IT STOPS. So, it must continue.

3 Easter Basket Ideas
for Young Adults or Older Teens

Since I know I must not be the only mom who puts together Easter baskets for young adults and older teens, I have created 3 different Easter basket ideas to inspire you. Everything for these Easter baskets was purchased from Cost Plus World Market here in Las Vegas on Rainbow, but there are lots of other locations across the US (visit their store locator) and I’ve also linked to their website throughout this post.

Below, you will find all the details of how to create the following:

• Easy Dinner Night Easter Basket
• College Student Easter Basket
• Movie Night Easter Basket

To start all of these baskets, I recommend Easter “grass” or a paper filler, such as World Market Crinkle Paper Gift Filler. This is placed in the bottom of the “baskets”.

In addition to Easter grass, there is always some sort of traditional Easter candy, even if the basket has a nontraditional Easter theme. World Market has a bag of these delicious Riegelein Hollow Chocolate Easter Eggs with colorful foil wrappers which I really like. Other traditional Easter candies that my kids will find is jelly beans and….um, Peeps.

Also, as I mentioned, I prefer to use non-traditional items to create Easter “baskets”. For the ideas I’m sharing today, I’m using a Copper Colander, a wire Samuel Basket, and a Popcorn Serving Bowl.

Easy Dinner Night Easter Basket

The Easy Dinner Night Easter Basket is for my son who no longer lives at home. He’s a busy guy, so he often eats meals out with his girlfriend. But, he tries to cook at home as much as possible. To support this, it seems only fitting to make him an Easter basket this year that gives him some easy dinner ideas.

I picked up the Copper Colander at World Market, as well as several other items:

• World Market Vodka Pasta Sauce (so good!)
• World Market Easter Pasta
• World Market Dipping Oil
• World Market Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
• Market Classics White Chicken Chili Soup Mix
• “30-Minute One-Pot Meals” Cookbook by Joanna Cismaru (food blogger at Jo Cooks)

Easter grass (World Market Crinkle Paper Basket Filler) was placed in the bottom of the colander first. Next, the largest and/or heaviest items were placed in: the cookbook, the pasta, the pasta sauce, and the dipping oil. Then, lighter items are added and everything is moved or placed until the basket is balanced and all items are included.

The final addition is the chocolate eggs, which add a traditional style to this nontraditional Easter basket.

College Student Easter Basket

The next Easter basket idea for a young adult is the College Student Easter Basket. This Easter basket definitely has the snackable side of a college student in mind, as well as throwing in a few other fun items.

For snacks, I choose a variety of items from World Market that just about anyone would appreciate:

• Beer-Battered Onion Rings
• Loacker Lemon Wafers
• Haribo Sour Gold Bears
• Country Archer Mango Habanero Beef Jerky
• Sahale Snacks Pomegranate and Vanilla Cashews
• Wang Sesame Gim Roasted Seaweed Snack
• Illy Ready-to-Drink Cappuccino

To add extra fun, here are some non-food items your college student might like:

• Kikkerland Cat Butt Magnets
• Kikkerland Retro Pens
• Magnetic Sand Timer (available in select stores)
• Patterned Pencils  (available in select stores)
• “Remember, Ideas Become Things” Write Now Journal

Unlike the other Easter baskets I’ve shared, you will have to do one extra step before adding your Easter grass. To keep the Easter grass from falling out through the holes on the Samuel Basket, cut a piece of tissue paper or wrapping paper so that it will line the bottom and up the sides about 2 inches. If you want to make it extra cute, cut the paper with scalloped edge scissors.

After doing this, press the paper into the bottom of the basket and add your Easter grass.

Begin adding your item — large or heavy items first, placing the tallest items in the back, such as the bag of onion rings, the lemon wafers, and the beef jerky.

Then continue adding the rest of your items, tucking them into empty spots so that they will display nicely.

If you wish, you can add a name to the front of this basket to personalize it, which would be a great touch.

Movie Night Easter Basket

In my house, this Movie Night Easter Basket could work for any of my kids. World Market is the perfect place for picking up movie night appropriate snacks – including several nostalgic treats. I picked up several items that I knew would be a hit, both savory and sweet:

• World Market Olive Oil and Herb Popcorn
• Mike and Ike Buttered Popcorn Flavored Candy
• Abba-Zaba Bar
• Rocky Road Bar (available in select stores)
• East Shore Dipping Pretzels
• Ass Kickin’ Habanero Popcorn

Of course, no movie night is complete without a beverage. There are tons of drink options at World Market, so the choice is hard, but I picked up a few that my son would enjoy:

• Fest Bourbon Cream Soda
• Bundaberg Ginger Beer

All of the items are assembled in a bright red Popcorn Serving Bowl. As with the other basket ideas, you should start with your largest and/or heaviest items. In this case, the bag of popcorn and the drinks were added on top of the Easter grass, one on each side of the popcorn bowl to keep things balanced. And don’t forget to add a movie they might like!

With the remainder of the items, continue adding them from largest to smallest. If you have any items that are slipping down and now showing enough, grab a bunch of Easter grass and place it under or behind the item.

I hope you enjoyed my Easter Baskets for Young Adults ideas! I’d love to hear your ideas — if you give Easter baskets to teen or young adults, what do you put in them? Leave me a comment and let me know.

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For your convenience, here are the links to the products used in this post:

All Easter Baskets Use:

World Market Crinkle Paper Gift Filler | Riegelein Hollow Chocolate Easter Eggs

Movie Night Easter Basket

Popcorn Serving Bowl | World Market Olive Oil and Herb Popcorn
Mike and Ike Buttered Popcorn Flavored Candy | Abba-Zaba Bar
East Shore Dipping Pretzels | Ass Kickin’ Habanero Popcorn
Fest Bourbon Cream Soda | Bundaberg Ginger Beer

College Student Easter Basket

Samuel Basket | Beer-Battered Onion Rings | Loacker Lemon Wafers
Haribo Sour Gold Bears | Country Archer Mango Habanero Beef Jerky
Sahale Snacks Pomegranate and Vanilla Cashews
Wang Sesame Gim Roasted Seaweed Snack | Illy Ready-to-Drink Cappuccino
Kikkerland Cat Butt Magnets | Kikkerland Retro Pens
“Remember, Ideas Become Things” Write Now Journal

Easy Dinner Night Easter Basket

Copper Colander |World Market Vodka Pasta Sauce |World Market Easter Pasta
World Market Dipping Oil |World Market Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
Market Classics White Chicken Chili Soup Mix | “30-Minute One-Pot Meals” Cookbook