Easter 2015: 10 Fun And Original Easter Egg Hunt Ideas For Kids

In just over a month, Easter 2015 will be upon us, and we all know that Easter brings along with it that rascally rabbit, the Easter Bunny, who gets his kicks out of getting the children of the world hopped up on chocolatey, sugary goodness.

There are many different ways in which to get your kiddos into the Easter spirit. For example, you can scare the crap out of them by making them visit some terrifying version of the Easter Bunny, like these parents did, (thanks for that, Buzzfeed), or you can make it a fun holiday, rather than a horrifying one that will scar them for the rest of their lives. I mean, it’s 2015, after all, and if you’re really into the idea of scaring your kids, there are much better ways to do it that don’t involve a creepy old man in a smelly suit. That’s what Christmas is for!

So without further adieu, I present to you ten fun and original Easter hunt ideas for little bun buns of all ages.

Coming in at No. 10 is Alphabet Soup, a fun game for parents of little ones old enough to spell. Hide a bunch of plastic eggs around the house, or yard, or wherever you plan to have the hunt, that each have a letter of the alphabet written on them. The kids then have to hunt to find the eggs, and once they have the proper letters to spell out their own names, or some Easter word(s) of your choosing, they trade them in for a prize, or an Easter basket filled with goodies.

When it comes to holidays, like Easter, where more than one child is gathered to get treats, I’ve always been partial to ensuring that all kids get an equal share. That doesn’t mean, however, that a little healthy competition is out of the question. That’s where No. 9 comes in, The Golden Egg. In this game, you can hide regular color coded treats (one color for each child), but tell them that while they’re searching for their own colors, there is a special golden egg hidden as well, and that whichever child finds the golden egg gets an extra treat or prize. If you have a bunch of kids, considering hiding more than one golden egg, though still not one for each child. Also consider the age of the children playing; toddlers may not be able to understand why their sibling got a extra prize, and they didn’t.

At No. 8, as with any Scavenger Hunt, provide a list for all participants of things they need to find. For example, a bag of jelly beans, four small chocolate Easter eggs, a plush rabbit, a sheet of stickers. Once they check off everything on their list, you can then give them one last clue that will lead them to their Easter baskets. Alexis Givens over at The Daily Meal suggests using pictures or drawings for children who aren’t old enough to read yet.

Pirates are so in right now! So for No. 7, we’ve got Shiver Me Timbers, a pirate-themed hunt. To start, provide things like eye patches and bandannas for the kiddies to wear to really get into the theme of it, and then give them a treasure map that will lead them to the ‘buried treasure’. Hide clues along the way, like bunny prints, or pieces of carrot, to let them know that they’re on the right track.

Older kids will appreciate No. 6, Lights Out, a game played in the dark. Make it a night time, or evening hunt, where they have to search for their loot in total blackness, using flash lights. You can do it outside, or inside with the lights off. Alternatively, instead of flash lights, you can make it a glow-in-the-dark theme where they have to hunt for plastic eggs filled with tiny glow sticks, or covered in glow-in-the-dark paint.

A great way to turn an Easter egg hunt into an activity that promotes team work is to make the kids work together for a common goal. No. 5 helps promote teamwork with A Puzzling Experience. Write a clue to the whereabouts of their baskets on a piece of brightly colored cardboard, and cut it into a small puzzle. Put each puzzle piece into a plastic egg, and hide the eggs around the house or yard. Once they’ve collected all the eggs, they then need to put the puzzle together in order to get the clue to find their prize.

At No. 4, we have Balloon Pop. Hide treats, or clues inside balloons, blow them up, and hide them around the search area. Children will then have to find and pop the balloons to get to the treats or clues inside.

A game that is fun for young kids (6-years-old and younger), is No. 3, called String Theory. Providing you have five children or less, and enough room for kids to not smash into each other (at least not hard), kids and parents will both enjoy this one. Get a different colored string for each child, and tie one end to their basket, hidden somewhere in the house. The other end of each string, weave in and out of rooms, over and under furniture, and anywhere else you can think. Give the end of the strings to each child, and turn them loose! Watching them try to follow their strings, without running into one another is definitely worthy of recording.

Another game for the kindergarten crowd is No. 2, Walk This Way. Cut out different colored bunny prints, and tape them to the floor. Like the string game, make them go in and out of rooms, and under furniture, until they ultimately end at their Easter baskets. Each child starts in the same room, with their own color, and has to follow the prints throughout the house (or yard, or search area), to find where the Easter Bunny left their basket.

And the No. 1 game to play with your kids during Easter 2015 is called Riddle Me This, and holds a special place in my heart, as it’s the one my parents played with me every Easter, until I was well into my teens. Hide each treat in a different place, and hand the child a clue in the form of a riddle, for each treat. Riddles can be rhyming if you like, “I make your clothes go from wet to dry, tumble, tumble, what am I?” (Answer: The dryer), or not rhyming, “Every night before bed, this is what Mommy makes you do.” (Answer: Brush your teeth, so the treat could be hidden near the bathroom sink). For children not old enough to read yet, you will have to read the riddles for them.

So now that you’ve got a whole bunch of fun ideas, go forth and make Easter 2015 the best one yet!

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