Besides a few great non-candy Easter basket gifts, most kids expect that the Easter Bunny will deliver on delicious treats on Easter Sunday. But if you’re the parent of a child with food allergies — or you just prefer better-for-you candy, hard as it may be to find — delivering on Easter Bunny expectations can be tricky. Thankfully, there are some great choices available online or, for some, at your local health food market.
Here are our favorite better-for-you and allergy-free Easter candy options so that you or, uh, I mean, the Easter Bunny can put together a basket that you feel good about.
Before we get to the sweets: On occasion, the list of ingredients in a food product or the foods that are manufactured at a facility can change, so please make sure to check the website and/or packaging carefully each time you make a purchase to be sure that it’s safe for your kids.
Related: Delicious, all-natural Easter candy options that earn their place in the basket.
Allergy-Free Easter Candy
Vermont Nut Free makes really excellent chocolate in a peanut- and tree-nut-free facility. For Easter, they offer a large selection of holiday sweets including chocolate bunnies — solid ones, not those sad hollow bunnies — jelly beans, lollipops, and even baskets filled with treats all ready to open on Easter Sunday. Easy breezy.
Divvies makes gourmet nut-free and vegan treats, including great Easter candy. My favorite? Their time-saving Bunny Box filled with jelly beans, a chocolate bunny, candies, and more. Throw in a couple of non-candy gifts and the basket is done!
No Whey Foods offers a good variety of Easter candies that are made with all-natural ingredients and are free of the eight most common food allergens, including gluten and sesame, making them a great choice for all kids. Their Chocolatey Mini-Cream Veggs are an awesomely satisfying alternative to those creme-filled eggs for kids with allergies. Plus, the cute dozen egg package is fun.
Related: 13 natural Easter egg dye recipes for every color of the rainbow.
Gimbal’s Fine Candies are not only free of peanuts, tree-nuts, gluten, dairy, soy, and egg, but they are kosher too! They are also free of high fructose corn syrup, which is better for everyone. Their gourmet jelly beans are perfect for anyone’s Easter basket, and they even offer sour jelly beans too!
Strawberry Hill Grand Delights makes lollipops free of the eight most common food allergens and made with natural ingredients and sweeteners. As in, there’s no corn syrup in these sweet pops. The Easter lollipop collection is especially cute with bunnies, duckies, and more.
Surf Sweets is a standby in our all-natural Easter candy round ups. But not only are they organic and free of icky ingredients, they are also made and packaged in a facility free of the 10 most common food allergens. Their Spring Mix Jelly Beans are especially perfect for Easter, which if you can’t find them at a store near you, are available online at NaturalCandyStore.com, a favorite resource for natural and allergy-free candies.
Related: Allergy-friendly baking ingredients for Easter treats everyone can go nuts over.
Better-For-You Easter Candy
Moo Free makes great dairy-free, organic Chocolate Easter Bunnycomb Eggs that are completely vegan. Sounds good, but what’s bunnycomb you ask? Well, the large hollow chocolate egg is filled with honeycomb toffee. How’s that for better-for-you chocolate? Yum!
Lake Champlain makes wonderful locally sourced, fair trade chocolate in Vermont. They have tons of Easter options, from baskets (pictured top) to bunnies, chocolate eggs, and more. But, if like me, you’re a fan of white chocolate, head straight to the Organic White Chocolate Bunnies that are solid chocolate and speckled with flecks of pure vanilla. Easter perfection.
Sjaak’s Organic Chocolates are vegan, gluten- and soy-free, and made with Rainforest Alliance Certified Chocolate. Plus, the Dutch chocolate is especially delicious. This Chocolate Bunny filled with Gummy Bears is sure to be a hit, because, well, chocolate and gummy bears in one.
Related: 15 sweet non-candy Easter basket gifts the kids will actually love. Really!
If the combination of coconut, almonds, and chocolate brings your kids joy, but you prefer a healthy alternative, Theo Chocolates Coconut Salted Almond Bites are just the thing you’re looking for. Theo makes organic, fair trade certified chocolate, plus these are vegan, gluten-, and soy-free. They offer lots of other options, too, though not specifically Easter-themed. I have a feeling nobody will notice, though.
OCHO Candy makes organic and fair trade chocolate candy bars that riff off of classic candy bars, so they are the perfect way to get your chocolate-peanut butter egg fix. Their Organic Peanut Butter Eggs are only around for a while and worth the search, because, wow, are they delicious.
