Whether you are planning an Easter gathering for kids or people who are kids at heart, making an Easter egg hunt a central part of the day’s festivities is a must. This tradition is one that is shared by countless families, and for many people, it is one of the things they remember most about the holiday as they grow older.
If you are tired of having the same Easter egg hunt year after year, why not spice it up? There are plenty of variations that allow you to add a bit of excitement to the traditional activity. Here are a few fun variations on Easter egg hunts that are perfect for the young and the young at heart!
Create a Color-Coded Hunt
When you have kids of varying ages participating in the same hunt, it’s easy for the older ones to outrun the younger ones. Big kids are a lot faster on their feet and it’s easier for them to spot eggs in their hiding places. By color-coding the hunt, though, you can ensure that everyone gets their fair share.
Assign a specific color to each child and let them know that they are only allowed to collect eggs that match their color. If you have a large group, it also works to assign colors to specific age groups. That means that, for example, kids who are two to three years old can collect green eggs while youngsters between the ages of 8 and 10 can collect blue ones. You can even give each kid a t-shirt that matches the color that he or she is supposed to find to make it easier for little ones who haven’t fully learned their colors yet.
Hunt for Eggs in Teams
An Easter egg hunt is normally an every-kid-for-themselves type of event. When you have a lot of participants, though, it isn’t always easy to ensure that everyone is able to find some eggs before they’ve all been collected. Having them search in teams helps eliminate this problem while encouraging them to work together toward a common goal.
Buy bulk t-shirts and decorate them differently for each team. This will make it easy for everyone to know who is on what team. Hide your eggs, set some ground rules and offer up a special prize for the team that collects the most eggs or finds all of their eggs before the other team.
Schedule a Nighttime Easter Egg Hunt
Who says that Easter egg hunts have to take place during the day? Planning the activity at night is a great way to make it more fun for older kids and teens. You can buy glow-in-the-dark eggs and hide them around the yard or the house after the sun goes down or you can place mini glowsticks inside regular plastic eggs. If you want to make it a bit more challenging, hide regular eggs and give everyone a flashlight.
Include a “Golden Egg”
Hide your Easter eggs as usual, but include a special “golden egg” that contains something more valuable than the candy and small trinkets found inside the rest of the eggs. You can tuck cash or a gift card in the golden egg, or include a note if the prize is something larger.
Decorate the golden egg so that it is different from the others. You may want to paint it gold or embellish it with plastic rhinestones or glitter. Let the participants know that there is one egg that contains a special prize and watch everyone go crazy trying to find it.
You can also incorporate the true meaning of Easter into your golden egg hunt by including a note that explains that having Jesus in your life is the best prize of all. There are fun printables that share this message and explain how the various colors of Easter eggs represent Christ’s principles of peace. This is a great way to combine the fun of an Easter egg hunt with the religious meaning of the holiday.
Plan an Easter Egg Hunt in the Pool
If you live in an area where it’s warm enough to go swimming on Easter (or if you have access to an indoor pool), having an egg hunt in the pool is a fun spin on the classic activity. Just remember to always have an adult around to supervise. Weigh plastic eggs down with rocks and write a number on each one using a permanent marker. Make each number correlate with a specific prize. Most of the prizes should be little things like individual snacks or small trinkets but assigning a few numbers to larger prizes–like books or stuffed animals–adds to the excitement. To really up the ante, you can assign one number to a large grand prize like a new bike or an iPod.
Once all the eggs have been numbered and prizes have been assigned, drop them all around the pool. Get everyone lined up and have them all dive in and start collecting eggs at the same time. When all the eggs have been gathered, figure out who won what. Having an Easter egg hunt in the pool is a lot of fun, and since all the eggs are clearly visible, it tends to go faster than traditional hunts.
Make It a Scavenger Hunt
If you want to keep your kids occupied for a while, turn your Easter egg hunt into a scavenger hunt. Instead of turning them loose to find all the eggs at once, have them search for one at a time. Start them off with an empty basket and a clue about where to find the first egg. Place a clue for where to find the next egg inside that one and so on. The last clue should lead to a larger prize or even your kids’ Easter baskets. If you are planning this type of hunt for several kids, divide them up into teams. Whoever makes it through the entire scavenger hunt first wins.
Get creative and you can come up with an amazingly unique Easter egg hunt that will be fun for kids of all ages!
Credits: Article and pictures submitted by Brenda Kimble.
