If you’re thinking up ideas for entertainment during the Easter holidays, how about a good old fashioned Easter Egg hunt? It’s great for promoting fresh air, exercise and teamwork, and for helping you get the hordes out of the house for a couple of hours. Here’s how to do it, Cosy Home style.
Hints and tips for successful Easter Egg hunts
- If you have a mixture of ages, pair young children up with an older team mate.
- Mix the sizes of the eggs up, including mini eggs and larger eggs. This not only helps your creativity with hiding places, but will also help to limit chocolate intake!
- To make sure each child gets a fair share of treats, there are several solutions. You could have extra eggs on standby for those that miss out, or have a rule that each team can only find so many eggs before returning to ‘base camp’ and waiting for the others before setting out again. Another idea is to ask teams to collect Easter tokens rather than chocolate, then exchange the tokens for a large egg at the end of the hunt. This will not only make sure that everyone gets the same reward, but is also independent of how many tokens each child has collected. Alternatively, you could allocate each child a different coloured egg to collect, and make sure they collect only their own eggs.
- Don’t forget to hide eggs at a range of heights to accommodate different sized participants.
- Make a note of how many eggs you’ve hidden, and where they are, in case any can’t be found when the game is over.
- Make a sketch map to help any little ones who are struggling to find any eggs.
- Small baskets with handles are easiest for little hands to grip.
- To avoid a sugar rush, set a rule beforehand as to how many eggs can be consumed on the spot!
- Cordon off any areas of the garden you want to designate as ‘no go areas’ – this will probably include flower beds.
- If you want to make it a little more challenging, you can introduce clues, with each clue leading to the hiding place of the next. The eggs can be mini eggs, hidden alongside the clues, or one single large egg at the end of the hunt. This type of hunt is more complicated to set up, but will also take the children longer to complete. Protect each clue by hiding them in a container such as a plastic egg or jamjar tied with pastel ribbon.
Easter products we love:
Metal Easter Egg decorations, Gisela Graham
Decorate your home for Easter.
These pretty tin decorations make great chocolate substitutes for an Easter Egg hunt. Hang them from branches and nails around the garden, and children can swap them for chocolate eggs when they’ve collected a few.
Felt Easter baskets, The Oak Room
Fill these little baskets with sweets for an alternative Easter gift.
These cute, lightweight little baskets are ideal for taking on the hunt, or for giving as gift bags. £4.99 each, available from the Oak Room.
Easter Egg hunt sign, Gisela Graham
Point the way to egg hunt with this wooden sign.
This wooden arrow sign is painted in bright colours and Spring flowers, and is perfect for pointing the way to the start of the course or for heading participants off a certain area of the garden. Available from The Contemporary Home as before, priced at £6.
Easter Egg hunt invitations, Honey Tree Bespoke
Add your choice of text and illustration to personalise these invitations.
If you’re inviting children from other families, organise some Easter Egg hunt invitations. Ask your children to design and make their own, or go for a professional result with these beautiful invitations, £1.95 each from Honey Tree Bespoke, which can be personalised to your own requirements.
