Tips for Planning a Successful Easter Egg Hunt

The practice of dying and decorating eggs has roots in ancient Pagan practices. Eggs, abundant in the spring time, and symbols of fertility, were decorated grandly and feasted on for celebrations involving the season of renewal and rebirth. Themes of death and resurrection were common during the season when nature was seemingly springing back to life again. The name Easter itself is believed to come from "Eostre" or "Ostara," a Saxon spring Goddess whose festival was held at the Vernal Equinox.

The Easter Egg hunt may have started centuries later with the Catholic season of Lent, the forty days before Easter devoted to fasting and prayers. During Lent, eggs were one of the foods that were forbidden, but that didn't stop chickens from continuing to lay them. Lent ends on Holy Thursday, or the Thursday before Easter Sunday. By that time, there were an abundance of eggs to enjoy that had to be used quickly before they rotted., so they were incorporated into the festivities.

Egg hunts, now celebrated both secularly and by people of different religious traditions, can be found everywhere in the Spring time, held around the Equinox or Easter Sunday. If you're planning an egg hunt this season, here is some advice and tips to help you create an event that the Big Bunny himself would be proud of.

Always prepare more eggs than you think you will need. The most important thing in the planning stages is to figure out how many children you expect to show up. Do this by surveying your group if possible, getting RSVPs, or looking to past events if it is annual. If you are advertising publicly, or holding it in a public arena such as a park, prepare for the fact that more people than you expect might attend. There's nothing quite so dampening on the occasion than having children who didn't manage to get an egg.

A good rule of thumb to go by is to provide at least 12 to 20 eggs per child, plus an additional 10% just in case. If you're worried about how the eggs go, you can instruct children that they can only take a certain amount.

Prepare a variety of different treats to find. Hide some traditional real eggs that have been hard boiled, dyed and chilled, but don't stop there. Prepare some plastic eggs stuffed with small candies such as chocolate eggs, jelly beans, gum balls and marshmallow chicks. Also consider putting in coins, erasers, stickers, small cars and cartoon figures and the like. For a special prize, have a certain kind of plastic egg, such as a sparkly or extra-large one, or one covered with stickers, with special prizes hidden in them. Tell children they may only take one of these types of special prize eggs, and make sure you have a minimum of one for each child.

Choose a suitable location. Make sure it is large enough to accommodate the number of children that you expect. If you're outdoors, make sure the area is safe from debris or anything dangerous, such as glass or rusty items. If not, clean it up or rope off unsafe things, or post warning signs. If it's a very large area, set up boundaries so that kids don't venture beyond the hunting grounds. Put up ropes or signs telling kids they're going too far out. In case of inclement weather, have a rain date set, or a back-up location indoors.

If you're indoors, remove any electrical wires and plug up any wall outlets, or just block these areas off. Put away breakables so that excited children who are looking at the ground rather than where they are going do not knock things over.

Consider the ages of the children, and prepare accordingly. The older/taller the children, the higher you can hide eggs, and the more challenging you can make the hiding places. If you have a mixture of ages, you might want to let toddlers get a small head start so they can actually collect a couple of eggs before the rest are snatched up by older children. If you have pre-teens or older who want to join in the festivities (hey, who still doesn't like candy?), you might want to set aside a portion of the area for them so that the little kids stand a chance.

Make sure adults keep watch over the children. Kids can easily get over-excited as they scurry about searching, which can lead to unintentional head bumps, crashing into each other, falling over each or stepping on each other as they run by. Adults should have their eyes peeled and call warnings if a child's position or behavior is not safe. Parents can also monitor that children are taking only their allowed number of eggs or special prize eggs. When pickings become slim, parents can always direct children to unfound eggs, by calling, "I thought I saw some eggs over there." Don't tell them exactly where they are, just give a general direction.

Have other activities planned. Egg hunts can be over in the span of a few minutes. To make the hunt an event, have other activities planned. Games, such as pin the cotton tail on the bunny or an egg toss (who can throw an egg, real or plastic, the farthers) are lots of fun. Put out some crayons, coloring pages of the Easter bunny, or supplies to make a craft. Offer children drinks after the big hunt, and provide them some space and time to go through their goodies.

Quick Tips:

- If you don't want to put the burden of purchasing and preparing all the eggs on one person, ask that parents come with 12 to 20 eggs per child they are bringing along. Have someone collect the eggs from everyone and hide them, while someone else brings the children away from the area for another activity to distract them.

- Use one or two little pieces of scotch tape on plastic eggs to secure them shut so that their contents don't spill out when hidden or rattled around.

- Freeze candy when the weather is warm the night before putting it out. That way it won't be too melted and soft when kids pick it up.

- Make a list when hiding eggs so that you can check when the hunt is over that none were left behind.

- Be careful about hiding eggs in trees, tree trunks or bushes. Make sure there are no insect nests around that a child can disturb, and don't put eggs so deep in, or into holes, where a hand might get scratched, cut or splintered when attempting to remove it.

- Have extra baskets or bags for children in case they forget theirs.

- Offer a small consolation prize to the child or children who collect the least amount of eggs.