Did you ever have an Easter egg hunt with varying ages and find that the older kids had gathered up most of the eggs before the younger ones had a chance? I have. You can always save some extra eggs to give the little ones after the hunt. But I have another idea. Not sure yet when I’ll have a chance to use it, but I thought I’d pass the idea on. You might want to experiment and see if this concept works for you.

FOR A SMALLER HUNT FOR FAMILY OR FRIENDS, why not assign a certain color or two to each child? Then they will all end up with the same amount of eggs but have fun finding them. Younger kids who don’t understand the color concept will need an adult to help out. Explain that they are only looking for a special color of egg, and they have to leave the other ones there.

1. Rather than using baskets, you could use some inexpensive gift bags. They are easier to store, and the kids may already have other Easter baskets. There are lots of Easter bags available online. You could even write the name of a child on each bag, as well as what color egg is assigned.
2. Tell the kids to zip their lips when they see an egg that isn’t their color. It will spoil the fun if they spill the locations of the eggs belonging to other hunters.
3. If you’re planning to have a meal together in conjunction with the hunt, it might be wise to have your meal first. Otherwise, some of the kids will probably want to fill up on candy and won’t be hungry for regular food. Of course, chocolate candy can melt in afternoon sun, and some kids need afternoon naps. Breakfasts or brunches before the hunt are a nice idea.

HOW TO MAKE A GOOD EASTER EGG HUNT HAPPEN

Possibly this color concept could be helpful for HUNTS FOR LARGER GROUPS OF KIDS, if the hunt isn’t large enough to warrant separate hunts for different age ranges.

• You might have a sample of each color egg, with the samples showing the ages of the children who should hunt for that color (see photo). That way the kids competing for the same colors will be the same age range, so it’s more of a fair competition.
• Younger children who aren’t yet capable of understanding that they are looking for a certain color would need the help of someone older.
• If you have a big imbalance in the number of kids in each age group, this will not work as well. You need about the same number of children in each age group so that one group won’t have lots of eggs per child and one group very few per child. When you buy a dozen plastic eggs, you will probably have two or three of each color. It would be difficult to have more eggs of one particular color to accommodate a larger group of kids.
• You may be able to adjust the parameters of the age range assigned to each color, in order to make the sizes of the groups more uniform.
• With this system, you can eliminate candy that is hard to chew, messy, or a choking hazard for the younger kids, but still use them for the older kids.
• It would be good to have a few extra eggs on hand with candy suitable for any age, just in case a couple of kids somehow don’t beat their competitors to any of the eggs.

If you’re not having the kids bring their own baskets or bags, you can buy some Easter gift bags, as mentioned above. If you need to keep the cost down, you could buy lunch bags and turn back the tops about 2” and crease, to reinforce the strength. Then you could let each child have a few Easter stickers to decorate their bag. Having crayons available and writing names on bags will avoid later squabbles over whose bag is whose.

You should be able to find plenty of help for planning larger hunts online.

Just for fun, you might have A SPECIAL PRIZE EGG. Some stores sell “golden” plastic eggs for that purpose. If you don’t have a “golden” egg, you could mark the special egg with a bow or in some other way. You could put something special in it, like a $5, $10, or $20 bill, or you could have a prize on display and say that whoever finds the special egg gets the prize. That would add a little extra excitement. Money might be easiest if a wide age range makes selecting an appropriate prize difficult.

If the kids are all close to the same age, some options might be a Bible story book, a devotional, or a game.

There are some ways to HELP KIDS REMEMBER WHAT EASTER IS REALLY ABOUT. One way would be to show a video about the Easter story before or after the hunt. For younger kids you could present the Resurrection Eggs. For older kids you could include some Bible verses related to Easter and receiving Christ, folded up and placed in eggs with the candy. Twelve verses you could use are: Matthew 28:6, John 1:12, John 1:29, John 3:16, John 11:25, John 14:6, Romans 5:1, Romans 6:23, Romans 10:9, I Corinthians 1:18, Hebrews 9:14, and Hebrews 12:2.

To see a printable copy of the Bible verses that you could cut apart , CLICK HERE.