Question: What. Have. I. Done. Redux.

Okay, we all know I allowed Barbies into my household, much to my occasional chagrin. But now we’ve finally gotten to the age where my kids are really into holidays and their meanings, especially if said meanings involve chocolate in any form.

So this year is the first Easter we as a family have to actually acknowledge. And I can see that things could get out of hand very quickly.

Just today, the last day of school before Spring Break. (Woo.Party.) The kids both had Easter egg hunts that resulted in the acquisition of scads of plastic eggs in a variety of Eastery pastel hues. Why is Easter a pastel holiday? Christmas is a vibrant, primary and secondary-colored holiday. Shouldn’t Easter be even more vibrant, given what it’s celebrating?

I don’t know. I’m just a secular humanist who has allowed her kids to believe in the Easter Bunny, which of course has way more to do with Pagan fertility rites than it does with Christianity. Not an issue at my house either way.

But I can see that the frenzy of chocolate foil-wrapped treats, small plastic crap and that annoying, shedding “basket grass” are only going to increase over time.

But how can I not let my kids enjoy the holiday? We believe in the Easter Bunny, Santa and the Tooth Fairy for only so long. Why not let the kids enjoy it while they have their innocence? That’s my thinking. I don’t particularly like the idea of every holiday being equated with candy in my children’s minds, though. That’s, as the kids like to say, messed up.

So what’s the balance between celebrating a holiday for the kids and celebrating it for the personal meaning of the actual holiday? How much sugar and plastic is too much?