13 Tips for the Best Easter Egg Hunt EVER!

Easter will always be one of my most favorite holidays.  The warmer weather, bright colors and beautiful flowers all conspire to make it an egg-specially happy day.

My absolute, most favorite part of the holiday?



The Easter egg hunt!  🐣 

After hosting at least a dozen hunts over the past 20 years, I STILL love seeing people (yes, kids and adults!) racing around to find the hidden eggs. It cracks me up (pun intended!) to see how focused the hunters are as they search high and low for their quarry. 

 

Whether you create an egg hunt in the backyard for your family or surprise friends with an egg hunt that you leave on their front lawn (it was early in the pandemic! I wanted to share some cheer with friends! 😀), it's a fun activity you'll be glad you did.

 

Such a handsome party guest!  

Tips for Creating an Awesome Easter Egg Hunt

Over the years, I've hosted more egg hunts than I can remember.  While it's hard to mess one up, I've learned lessons to make the hunting more enjoyable for everyone:

 

1. LOTS OF EGGS ARE NEEDED!
Start by planning how many eggs you'll need. I'd suggest AT LEAST one dozen eggs per hunter. (Full disclosure: I lean towards abundance when celebrating! 🥳)

 

2. FILLING EGGS TAKES LONGER THAN YOU THINK
Leave enough time to fill the eggs. It always takes longer than it should. (I don't know why this is, just that it has proven true year after year.)  Feel free to delegate or enlist help.

 

3. NO NEED TO OVERFILL THE EGGS
The thrill of the hunt is about finding the eggs, NOT how much candy is contained within the eggs. I'd always recommend having more eggs and less candy per egg.

 

4. CANDY SHOULD BE WRAPPED. OTHER ITEMS WELCOMED.
Fill the eggs with wrapped candy to avoid any messy or buggy situations. You can also use coins (this assumes older kids) or trinkets like squishies or bouncy balls.
If you are doing an all-adult hunt, the small chocolates filled with liqueur are a favorite as are Lindt truffles.

 

5. AVOID ALLERGENS OR CHOKING HAZARDS
Use candy that is safe for all the egg hunters. Be aware of any peanut allergies and any small candies that might be a danger for little ones.

 

6. GIVE YOUR SPRINKLERS THE DAY OFF
If hiding the eggs outside, be sure to turn off the sprinklers!  While I've never had a hunt ruined by water, we had a very close call one year.

 

7. OBSCURE HIDING SPOTS MAKE FOR A LONGER HUNT
The more well-hidden the eggs are, the longer the hunt will take. I've found that people find eggs much more quickly than you might expect, so hide some eggs in obscure spots!  

 

8. PROVIDE BASKETS/BAGS FOR FOUND EGGS
Provide baskets or paper lunch bags for people to put their found eggs in. The individual baskets/bags make ownership clear, and it gives guests a convenient way to take them home.

 

9. LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD FOR PARTICIPANTS 
Above all else, an egg hunt should be fun for all!  To help ensure there's greater parity among participants:

• Give the younger hunters a head start.
• Allow guests to go first. 
• If you have a group of similar aged kids, but mixed competitiveness, you can have them draw numbers to see who goes first. This ensures that the two trash talkers who promise to "find all the eggs in under 2 minutes" have an opportunity to pace themselves. 

 

10. NO PEEKING PLEASE
The moment you announce the egg hunt is to start, the hunters will begin surveying the territory. If you want to build the excitement, blindfold them so they don't start peeking!

 

11. ALL HUNTERS SHOULD FIND A MINIMUM NUMBER OF EGGS
Feel free to tell the hunters that once they've found a certain number of eggs they should return to the starting point. This can help pace the activity and ensure that a very zippy hunter doesn't grab the majority of the eggs. 
(I've also found it's very sweet to see how a few of the older kids will take it upon themselves to help 'coach' their younger counterparts.)

 

12. NOTE HOW MANY EGGS ARE HIDING
Pay attention to how many eggs you are hiding and where. This will help you to know when the egg hunt is nearing its end. In my experience, 80% of the hidden eggs are found quickly, but the last 20% requires hunters to search very carefully.

 

13. HELP YOUR MIDDLE-AGED BRAIN REMEMBER THE TRICKY HIDING SPOTS 😃
You may want to take pictures of any egg-specially well-hidden eggs. (Despite doing this, it's not uncommon for me to find a hidden Easter egg several months later.)

 

Once the hunt has concluded, grab an Easter cocktail and enjoy watching the hunters open their eggs and survey their loot.

I find this quickly morphs into a trading floor as noisy as any Wall Street firm, as kids (and adults!) try to secure as many favorites as possible.

Remember, a piece of candy that you hunted for always tastes better! 🐣

 

 

An Easter Centerpiece Will Make Your Table Fun and Festive

Want to spend less time decorating and more time doing quality control on those yummy chocolate Easter bunnies 😉?

Simply clip an Easter banner on the Celebration Stand and in under 2 minutes you can transform your table from ho-hum into a picture worthy display that even Mr. E Bunny would approve of. Easy peasy!


Equally egg-citing is that when your bunny fun is done, just unhook the banner and fold it up for next year. You can reuse the stand for birthdays and other holidays, including the next two--Mothers Day and Fathers Day.