An Easter Egg Hunt from Start to Finish- Fun for the whole family!

How can you speed up buying Easter dinner groceries? Use the eggs-press lane!

Bunny, er, punny Easter jokes aside, Easter is almost hare! (There I go again…) I believe that the key to a successful Easter egg hunt is being prepared- and having fun while you’re at it too.

Here’s a start-to-finish guide for an eggcellent egg hunt with instructions for the adults, activities for the kids and fun for the whole family!

The steps are broken down as follows:

1. Set the time and date
2. Pick the location
3. Stock up on eggs
4. Decorate the eggs
5. Decorate the baskets
6. Prepare the clues
7. Prepare food for the way
8. Hide the eggs
9. Hunt away!
10. Count the eggs
11. Reward the winners

Sounds eggsausting? Once you start, you’ll see that it isn’t. Divide the tasks between the adults and kids and you’ll see how quickly it goes. Let’s hop in!

1. Set the time and date

This step will be different for everyone, based on your location and COVID restrictions. If you’re not getting together with friends and family, and your hunt will just be with immediate family, then you have more room to be spontaneous.

Not getting together with friends and family, but still want to do a hunt with them? Have  a virtual Easter egg hunt! 

How so? Have the heads of the households of those participating help you prepare in advance. They’ll need to snap pictures of spaces in their house/yard that have hidden, but not too hidden, Easter eggs. They should send then send it to you. On the video call, display the pictures one at a time and see if the kids can find the eggs.

Even though you’re far apart, you can even reward the winner! Send over their favorite meal or treat with Uber Eats, DoorDash etc.

Your kids will love this and so will the adults!

2. Pick the location

Just like before, this step will vary based on your location, temperature at your place, and COVID restrictions. If you’re meeting with your friends and family, you may consider doing your hunt on your property, so no one else should feel uncomfortable. If the weather is mild, have your egg hunt take place in your yard or a local park (if it will be empty).

3. Stock up on eggs

We’ll get to the decorating soon, but first you’ll need the actual eggs. You’ll have to make a decision if you’re using hard boiled eggs, real yet empty eggs, plastic eggs, wooden eggs or any other eggs that there are. This decision can be based on whether you have time or energy for the hassle of hard boiled eggs- and the possible mess that can happen.

4. Decorate the eggs

Once you’ve decided which eggs you’ll be using, the decorating can begin! Gather the troops (i.e. kids) and have some fun. Below are some egg decorating options. You can obviously improvise them to suit your needs.

• Washable paint

This is your best option for clean fun for all ages. Buy various colors of washable paint, hand the kids some thin paint brushes and decorate away! The good part is that washable paint can be used on actual eggs and plastic eggs.

• Melted crayons

This is a really cool way of decorating your eggs! You may want to do this with your children, unless they’re responsible enough to do this on their own. You’ll boil up your eggs as usual, and let it cool down- but not for too long. You’ll need the eggs to be warm to hot temperature in order for this to work.

Place the eggs in a carton or dish and the decorating starts! Your child should hold onto the crayon only and maneuver it around the egg. Because of the heat, the crayons will melt slightly and your eggs will get decorated.

• Glitter eggs

If you’re like me, then you shudder just thinking of glitter in the house. This method of decorating, however, can be done outdoors (weather permitting, of course) and yields beautiful eggs! This decor is great because it can be done on plastic eggs and hard boiled eggs. First, you’ll need to cover the egg with a light layer of glue (using a sponge or a paintbrush). Prepare different colored glitter in small bowls. Place one egg at a time in the bowl with the color of your choice, and roll it around until the egg is coated. Voila!

(P.S. in order to avoid having the kids touch the eggs, stick a skewer or q-tip into your plastic egg, so that they use that to move and decorate the egg.)

• Tissue paper eggs

This is great because it’s a double activity for your young ones!

1. Prepare a few sheets of tissue paper in different colors. Have your child tear them up- no need to be exact here. Smear your egg with mod podge and then stick on the pieces of tissue paper. Ain’t that beautiful?

