How do you perform an Easter egg hunt?

The American Easter tradition of an egg hunt dates back to the 1800s, when it became customary to incorporate children's activities into the holiday celebrations. Nowadays, it's almost impossible to imagine Easter without a group of kids running around the yard looking for brightly dyed eggs. Whether you're hosting the big Easter brunch this year, or simply having a few friends over, it's easy to plan an egg hunt in your backyard. We've got all the tips you need for decorating, hiding the eggs, and other family-friendly activities. If there aren't any children in your crew, use one of our creative ideas to plan an Easter egg hunt for adults instead. No matter who'll be hunting, don't forget to buy or make your own Easter baskets for everyone to use.

Step 1: Decorate for Easter

The first step: Get your house ready by hanging pastel balloons outside and an Easter decoration on your door to welcome your guests. You don't have to go overboard. One of our favorite Easter decorating ideas is this festive printable sign—it's cute and costs under $5 to assemble. If you plan on serving snacks, decorate a few tables with pastel-color tablecloths and streamers, and if your egg hunt is in the morning, once all the eggs have been found, gather the crowd for brunch.

Brie Passano

Step 2: Prep Easter Eggs

You can hide plastic or real eggs, just get the supplies far enough in advance. If you're decorating and hiding real eggs (like our colorful oil-marbled eggs), get a few small prizes to hand out at the end in exchange for each egg. You'll want to boil and dye them about a week beforehand so you don't stress about them being ready (and keep in mind that they're not safe to eat).

Plastic eggs are easier to prepare ahead of time, and are generally better if you're hiding them outdoors in warm weather. Fill them with small toys, candy, or numbers that correspond to bigger prizes, such as stuffed animals, chocolate bunnies, or gift certificates (our Easter basket filler ideas can help if you need more inspiration). If you're hosting an egg hunt for toddlers, make sure the eggs are filled with items that don't contain small choking hazards. Estimate about a dozen eggs per guest, so everyone has a chance to find and collect a good amount.

Step 3: Hide the Eggs

If your Easter dinner celebration is a large family gathering, chances are you'll have a wide range of ages, so it's okay to plan separate activities for older and younger kids. If you're hosting an egg hunt for kids and a separate one for teenagers, divide the backyard into two zones based on age groups. Go easy on the smaller children by leaving eggs on low branches and in open spots. If you're hosting a hunt for toddlers, to make it even easier for them, think of hanging balloons instead of hiding eggs—but make it more difficult for the older participants. Challenge them by hiding eggs in hard-to-find spots, such as under leaves, in drain spouts, in the mailbox, or atop car tires.

Easter Egg Hunt Tip: The hunt doesn't end until the last egg is found, so count the eggs before you hide them, and keep track as each one is found.

Step 4: Play Some Easter Games

The fun doesn't have to stop when the last egg is found. We have creative Easter games and activities for all ages. Choose a few and set them up before your guests arrive. Play outdoor Easter games like bunny, bunny, hop (duck, duck, goose with a holiday spin) or a glow-in-the-dark egg hunt, or opt for indoor Easter games like egg bowling, pin the tail on the Easter bunny, or have our free printable Easter coloring pages printed out and ready to go.

This year, organise your own Easter Egg Hunt for your own kids in your house or backyard. It’s not that hard and it’s lots of fun. Here’s some of our best tips for a great Easter egg hunt.

Get eggs

Buy lots of different size eggs either chocolate or plastic if you would prefer keeping the chocolate consumption to a minimum. My favourite chocolates to hide are Kinder Surprise eggs, Cadbury Mini Eggs and Lindt chocolate Easter bunnies. If you choose plastic eggs, fill them with stickers, Easter jokes, gold chocolate coins, small toys, stuffed animals or lollies. You can even hide pieces of LEGO or jigsaw pieces from a small set in plastic eggs and get kids to build it once they’ve found all the pieces.

Keep an eye on the weather

Check the weather forecast as you don’t want your Easter eggs to be soaked in a rain shower. I suggest having a backup plan in case your outdoor Easter Egg hunt gets rained out. Alternately, if it’s a really hot day, you might have to limit the number of eggs stored outside and choose an indoor venue.

Keep dogs away from the Easter Egg Hunt

Keep you dog away from the garden where you’re hiding eggs. Chocolate can make dogs really sick so ensure they’re nowhere near the eggs. Make sure you let kids know that they can’t feed extra eggs to your dog as well.

Hide the eggs

This is the fun part for Easter Egg Hunt organisers. Suggested outdoor places include hiding eggs on branches, behind trees and flowerpots, in garden beds and in the mailbox. Inside, hide them under chairs, tables, toys or on bookshelves and toy boxes or behind stuffed animals.

Where you hide Easter eggs will depend on the age of the children. Make it easy for little ones by hiding them in open places while using your imagination to make it more challenging for older kids. Tip: count how many eggs you’ve hidden before the hunt to make sure you find them all!

Provide a basket or bag

Give kids a basket or a bag to collect their eggs so that they don’t drop them.

Start the Easter Egg Hunt

Blow a whistle and let kids start looking for Easter eggs. Provide hints if younger kids need help finding the eggs.

Keep the Easter fun going

After the Easter Egg Hunt, do some craft or play some Easter games. There are some fantastic ideas for Easter crafts on Pinterest if you’re craft-inclined. Whether you’re a craft diva or craft-challenged like myself, there’s something for everyone.

In 2012, Reena founded Newy with Kids to share information about family-friendly Newcastle. Originally from Canada, she had no idea about what to do with her toddler and after searching unsuccessfully for a local family guide, decided to start her own. Since that time, both the toddler and Newy with Kids have grown keeping Reena busy. If you see her out and about, say hi.

How does Easter egg hunt works?

The children typically collect the eggs in a basket. When the hunt is over, prizes may be given out for various achievements, such as the largest number of eggs collected, for the largest or smallest egg, for the most eggs of a specific color, consolation prizes or booby prizes.

How do you make an Easter egg hunt more fun?

Put rewards like extra screen time and skipping chores, little prizes or trinkets, money, coupons for things, or even tokens to trade up for a larger prize in an Easter egg store. What are some fun things to do on Easter? After your Easter egg hunt, try out one of these fun Easter games!

How do you play Easter eggs?

Split the kids into teams and have a member from each team search for an egg. Once they've found an egg, they tag the next teammate — just like a traditional relay race! This hunt leads your significant other on a scavenger hunt around the house until they finds their special Easter basket ... and you!

What is the Easter egg hunt tradition?

The egg hunt became an Easter tradition in 16th-century Germany. Martin Luther held egg hunts at the church for his congregation, where the women and children would look for eggs that the men hid around the property. This practice is symbolic of the women who discovered that the tomb was empty after the resurrection.