GREAT Easter Egg Hunt Guide: Part 1 Introduction

The daffodils are sprouting...the expectations are high...but are you really ready for the Easter Egg Hunt this year?

There seems to me no better way to celebrate Spring and Easter than to see the delight of hoardes of children chasing down sugar!

I LOVE an Easter Egg Hunt so jumped at the chance to write a complete guide on making this wonderful family event great fun, memorable and manageable!

The series will run as follows:

• Introduction to the Egg Hunt
• Egg Hunt Supplies and Planning
• Planning your Egg Hunt Route - includes free downloadable worksheet
• Laying your Egg Hunt Trail

I also link to some of my other articles and content such as my Easter Basket buying guide and why our family won't be going chocolate free for Easter!

What type of Egg Hunt to Plan?!

We are in Lent and minds are whirring round to the Easter celebrations and the obligatory Easter Egg Hunt but the big debate as to how to do an Easter Egg Hunt grumbles away - and although it (probably) won't cause any family arguments it is always good to set out your positions!

Essentially, an Easter Egg Hunt usually follows one of two scenarios:

Option 1: The random find - Eggs and goodies are scattered all over a set area, such as a garden or a house, and participants randomly search high and low to collect them all as quickly as possible.  You can hide all types of sizes or eggs around and there is no specific 'loot' at the end, it's all out there to find and the lottery of what you may get is part of the excitement!

Option 2 The pre-laid trail - Using pre-written clues 'hunters' follow around a pre-laid trail from set location to set location with each solved clue directing them to the next.  At each clue there are typically some small goodies to collect in their baskets to keep them excited as to what to come.  Typically the bigger 'loot' of the main easter eggs is at the 'end' of the trail as their reward for solving all the clues.

Hannah's verdict...

If forced in to a choice (like in an 'Easter Would You Rather' scenario 😉) I would plunk for the latter, however I do love a bit of bonus hunting aswell mixed in, but it must be in the framework of a set route.  In our family we lay the clues along the trail, and then there are hidden goodies at each location to collect, but I do hide little items high and low along the route so there is still the random bonus of discovering something a little extra to pop in your easter basket.

However I would never exclusively do the former, I find it a bit too haphazard and survival of the fittest!  Maybe I am just a control freak mum but the likelihood of one child getting all the goodies and then having a 'share-off' (like a stand-off but much more stubborn!) is just too high.  From an organising point of view I don't know how you can be sure that everything has been 'found' without inventorying the loot once discovered which seems like a bit of a faff.

The pre-laid clues also mean the kids have to do a little 'work' to get their loot!  Something I am very in favour of!  I know they are just simple rhymes generally but it slows the pace down, makes the activity go on longer and - in my view - makes it more fun.  I love the way kids work together collaboratively to solve the clues and work around a trail, the 'random find' is competitive which can cause arguments and that's the last thing I want to be dealing with on a Bank Holiday weekend!

I can genuinely see the lure of the 'random find' as it requires less planning for parents, something I an entirely in favour of!  However you can find lots of easy egg hunt ideas on Pinterest or our pre-made easter clues require very little effort at all whether for indoor or outdoor hunts and I've written a whole guide on how to run a simple and easy Easter Hunt.

via GIPHY

So, for us there is no contest, clues win out every time!

Do you agree with me?  Does anyone want to make the case for the 'random find'?! let me know in the comments or on Facebook!

So that's the end of our first post in the Essentials for organising a GREAT Easter Egg Hunt - look out for the next installment on Egg Hunt Supplies!