Before long the Easter Bunny will be hopping down the bunny trail, hiding eggs for excited boys and girls to find. Avoid Easter egg hunt pitfalls like hunting chaos, melting chocolate, unsportsmanlike conduct and disappointed kiddos, by planning ahead and incorporating a few of these simple ideas and tips into your Easter egg hunt festivities.
Planning a thrilling and successful hunt, doesn't take a lot of time or money, just a little know-how and imagination.
Stuffing the Eggs
Bored with the traditional jellybeans and chocolate eggs that seem to melt as the eggs lay in wait in the warm sun? These days supermarkets stock a huge variety of Easter candy individually wrapped for convenience and cleanliness. Consumers can purchase everything from gummy bunnies and egg-shaped gumballs to mini egg-shaped Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and M&Ms and more. Opt for the non-chocolate varieties of candy, if your Easter egg hunt will take place outdoors in a warm climate.
Better yet, parents interested in cutting back on their child's sugar intake can find a variety of Easter-themed trinkets like stickers, tattoos, bouncy balls, etc. designed specifically in size for the popular plastic eggs at party stores and discount retailers like Wal-Mart and Target to fill their eggs with instead.
If you'd like to "fill" your eggs with larger items like stuffed animals or sand toys, assign the prizes a number and then fill the plastic eggs with a slip of paper with a number on it. At the end of the hunt, children can take their numbers and redeem them for the corresponding prize. This is a great way to cut back on the waste of useless trinkets that will probably just end up in the trash in a day or two.
Evening the Easter Egg Hunt Playing Field
At every Easter egg hunt, there always seems to be one, two or five kids that are bit more competitive than the others, resulting in a few kids going home with most or all of the coveted Easter eggs. Hunt organizers can avoid this pitfall in a few ways.
If your Easter egg hunt caters to a large group of children, divide the "hunting grounds" up into age groups so that children only hunt for eggs with other children around their same age. It's much easier for a two-year-old to enjoy the Easter egg hunt and take home a nice haul of eggs if they don't have to compete with an 8-year-old.
Another way to instill fairness into your Easter egg hunt is to assign the children an egg cap. In other words, allow each child to collect ten eggs. Once they have found ten eggs, the hunt ceases for them. That way each child goes home with the same amount of eggs. Another twist on this is to number the eggs and have each child search for the eggs with the number (or color if you choose) they are assigned.
More Easter Egg Hunt Ideas
- Hide a couple of golden eggs and fill these extra special eggs with an extra special prize such as a gift card or dollar bill.
- Planning an Easter egg hunt for older children or teens? Make the Easter egg hunt more challenging by holding it at night. Once darkness sets, arm kids with a flashlight and begin the hunt.
- Fill eggs with coins, and then let kids go to a "store" you've set up where they can buy items of their choosing with the money they've found.
For even more Easter egg hunt ideas, read A New Twist on Traditional Easter Egg Hunts.
You're ready to host your Easter egg hunt now. Use these ideas and tips to customize the perfect Easter egg hunt for you, your kids and your guests.
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