Host an Easter Egg Hunt!

Time to host a neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt!  You can hold this party on the weekend before Easter, and make it fun for the entire neighborhood.  Depending upon where you live, it could be cold, or even snowy while you host an Easter Egg Hunt.  But no matter, it’s still lots of fun! Here’s how to throw a fun neighborhood party in the sun or in the snow.

Invitations

Usually, invitations are standard – paper or electronic? Printed at home or printed somewhere else?  But, for an Easter Egg Hunt, the invitations MUST match the party.  Print the invitation details on a regular piece of copy paper, fold it up so that it is teeny tiny, and then put it in a plastic EGG!  Then, deliver the eggs to your neighbors.  If you want, you can close the egg with a thin loop of ribbon hanging out so that you can hang the egg on your neighbors’ doors.

Heading off Egg Angst

Anytime you have a bunch of small children in the same area, “hunting” for the same things, you run the risk of the little ones fussing.  Here’s a good idea to head off the inequality.  Make little festive Easter containers of candy, label one for each child (or two or more separate treats for each child).  Make part of the hunt – preferably the second part of the hunt – the hunt for each child’s own bag/container.  That way, they can help each other and/or leave the hunt with good memories of finding their bag!

For the hunt itself, plastic eggs are the most cost-effective.  Fill with candy, small coins, little toys, temporary tattoos, and more.  You might want to have one area for the “big kids” and one area for the “little kids.”

Easter Basket Decorating

A fun activity, pre-hunt, is to let the kids decorate their own Easter baskets.  You can ask them to bring a plain basket to decorate, or buy inexpensive baskets.  Put out crepe paper, ribbons, Easter grass, construction paper, stickers, feathers, and more!  You’ll need lots of tacky craft glue and tape. Let the baskets dry and enjoy some Easter Egg Hunt goodies before hunting the eggs!

Easter Egg Hunt Treats

Here are some treats that are guaranteed to delight all of your Easter Egg Hunt guests:

• Sugar cookies  (You can let the kids decorate, if you’re up for the mess)
• Hot Chocolate
• Deviled eggs (Mainly for the parents, but a little protein with the sugar never hurt anyone)
• Egg Salad Sandwiches
• Fruit kebabs
• Cheese and crackers
• Animal crackers
• Coffee and Tea
• And, of COURSE, Easter Candy!

Egg-Citing Activities

After the Easter Egg hunt, have some more games.  An egg toss is fun for everyone. You can have an egg toss into a bucket for younger kids, and a pairs toss competition for older kids and adults.  For extra fun, let the adults toss RAW eggs.  (You might want to tell people to wear old clothes!)

Let the kids decorate or dye their own hardboiled eggs to take home, just before it is time to leave.  You can do traditional dye, but markers, paint and stickers are slightly less messy.

A Visit from the Easter Bunny

You can rent an Easter Bunny costume pretty inexpensively, or buy a costume for use year after year.  Arrange a visit from the Easter Bunny, and have a camera handy.  Then, upload the Bunny photos to Snapfish and invite the event attendees to take a look.

Plan for more activities than just the hunt, and your guests will have egg-fulls of fun!