Do you want to have an Easter egg hunt this year but don’t know where to begin? Look no further . . . Here are our tips, and a handy timeline, to help you plan an amazing Easter egg hunt this year. BONUS: We also include our favorite Easter egg hunt ideas for people of all ages.
3-4 Weeks ahead
Determine the theme of your Easter egg hunt
The first step to plan an Easter egg hunt is to determine your theme. First, ask yourself the following questions:
1- What is the age group you are planning your Easter egg hunt for?
Is it for kids, teenagers or adults? Your guests will help you determine the theme, what’s in the eggs (if anything), the time of day and even the location.
2- Where will you hold your Easter egg hunt?
Will you have your Easter egg hunt at home, or at a local venue such as a park? Will it be inside or outside?
3- What time of day will you hold your Easter egg hunt?
Will your Easter egg hunt be in the morning, afternoon or evening?
Once you answer these questions, you can start to develop the theme of your party. Alternatively, you can pick a party theme which will help answer the above questions. For example, a glow in the dark Easter egg hunt probably has to be done at night. At the end of our timeline to help you plan an Easter egg hint are some of our favorite hunt ideas.
Book the venue or get permits, if necessary
Many local parks don’t require permits to hold small events, but it’s better to be safe rather than sorry. The last thing you want is the police showing up and ruining your beautiful party.
2 Weeks ahead
Send out the invitations
You can do this more than two weeks in advance, but with today’s fast pace, two weeks is typically all the advance warning people need. This is particularly true if you have been talking about the event with your friends in the planning stages. Sending out digital invitations can also cut down on the planning time you need to give people. However, paper invitations can be so much fun, and lend an elegance to your Easter egg hunt.
Plan the menu
Since it’s Easter, there will likely be a lot of candy involved in your day. An excellent, and easy, way to counter this is to serve some raw veggies with dip. If you have an air fryer, this fried cauliflower recipe is a sure crowd pleaser: Crispy Air Fryer Cauliflower. Deviled eggs are an excellent source of protein and are a great way to use up any extra eggs you purchased.
For dessert, you will obviously want some sort of sweet treat to keep with the theme. Our all time favorite has to be the Bunny Butt Cake. If you are looking for a variation on the Bunny Butt Cake, you can make Candy Cottontail Bunny Cookies! These sweet treats are so easy to make that you can get your kids, grandchildren, nieces or nephews to help.
Purchase decorations and items you need for the eggs
Anyone that has gone to a party store in the days leading up to a major holiday knows that they never, ever want to repeat the experience. Not only are lines long, but people can be aggressive and many items sold out. It’s best to do your in person shopping early. The same is true if you are shopping online- you need to give items time to be delivered. This is especially true in 2022, with some items being hard to obtain due to supply chain issues.
TIP: Don’t forget to purchase Easter egg baskets. Your guests will need something to collect the eggs in.
1 Week ahead
Shop for your food
TIP: Planning an Easter egg hunt can take a lot of time. You can make things easier on yourself by serving simple dishes and even doing your grocery shopping online.
Shop for egg decorating items
If you are using real eggs, remember that hard boiled eggs only last a week. Thus you probably want to wait to dye them until a day or two before your hunt. That said, you can get everything you need ready a few days in advance. This includes the eggs, dye and any items you may want to decorate the eggs with. Nowadays. there is a plethora of interesting egg decorating ideas: from gold foil to temporary tattoos. Here are some of our favorite: Beautiful Easter Egg Decorating Ideas
2-3 Days ahead
Do your baking
TIP: Easter baking can be a lot of fun, if that’s your thing. However, if you are one of those people that find baking intimidating, Easter is one of the best times to buy treats made in a bakery.
Decorate your home
Decorating your home for Easter must adds to the fun. It doesn’t have to be complicated- it can be as simple as putting some fresh spring flowers on the table and some beautiful chocolate eggs in a candy dish. If you want to do something a little more involved, here are some of our favorite Easter decorating ideas.
Decide what you will wear
Nothing says Easter like a new dress or hat. It’s the time to roll out the spring clothes and, in many places, Easter is the first day of the year it’s appropriate to wear white shoes.
The day before
Prep your food
TIP: You can cut down on cooking time by prepping food in advance. Time consuming things like cutting vegetables are best done in advance. This will help you eliminate unnecessary stress the day of your party.
Make and dye the Easter eggs
If you are using fresh eggs for your Easter egg hunt, you will want to boil and dye them the day before. People can accumulate a lot of eggs in an Easter egg hunt, so you want to make sure they have ample time to eat them so they don’t go to waste.
The day of your Easter egg hunt
Hide the eggs, greet your guests and enjoy the fun!
BONUS: Our favorite Easter egg hunt ideas
Want to mix it up a little? Here are some of our favorite Easter egg hunt ideas, for kids and adults alike.
Bunny Lollipop Hunt
This is a great idea if you don’t want to use plastic eggs and don’t want to make your own. It’s great for younger kids. Instead of having them hunt for eggs, you can have them hunt for lollipops. All you need is:
- Lollipops
- Tissue paper (for the head)
- Colored string
- Construction paper (for the ears and other bunny decorations)
- Scissors
- Glue gun
Here are instructions on how to make the bunny lollipops: DIY Easter Bunny Lollipops
Once you have the lollipops made, make sure to count them before you hide them in the yard/your house. This way, you will know if the kids miss some and you can send them back out. Just make sure to provide a basket or bag for the kids to collect the lollipops in, so they aren’t running around with sticks in their hands (not very safe).
Glow in the Dark Easter egg hunt
This one is fun for both kids and adults. All you need are plastic eggs, glow sticks and candy (if you like). The only hard part is that you will need to be organized as the glow sticks only last a few hours- particularly if you get small enough ones to fit inside the eggs.
An hour or two before the hunt, crack the glow sticks and put inside the eggs. You can add a piece of candy to each egg if you like. Hide the eggs and when it gets dark, invite your guests to find all the eggs. Everyone will love this magical event- even adults.
LEGO Easter egg hunt
This is a fantastic idea if you are trying to cut down on candy consumption, or have guests that love LEGOS. It’s also much more relaxing for you: instead of having a bunch of kids amped up on sugar running around the house, you will have kids quietly putting together LEGO sets.
Another great thing about this idea is that there are LEGO sets for kids of all ages, which are clearly marked on the boxes. It’s also quite easy to do.
HOW TO: Purchase a LEGO kit and some plastic eggs. Put a few pieces in each egg and hide them. Once the kids find all the eggs, they can pool the pieces together to make the final design. If you have kids of different ages, or kids that aren’t particularly good at cooperating, you can purchase a kit for each child. Color code the eggs and tell each kid their color: Blue eggs for the Batman LEGO kit, red eggs for the car kit, etc.
This is also a fun idea for adults as they make so many different LEGO kits. Think how much fun it would be to have a party for your girlfriends to put together a Spice Girls LEGO kit while enjoying some Easter candy cocktails! Look at how much this Cotton Candy Cocktail looks like an Easter Bunny tail:
Bath Bomb Easter egg hunt
Looking for an idea for teenage girls, or your friends? How about a bath bomb Easter egg hunt? You can make the bath bombs yourself and put in egg shaped molds, or simply purchase them from a place like Lush. If you purchase them from Lush, you can have a whole spa themed Easter Egg Hunt, including adorable things like golden eggs, white rabbits and our favorite . . . The Bunny Butt Body Scrub Bomb