2. Prepare the cut tissue paper. Lay your eggs onto a paper towel and spray them with water (using a spray bottle). Stick on the tissue paper onto the wet eggs. You can mix and match colors to add some fun! It’s best to do this with gloves, if you don’t want the dye to get onto your hands. Spray the eggs with water again and then let it dry. Once it’s dry, remove the tissue paper and you now have beautiful eggs!

• Sharpies eggs

Easy does it. With Sharpie markers, your egg decorating session will be quick, easy and clean. You’ll want to put a disposable cloth where the kids are working, so that marker stains don’t get all over the place.

5. Decorate the baskets

You can obviously purchase baskets, or use those that you have in your house, but if you’re looking for another activity for the kids, then try these homemade baskets!

• Rainbow Easter baskets

Get ready for fun and color this Easter! Your kids will be able to use their creativity and create homemade Easter baskets. You’ll need some wooden baskets and different colored paints. You can set your kids up outside (weather permitting) or inside your home. Spread out a disposable plastic cloth so that paint doesn’t get where it shouldn’t get… Let the painting begin!

• Egg cartons

Don’t put those egg cartons in your recycling bin yet- they’ll make the perfect baskets for your eggs! Give our child washable paint, paint brushes, muffin wrappers and small holiday ornaments. On a disposable plastic cloth, they can paint the egg carton however they’d like. Place the muffin wrappers in the egg slots and fill some of them with the holiday ornaments. Pretty, pretty!

(Photo credit: Julep by Minted)

6. Prepare the clues

Once the eggs and baskets are ready, you’ll want to prepare the clues for your smashing egg hunt. Your riddles will be based on the average age of those participating (not harder),  so that it’s easy for them to understand on their own.

Here are some sample clues you can use:

I am a box with a stick, and I’m where you’ll find your mail quick. (mailbox)

I am where the car is parked indoors, and am a large moving door. (garage door)

I have hands but no arms, just a face and my hands move at a steady pace. (clock)

7. Prepare food for the way

This is a small something you can do, to add excitement to the hunt. Prepare a small “care package” for the kids participating in the hunt. It can be a small bag filled with a drink, candy, and a snack. The kids will love it and it’ll hopefully tide them over until the hunt is over.

8. Hide the eggs

Yeah, can’t forget this one! If you’re having your hunt in a public place, you won’t want to hide them too early. If you’re doing the hunt in your home, you may want to jot the places you hid the eggs, so you don’t have any bunny, er, funny surprises.

9. Hunt away!

Put on some poppin’ music and let the hunting begin! To add some suspense to the hunt, you can have a big countdown clock showing them how much time they have left.

10. Count the eggs

Who will be the lucky winner? Well, first you’ll have to count how many eggs each kid has. In order to give everyone special attention, call up one child at a time and have them count how many eggs they have. You can write down all names and numbers (of eggs) on a chalkboard, so you remember the amounts. You can also have each child show which egg that they collected is their favorite one.

11. Reward the winners

You can either have one winner or have every child be a winner for something else. They can be winners for things like, most smiley participant, prettiest egg finder etc. The winner can be rewarded with some candy, chocolate bunny, or with an Easter trinket.

Here are some fun ways to play up your Easter egg hunt:

1.  Action Easter Egg Hunt

Hide plastic eggs in the location you choose. Once the eggs have been collected, each participant will open the eggs- and find a paper inside! The paper will tell them to do an action, and they’ll have to act it out. Actions can include: hope like a bunny, sing the ABC’s etc. This is an easy and fun way to get everyone to laugh and enjoy!

2. Ball Pit Challenge

If you have a kiddie pool, you can fill it with pit balls and hide the eggs there. The kids will love playing and finding eggs at the same time!

3. Glow-in-the-dark hunt

Ooh, this’ll be fun! You can stretch the holiday spirit into the night by inserting small glow sticks into your plastic eggs, and have the children look for them then!

(Photo credit: Growing a Jeweled Rose)

The main point is that holidays are here for us to bond with our family and friends and have a good time. So be sure to have fun (and have some chocolate)!

Hoppy Easter!