How to Throw an Easter Egg Hunt

[Most Recent Update: March 20, 2018]

For the last six years, I have hosted an Easter Egg hunt for my friends every spring and at the risk of tooting my own horn, it’s one of my best events. I wish I could take credit for it, but honestly, I have attended quite a few egg hunts as a parent and all I did was model mine after one thrown by my friend, CK.

I suspect I will be throwing Easter Egg hunts for at least another 5-10 years depending on my youngest and whether or not my older children will want to attend. (Hmmmm… if it’s another 10 years, my oldest will be 19! Somehow, I don’t think he’ll be interested.)

At any rate, below is a handy dandy list for how you, too, can throw an awesome egg hunt.

How to Throw an Easter Egg Hunt

How to Throw an Easter Egg Hunt:

1) Choose a location. This depends on the weather, how many people you invite, and how big your house is. I usually choose a not overly popular park on a Sunday. (I’m hoping there will be fewer soccer/baseball games and that people are at church.)

2) Make it a potluck. If that’s not your thing, you can suggest people bring their own picnic lunch/dinner. Or, you can skip that part entirely. Whatever you want. It’s your egg hunt.

3) Have attendees bring 20-25 eggs per participating child. (ie: If you have 2 kids participating in the hunt, bring 40-50 eggs.) Make sure you specify that the eggs should be filled. I kid you not. Some woman showed up one year and passed out empty eggs.

4) Provide extra eggs. There is nothing sadder (at an egg hunt, anyway) than running out of eggs. I usually provide several hundred for my egg hunts, but that doesn’t mean you need to be that extreme. However, should you go the crazy route, I highly recommend going to Oriental Trading Company (pardon the somewhat sketchy name). They sell 144 eggs for $8. $8!!! That’s RIDICULOUS.

5) If you have it at a park, bring anything you would normally have at a BBQ. Pop-up tents, easy ups, blankets, etc. Those make life much easier – especially if the weather is hot and the park doesn’t have a lot of shade.

One year, it was 95 degrees at the egg hunt. That was not expected. The chocolate in some of the eggs actually melted. More likely, you run the risk of being rained out. I have had to re-schedule egg hunts due to incessant rain. This year might be a near thing, but I don’t think there is rain in the forecast on the actual day – just every day leading up to the egg hunt. We’re going to have a muddy good time.

6) Have a stated start time and stick to it. I had the party start at 10:30am, but the egg hunt didn’t start until 11:30 because I knew people would be late. However, I warned people in the invite that we would start the egg hunt on time (to respect all the people who are punctual) and I asked participating parents to bring their eggs by 11:15 so we would have time to “hide” the eggs (aka: throw them all on the lawn).

7) Mix up the eggs! Otherwise, your kids end up getting all the same stuff. While that might make the kid who managed to get all candy in their eggs really happy, that might make the other kids who only got stickers sad.

8) Here are some great suggestions (which I got from CK) for things to put in your eggs that don’t involve candy (of course use your best judgment and avoid things that are choking hazards):

– Money, coins, fake
– Marbles
– Stickers
– Small toy cars
– Dice
– Small Tops
– Decorative shoelaces
– Hairclips
– Beaded safety pin
– Beads
– Finger puppets
– Squeeze ball
– Fun coupons
– Seashells
– Polished rocks
– Doll clothes
– Crayons
– Lip gloss
– Erasers
– Whistle
– Nail polish
– Keychain
– Jewelry
– Pencil grips
– Temporary tattoos
– Video game memory card
– Small action figure
– Small note pad
– Plastic links
– Coin purse
– Pedometer
– Small plastic animals
– Bookmark
– Rubber stamps
– Makeup
– Playdough
– Silly Putty
– Socks
– Bandanna
– Earphones
– Charms
– Lanyard
– Small stuffed animal
– Mini bottle of bubbles
– Body glitter
– Superball
– Fortune teller
– Fidget toy
– Wristband
– Confetti
Honestly, I used to wrack my brain to fill the eggs with this stuff, but now, I just shove in candy. Sorrynotsorry.

That’s it! Well, ok. Not really. I usually send out an Evite and ask people to tell me what food item they are bringing in the comments. Now, that’s it. Everyone seemed to think that the party was difficult, but it really wasn’t. All I did really was set a time and place and tell people to come. I only provided the idea and some food and eggs. That’s why it’s my favorite event – so little work yet SO MUCH FUN!

Here’s a video from the 2016 Egg Hunt. I love it because it reminds me of Braveheart where they run into battle.

And in case you want another video, here’s the 2015 Egg Hunt: