When we think about Easter baskets, we often think about jelly beans, chocolate eggs, malted eggs, and of course, colorfully decorated hard boiled eggs. How about adding a short story or two in the basket with those candies and eggs?

Easter baskets can be created with many themes. Many retailers stock their shelves with pre-made baskets that are cartoon or superhero themed. You can find baskets for girls with sweet and cute stuffed bunnies, lambs and chicks. There are baskets for boys with play cars and sports related toys. I have even seen baskets for adults filled with candy as well as candles, scarves and other knickknacks.

As writers, we can create our own themed Easter baskets. Our short stories can be on any topic we choose. We most certainly can write about Easter or spring. However, we can also write a short story that might perfectly fit the person we are gifting a basket.

Yes, I am suggesting looking through your current file of short stories or . . . maybe even writing a new one. Don’t panic. This is not for a grade or publication, it’s simply a great gift idea from you — a great writer! Here are some quick ideas.

*In an Easter basket, you could roll up one of your stories with a pastel ribbon and snuggle it amongst the other goodies. Be brave. Go ahead and add another story if you wish.

*You can find plastic colored Easter eggs at many retail stores or even a thrift shop. You can take one of your short-short stories, divide it up into separate sentences, and place one sentence on a strip of paper in each egg. You could number each sentence in the order it appears in the story. Or, you could let the recipient have the fun of putting the sentences in the correct order.

*Don’t be afraid to write a very short-short-short story using just a few words. You could write one word on a colored boiled egg and host an Easter egg hunt. Once again, you could number the eggs, or let the finder figure out the word order.

I hope you have fun with these ideas. Please feel free to stop by our Short Stories Forum to tell me about your Easter baskets and short stories. You can also ask a question, suggest a short story, leave a comment or just say hello.