10 Ways to Get Creative with Easter Egg Hunts

Easter is this Sunday, (March 31, 2013), and it is time to devise our Egg Hiding Strategies! Instead of the old stand-bys, like hiding the eggs in the grass, try some of these fun ways to spice up the traditional Easter Egg Hunt! 

First, you need to decide if you are going to hide hard boiled & dyed eggs, or plastic prize filled eggs. We use the plastic eggs for The Hunt in our house, because half the fun is opening them and seeing what sort of goodies you got! Plus, I am afraid we will miss an egg and end up with a horrible smell! If you do use boiled eggs for your hunt, make sure you write down the location of every egg. 

If you are also using plastic eggs, try some of these fun tricks and tips:

1. Hide handmade coupons good towards a special treat inside a few of the eggs. (Examples: "Good for one free hour of TV", "Good for one free hour of uninterrupted mommy/daddy time" or "good for staying up 30 minutes past bedtime" are a few I have used.)

2. Add in temporary tattoos, fun shaped erasers, tiny nail polishes, plastic dollar store toys and other non-candy treats inside your eggs.  One reader wrote in that she sometimes puts a dollar inside a few of the eggs! She also noted that adding quarters made the eggs pop open. (Thanks Suzy!)

3. I just got a bunch of Free Food Certificates to add to our eggs for The Hunt. Each book costs $1 and comes full of coupons for free burgers, drinks and ice cream. 

4. Make an Easter themed scavenger hunt by hiding clues in plastic eggs. Give each person an egg with a clue to the first hiding spot. At the first spot, hide an egg with a clue to the next spot. Hide as many clues as you would like. Put a prize at the end of The Hunt as a reward. If you a lot of people playing in the scavenger hunt, you could create multiple hunts.

5. Hide a prize filled egg on their chair before breakfast - they will start their day with  their first egg of The Hunt! Put a few gummy vitamins inside! 

6. Have your Hunt at night and put mini glow sticks inside each egg! The kids will have a blast seeking out the glowing spots in the yard. 

7. Instead of using baskets, try having the kids decorate a pail, then use them to collect the eggs during The Hunt.  

8. Get creative with hiding places! Pick a part of the house to be the focus of your Hunt, I suggest the main living area. Then, pick unusual places to stash the eggs! Inside shoes, under the couch, tucked between books on the shelf...

9. Make it a little more challenging for older kids by stepping it up a notch with the hiding spots. Tuck an egg inside a paper towel roll, inside a coffee cup, inside coat pockets or cleverly hidden among a cluster of objects on a table. 

10. Get adults involved! Hide a few special eggs (maybe a different color or mark them with a marker) with fun adult goodies inside, like cash or a gift certificate to a local restaurant or coffee place. Everybody likes being remembered on Easter! Make the adult eggs very hard to find! Place eggs inside hanging light fixtures, on top of the fridge or other high places. 

This work by Little Mom on the Prairie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.