The focal point of any Easter basket is the chocolate bunny. There's always that one, particular bunny who seems to make his way into the basket each year. You know the one; he's the stoic, old hare who's forced to live his short life staring to the right.
Sure, sure, there are cuter chocolate bunnies with nice, fat, three-dimensional shapes, and darling facial expressions. But the moment you bite into these bunnys, they crumble to bits. Who needs that? If basket space is at a premium, stick with the stoic bunny; anywhere you choose to gnaw him, he'll remain solid to the end.
Next up, is the brightly-colored, yellow, marshmallow thing, looking ever so much like a little spring chick, had the stoic, chocolate Easter bunny not fallen on it, causing the thing's side to cave in. I'm not sure what it tastes like, but I think every basket should have at least one.
Scattered across the strands of glistening, green cellophane (that the manufacturers, bless their souls, call grass) are the jelly beans. The red and the orange jelly beans are dependable, they'll always taste great. The flavors of the green and the yellow ones tend to vary each year; one year good, the next, too sour. The only thing I can say about the white and the black jelly beans is, when all the other candy is gone, they'll still be around. After a day or two, it's kind of fun to try and pry them apart from the cellophane.
Lastly, and most importantly, are the colorful Easter eggs. These seem to have a personality all their own, from shy pastel to vivacious bold. There always seems to be one egg that became a victim of indecision. It started out white, then was dunked into the cup of blue, followed by the cup of purple, orange, green, and red. Its color can best be described as bruise. Though not the most beautiful, it's certainly the most special.
In an effort to gear holidays toward children, I guess we do tend to produce whimsy. Even so, looking past the whimsy of an Easter basket, it's easy to see the care and the concern that a family has taken to make the holiday special. Those touches, woven with the story of Christ, resoundingly define everlasting.