Seasons > Easter > Ways to Celebrate Easter in the Church > Easter Egg Hunt

Children really enjoy a hide and seek game, especially if there is a sweet treat involved, so an Easter Egg Hunt is a fun way to celebrate Easter! When large numbers of children are involved, it gets a little complicated to organize. Here are a few things to consider when planning one.

Egg / Goodie Options

1. 1.Real hard boiled eggs--I definitely recommend hiding these outside incase any eggs don’t get found--they will rot outside rather than in!!
   

2. 2.Plastic eggs filled with a candy treat
   

3. 3.Chocolate eggs--I definitely recommend hiding these indoors so that they don’t melt in the sunshine!
   

4. 4.Packets of egg shaped candy such as jelly beans
   

5. 5.Egg shaped paper or plastic that can be traded in for candy treats, or tape wrapped candy to the back.
   

NOTE: It will cost a lot less to do an Easter egg hunt every year if you ask the children to keep the candy, but return the eggs so they can be reused year after year.

Ways to Divide the Egg Hunt for Different Ages

Older kids can find the eggs much more easily than younger children. But if you hide them so that the youngest children can find them, the older children will take the easy ones first, then move onto the harder ones--long before the younger ones have even spotted the eggs. If you only hide the treats in hard places, the youngest children will never find them! There are a few ways to work around these problems:

1. 1.Assign certain colors to certain age groups, then make sure each color is hidden in the way appropriate for that age group--out in the open for toddlers, and successively more difficult for the various ages. The other important thing to do is to make sure the children are told which color to look for, and have adults make sure they stick to it.
   

2. 2.Assign separate areas for different age groups--whether it is roping off areas outdoors, or assigning specific rooms for each age group indoors.
   

3. 3.Divide the time--allowing each age group to look for eggs at a different time. This doesn’t have to be a problem for parents--just have the other age groups doing something else while the one group is hunting for eggs. Other activities might be eating a snack, watching a movie, hearing a story, or making a craft.
   

NOTE: make sure you train some adult monitors to graciously keep competitive kids and even parents in check--yes, some parents are so intent on “helping” their kids, that they go a little berserk. If you have enough staff to supervise the groups of kids, you could even have a separate activity for the parents--they could chat with each other over coffee, or hear an Easter message geared toward adults.

Easter “Basket” Options for Collecting Eggs

Once kids have 2 eggs, their hands are full, so if you expect them to pick up more than that, it would be helpful to give them some kind of container to put them in. Here are a few ideas, starting from least expensive. The last 3 options are more expensive, but with the thought that they would be reused every year:

1. 1.Paper lunch bags, especially if you can get them in white or pastel colors. You could have a craft activity first, and let the kids decorate the bags with stamps depicting the Easter story.
   

2. 2.Plastic bags, preferably with handles. Be sure these are too small for children to put over their own heads, or even their friends’ or siblings’ heads-- so there is no danger of suffocating. Make sure there are enough adults to keep vigilant watch as well.
   

3. 3.Felt bags with handles sewn by church members
   

4. 4.Plastic buckets sold at dollar stores used for playing in the sand
   

5. 5.Easter baskets sold at dollar stores
   

6. 6.have a bucket or basket in the middle of the area where kids can deposit the eggs and just stuff the candy into their pockets--it will slow them down a bit, which is not a bad thing, either!
   

Note: If these options worn’t work for your church, don’t worry about it. Kids find a way, if it is nothing more than filling pockets, or folding up the bottom of their shirt to hold as a pocket.

An Easter Egg Hunt with Meaning

Don’t let this event go by without coming up with some way to tell the Easter story! The easiest way to do this might be to show a video. (Christian Books and Vision Video both sell Christian Easter videos for Children) Another option is to tell the Easter story. using the Easter egg theme, you can use plastic eggs that have objects from the Easter story hidden inside them instead of candy. There are 3 options for presenting these:

1. 1.Hide these special eggs along with the candy filled eggs. This can be a bit problematic, since these special eggs could get lost in the excitement of the moment.
   

2. 2. Hide these special eggs and let the children look for them in  a separate setting from the candy filed eggs.
   

3. 3.Skip the hiding and finding part, and just tell the story as you open each egg.
   

4. 4.If you can’t find plastic eggs large enough to hold the objects (they have to be big enough for the group to see), skip the eggs. Get a picnic basket and pull the objects out one at a time to tell the story.
   

NOTE: Number the eggs to help you tell the story in the right order. Also, it will help the children know when to hand you an egg, if you ask for the numbered egg they are holding. Tell the children not to open the eggs until you call them to the front--that way they open the eggs when you are close enough to take the item from them and talk about it.

view how to make resurrection egg sets

link to Christian Books site that sells resurrection egg sets

Where to Get Supplies

In America, dollar stores and Walmart are probably the cheapest places to get plastic eggs, candy, Easter baskets, and fake grass. To order on line, there are 2 great sites:

Oriental Trading Company sells plastic eggs and candy

Christian Books sell all kinds of Christian Easter supplies, including resurrection egg sets

A note about why I choose to use eggs for Easter:

Some Christians reject using any sort of eggs for Easter because, according to some sources, eggs originated from a pagan practice, thousands of years ago. If people still practiced this religion today, I would have a big problem with using eggs, but there isn’t.  It would be hard to see any resemblance to our plastic or chocolate eggs if you did not read about some connection in history. There are 2 reasons that make me think it is a good idea to keep this tradition. One is Resurrection egg sets. These plastic egg sets contain objects that help you tell the Easter story. This is a great way to make the Easter story hands on for kids. (You can make your own resurrection egg sets, or buy sets. ) The other reason I use decorated eggs for Easter is because I once read that decorated eggs began when Christians were being persecuted. These Christians wanted to send Easter greetings, so to avoid detection, they decorated the eggs with Christian symbols. The people who were persecuting them were not familiar with the meaning behind these symbols, so the Christians were able to send their greetings without detection.

Seasons > Easter > Ways to Celebrate Easter in the Church > Easter Egg Hunt