by Heidi Peaster

Created on: May 05, 2010

Who doesn’t love an Easter egg hunt?  If you have decided to have one for your neighborhood, or just for a few members of your extended family, here are a few fun ideas.

* If you want to go the old-fashioned way and dye real eggs, figure up how many participants you will have hunting them and try to get about 10 to 12 per person.  That will probably be a LOT of eggs, but, if you and your family are into that, it can be a lot of fun, too.

* If you do the plastic egg route, do the same figuring.  It is a temptation to buy a ton of the plastic eggs since they are so nice and cheap, but remember that you will probably be stuffing each.  That will be added cost and effort.  You really don’t want to stuff two thousand eggs.

* You will have to pray for a pretty day, for a big Easter egg hunt is really best outdoors.  If you have a patio or deck, tie pastel crepe paper streamers to fly from any tall post, banister, or tree.  They don’t have to be draped; in fact, the effect is better if they are just loose and flowing.

Helium balloons in pastel colors look like big Easter eggs themselves and can be given out to the kids as favors afterward.

* A fun investment for this and other parties is a bubble making machine.  Set it out of the way, in an elevated area where the bubbles will float over the party area (avoiding the food, of course.)

* Fill your plastic eggs with any of a zillion kinds of Easter candy.  Have just a few jelly beans or whatever per egg. 

* Pick one color of egg and put money inside.  Many people use a gold egg for this.  In some, put a couple of dimes, some quarters, some a dollar bill and a few a five or even ten dollar bill. 

* If you want to preserve the meaning of Easter, put a small slip of paper inside the eggs with a Bible verse.

* In a few eggs, have a slip of paper with a number on it.  Tell your guests to hang onto their numbers.  You will have a basket with the slips of paper with the same numbers on them.

* If you have kids hunting of a wide age range, have a designated area for younger kids and another for older ones where the eggs harder to locate.

* At the end of the hunt, draw a number.  Have a prize ready for the winner; a big stuffed bunny, a fancy Easter basket with prizes inside, etc.  One prize for a girl, one for a boy is a good idea, or if you have kids of various ages, one prize for older kids, one for younger would be smart.

* Have snacks and drinks on hand that are appropriate.  This is the time for cookies frosted in bright and pastel colors, set on your glass serving platters.  If you can splurge on a cotton candy machine rental, that is always fun.  Pull out that big, cut glass punch bowl (but not the glass cups) and have the punch green or pink with a slab of vanilla ice cream floating in it to make it frothy.

If you want less sugar, get out the rabbit food!  Baby carrots to dip in ranch dressing appeals to almost everybody.  Celery sticks for the same dip are good too.  Fruit salad with shredded coconut to look like Easter grass and miniature marshmallows stirred in is always a hit.  Have small glass dishes of mixed nuts and pastel mints around for the grazers.

At the end of the Easter egg hunt, no favors are needed to send home.  Your guests have found them all themselves!

Learn more about this author, Heidi Peaster.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.