Elaborate outdoor picnics, complete with servants, white linen and cut glass crystal are for the wealthy. Picnic baskets today make small, do it yourself picnics easy to organize and take along without the servants or the high price. Online choices include everything from an empty wicker basket to a fully kitted picnic backpack. Keep a fully loaded picnic basket on hand for a great spur of the moment getaway. Buy an empty basket and stock it, or buy it fully stocked. Picnic baskets make great gifts as well.
Some of the accessories that come in picnic baskets include plates, glasses, utensils, napkins, cheese knives, corkscrews, and even cutting boards. There are small backpacks for kids with service for 2 to 4, so the kids can be part of the fun, too.
Picnic Baskets Have Many Forms
While many picnic baskets are still classic wicker, they can also be colorful collapsible polyester canvas or can be picnic backpacks. Some wicker baskets are insulated and some picnic backpacks are colorful and ergonomically designed. Insulated or not insulated, stocked with accessories for up to six, the choices make it easy to find the right basket. Some of the choices available include:
- Stocked baskets with service for 1,2,4, or 6 people
- Backpacks with service for 2 or 4
- Insulated backpacks
- Backpacks for coffee & tea
- Backpacks for wine and cheese
When to Have a Picnic
With a ready to go picnic basket, there's no excuse for not going on lots of picnics. In addition to the usual summer holiday picnics, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day, consider other celebrations:
- Birthdays
- Mother's day
- Father's day
- Grandparent's day
- Graduation
- Flag day
- First day of summer
- First day of autumn
- Road trips
Where to Have a Picnic
Urban, suburban, or wilderness, picnics can go just about anywhere. Backyards, parks, playgrounds, open meadows, overlooks, zoos, and beaches all offer good picnic sites. Take a cloth to sit on or to cover a picnic table. Roadside picnic sites have largely gone by the wayside, but are still available in some areas. It's always handy to have a stocked picnic basket on a road trip wherever you go.
There's something very satisfying about picnics. They offer good, inexpensive fun and the occasional lifelong memory handed down to the grandkids about the picnic interrupted by wildlife, the weather, or both. With a picnic basket always stocked with the necessities, the only thing left to add is the food. Give them as gifts for weddings, graduations, or birthdays. Maybe you'll be invited along. There's a picnic basket out there to suit your needs.
Corinne Shibley - Corinne Shibley studied sculpture in art history and created her own sculpture on the way to a B.A. in Studio Art. "There's something ...
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