The bustle behind the baskets

When you think of Easter baskets, typically a small, woven basket with pastel-colored shredded paper comes to mind.

But if you’re Smith’s Variety, anything — in the most literal sense — can be an Easter basket.

“There’s really nothing that [the gifts] can’t go in,” Smith’s owner Jim Glazner said. 

Over the years, employees have built baskets using special heirloom baskets, dump trucks and radio flyer wagons. Glazner has even seen a Brio train table serve as an Easter basket. 

“Imagine waking up to that,” he said. “That’s like waking up to Christmas.”

And while Easter is a holiday of its own, that’s the goal: to have families and children light up with excitement and joy when they see their baskets just as they would seeing their tree on Christmas morning.

Or as basket creator Katherine Sudduth put it: “Happy, happy kids.”

The tradition for grandiose Easter baskets began in 1976 when the Glazner family took over the store. Glazner said the previous owners — the Smiths — participated in Easter baskets each year. 

“They were basic,” he said. “Maybe a rabbit, maybe a few jelly beans, that type of thing.”

So when his mother, Mary Anne Glazner, took over, she made baskets her craft, a craft that has grown alongside the family-owned business. 

She dedicated hundreds, if not thousands of hours to creating Easter basket masterpieces for children, Glazner said. 

“For years, Mom wanted to be the only one doing it,” Glazner said. “Mom did consider herself the Easter bunny.”

But because of the sheer number of baskets that were ordered each year, it was only a matter of time before others joined in to help her. 

Glazner said for one season, as many as 500 orders can be placed, and it takes on average of 45 minutes to put together each basket. The more complex gift displays can take multiple hours, and the longest it has ever taken was four hours. Totaled up, Smith’s can spend up to 15.5 days creating their Easter morning masterpieces.

“It’s a lot,” Glazner said. “We’ll end up working nights, weekends, after church on Sundays, just to get the baskets done … but that’s OK.” 

He said they don’t mind it when they’re working with family and doing something they enjoy.

Eventually, Glazner said his mother gave in and his wife, Tammie, and Sudduth began helping make the baskets. He estimated that over the years, they’ve contributed to about one-third of the grand total.

But that wasn’t without input from Mary Anne. After all, she was the Easter bunny, and each basket had to be perfect.

“[Baskets can be] any shape and size; it’s impressive,” Sudduth said. “You see a Smith’s basket, you haven’t seen anything like it.” 

She described their conception as a “puzzle,” trying to fit everything in the basket in a creative manner, and said one of her more challenging gifts centered on a hula-hoop. 

There are some simple guidelines to follow when putting together an Easter basket that Mary Anne Glazner had, however.

The paper has to be layered a certain way, and all gifts should be arranged appropriately to take up the entirety of the gift. 

“We cannot have airspace,” Sudduth said. 

That was one of Mary Anne Glazner’s big rules that has been passed down to today, and Glazner said his mother would remind Sudduth and his wife of the basket basics every year.

And the baskets can’t just be static; they have to tell a story.

“If there’s a bunny in the basket, the bunny needs too be doing something,” Glazner said, either reading or playing or wearing a tiara. Each setup came with a presentation for the parents upon pickup, too, so they understood that there was no front or back to the gift and that each basket had an element of personalization to it.

Part of that personalization comes from when the kids are shopping for their toys — even if they don’t realize it.

Glazner said families will come into the store under the premise to pick a gift up for someone else, but inevitably, a child finds something he or she wants. So when a parent says no, instead of putting it back, they secretively hand it to an employee, only to be unwrapped for Easter morning.

“We’ve got a bag with [their] name on it in the back,” Glazner said, explaining the basket creators know to wrap the baskets in the back so as to not spoil the surprise.

As long as the items in the basket were purchased from Smith’s, the basket-wrapping is complimentary, and employees can even pick out gifts for long-distance orders based on a few directives. He said they’ve sent baskets all over the country, partly for families who have moved away but still value the Smith’s tradition, and partly for kids who might be away at school.

“Just because someone is in college … doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get an Easter basket,” Glazner said. 

While the creators sometimes put more sophisticated gifts in their baskets, such as speakers, jewelry, candles or sunglasses, other gifts have included candy, small toys, stuffed animals, ski goggles and monogrammed goods. 

“There’s really no right or wrong of what can go in an Easter basket,” Glazner said.

And for people who want to make sure they haven’t already given something as a gift, Smith’s has records for each basket they have ever made.

“Every year, we keep a record of who we made a basket for,” he said. “We’ve got books and books and books … of what we’ve done.”

Glazner said there have been quite a few parents who grew up opening their own Smith’s baskets on Easter morning and are now putting together ones for their kids. 

People who started their basket tradition in the ’70s and ’80s are now on the other side of it, watching their kid’s faces light up in reaction to an extravagant basket.

“I think they realize how much thought goes into it,” Glazner said. “They know that whoever made this basket loves their child. They want to carry on what their mom did for them.” 

While some people might describe the undertaking to make 500 Easter baskets as overwhelming, Glazner said it’s more “awe-inspiring.” It’s similar to how he described residents embracing his decision to keep his family’s store seven months earlier.

“That part, that’s been amazing,” he said. “I didn’t realize even thinking about selling it hurt because you feel like you’re letting down your family and the community.” 

He explained there isn’t a day that goes by that someone doesn’t give him a hug, and people have since stopped him in public to share their stories of wandering through Smith’s as a child before mentioning they’re glad of his choice.

“There’s so many mom and pops that have failed through the years … that it’s so nice to have a community that supports you,” Glazner said.

And both he and Sudduth agreed that much of what they’re doing now — particularly the Easter baskets — is in his mother’s memory.

“Easter was always my mother’s favorite holiday, mainly because she loved children. And throughout the years, all the staff learned that that’s all that mattered,” Glazner said. “We’ve done it forever. It’s just such a part of Smith’s, you know?”