Egg-cellent Hunting Ideas

​Last year was the first time that my eldest experienced Easter egg hunting.  I watched her run around on the school grounds finding little treats that the other parents helped hide.  Every time she found one, she would have a look of pure joy and excitedly run back to me to say “I found one!”.

Easter egg hunting is still a pretty novel idea for my family and we will probably do things the same way for a little while.  There is nothing wrong with just hiding eggs, chocolates, and other treats and letting the kids search for them.  If that works for you and brings fun to the family, that’s really all that matters at the end of the day.

However, if you are looking to reinvigorate the Easter Egg Hunt, here are some ideas that I’d like to try down the line and I thought that I’d share them with you.

​Who says that the hunt can only happen during the day?  Whether you choose to do it indoors or outdoors, small scale or large scale, “Glow in the Dark Party Ideas” has some guides from “how to make glow eggs” to “hunting away” so that you can keep it safe and fun!

​Came across this idea from Over the Big Moon and I love it for a number of reasons, you can limit the number of candies and chocolates around the house. The ideas are individualized to your family and it’s bound to create some fantastic family bonding moments. This hunt can evolve as the family ages and grows.  Having your children and teens come up with what goes in the plastic eggs may help ensure that they will be that much more invested in searching for them.

I think the key to making this one a successful hunt is to provide some guidelines for establishing what reasonable “treats” are, and agreeing on when those items can be cashed in.

You can keep it simple and just write it on small strips of paper or you can get some beautiful printables from Over the Big Moon.

It seems to me that from October to May, the chocolates and candies just never end. My daughter can never get enough of chocolate, but who am I kidding, when is it ever too much chocolate?  Of course, the thought of my kids bouncing off the walls from eating too many candies and then crashing from their sugar high is not one I relish.  I came across this idea from “Eats Amazing” which would be great to try with some modifications.

This is a hunt that would work with a bigger group of kids. I would recommend having a combination of “activity” eggs versus chocolates and candies.  My last modification would be for each person to find an egg, come back and open it together – if you have an activity egg, you must perform the activity.  Then everyone searches again.  It’s a great way to burn energy and have a few laughs.
“Eats Amazing” has provided a free printable of the activities they used, but it’s easy enough to come up with your own fun activities.

​My kids are very lucky as they have each other and close aged cousins living nearby.  For the most part, they get along but of course, there is also bickering about who has more or things not being fair (you get the picture).  So while Easter hunting can be fun, if you have a child who is really quick about finding eggs and another who has more trouble, it can get to be an earful quite fast.

One option to overcome that would be to give everyone an Easter basket filled with candies, toys, and other treats (edible or not).  That way, anything from the hunt is a bonus. But that can create candy overload and be a little costly and you still might hear complaints.
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Another option and one that I think might even the odds is the idea of color matching (ex. pink) or pattern (ex. Polka dots) matching.  Assign each person a specific color or pattern (make sure that you have equal numbers of each color or pattern).  They are only to take the eggs that correspond to their color.  This way, you don’t have one child that sweeps up all the treats and another left with none.  It might even foster some cooperative spirit among the children and keep them entertained for a longer period of time! Another variation is to give each child a specific pattern to follow: either color (ex. blue, pink, green, purple, blue, orange) or if you are really creative, an actual patterned design (ex. stripes, polka dot, plain, smiley face). Your child is to collect eggs in that specific order so that even if they find an egg if it’s not part of their pattern, they must leave it.

Happy Egg Hunting
​Julie