Do an Easter Egg Hunt Indoors

Easter egg hunts are a common Easter holiday tradition, especially for children. Fortunately, there are plenty of places to hide eggs even if you do not have access to an outdoor area or good weather. Besides information on preparing for the egg hunt itself, this article includes extra tips on how to make it more exciting or organize additional activities.

Steps

Preparing for the Egg Hunt

  1. Obtain eggs for the Easter egg hunt. You can use real, hard-boiled eggs Dye-Eggs-for-Easter for the Easter holiday, or plastic, hollow Easter eggs you can fill with goodies. Chalk eggs are also available, but this may not be a good idea when hosting indoors, as the children may draw on your furniture.
    • Make sure an adult boils the egg. Keep in mind that real eggs may be smashed by young children, and will rot if they are not found. Consider plastic eggs if you would like to keep the indoor area clean.
  2. Purchase treats if using plastic eggs. Plastic Easter eggs can be filled with goodies such as chocolate, candy, jelly beans, fruit, money, toys, or other small prizes that children will enjoy. Some families and groups choose to hide empty eggs, then distribute treats equally among the children after the hunt is over.
    • Ask the parents of visiting children whether there are any treats you should avoid. Some children are allergic to nuts, and toddlers may not be able to eat chocolate or hard candies.
  3. Choose specific indoor areas where the egg hunt will take place. Before you hide the eggs, you should determine which rooms or places children are safely allowed to search. For example, choose safe, open rooms such as the living room or den, instead of the utility closet where dangerous tools and chemicals are stored.
    • Lock off-limits rooms if possible, or hang signs that read "Do not enter" on cabinets and the doors of rooms you don't want searched. Hang the signs at the eye level of the children, and tell kids who cannot read where they are supposed to search.
    • Store important documents, fragile items, and private objects in an off-limits area where children will not be searching.
  4. Follow safety precautions. While most parents will not expect you to fully child proof your house, there are some easy and temporary safety adjustments you could make. Think about taping cardboard or foam over sharp corners of coffee tables. Move medicines and cleaning chemicals to higher shelves or locked cupboards. These precautions are especially important for toddlers and young children.
  5. Consider color coding the eggs for children of different ages. If children with a wide range of ages or abilities will be hunting for Easter eggs, it might be more fun for everyone if different children search for different eggs. For instance, you could tell the older children that they should only look for the hard-to-find red eggs, while the purple eggs are left in easier places for the younger kids to find.
    • If there are many children visiting, you could even write the name of each child on one or more eggs and instruct the children only to find eggs with their own name written on it. To avoid arguments, make sure each child has an equal amount of eggs, and that you know where every egg is hidden so you can help out.
    • If a relatively older child gets upset that they aren't allowed to pick up certain eggs, encourage him or her to help out a younger kid by pointing to the easy to find eggs.

Hiding the Eggs

  1. Write down the location of each Easter egg as you hide it. Write down each egg's location so you don't forget where it is. This list will help you give clues and hints to the children that are having trouble finding eggs. Additionally, a list of locations will let you check for leftover eggs after the party. If you forget where you hide an egg and no one finds it, the egg may rot, or if plastic, the treats inside may go stale or attract pests.
  2. Hide the Easter eggs while children are not around. To help ensure that the Easter egg hunt is fun for the children, you should hide the eggs when the children are asleep, or absent from the location. For example, hide the Easter eggs on the night before Easter.
    • If you would like help hiding the eggs or other adults and older children would like to join in, you may hide the eggs on Easter while the young children are being supervised in another room.
    • If you are hiding eggs while children are awake, distract them first with a big homemade breakfast, a board game, or coloring books.
  3. Hide eggs in easy places for children five and under. Toddlers and young children will probably have the most fun if you hide eggs in easy to see places low enough for them to reach. Place them in plain sight in the corner of the floor, in Easter baskets on top of short tables, or on top of flower pots low to the ground without much leaf cover.
    • You might want to wait until the egg hunt begins to place eggs directly on the floor, or someone might step on them. Children under three probably won't notice even if you "hide" the eggs while they are in the room.
  4. Hide the eggs in more difficult places for children aged six and up. Many children six and older enjoy looking for eggs in harder to find places, such as underneath or inside objects. The enthusiasm, height, and egg-finding abilities of children this age can vary widely, so hide some of these eggs in easier places than others.
    • Place eggs on cupboard shelves or in drawers. You may hide them more behind a book or underneath a magazine for children on the older side of this range.
    • Hide eggs in piles of other objects. Children this age will probably be more enthusiastic about looking through a pile of stuffed animals or in a basket of mail.[1][2]
    • Hide the eggs inside other objects. Hide an egg in a kitchen pot, pillowcase, or an upside down bowl.
  5. Hide the eggs in difficult locations for older children or an extra challenge. Even if you don't have any older children joining in the egg hunt, some of the younger kids might get enthusiastic and want to search for some difficult treasure. Remember that many adults enjoy helping the children find eggs, and coming up with clever locations might entertain them as well.
    • Tape eggs to the underside of chairs and tables.[1] This one goes from difficult to easy if the children are short enough to see them!
    • Unplug a lamp, then unscrew the light bulb and rest an egg on top of the socket, hidden by the lampshade.[1] You can use a similar trick with wide candlesticks.
    • Use a toothbrush holder as an eggcup, hiding the egg behind brightly colored toothbrushes.
  6. Use a few tricks when hiding eggs. To make eggs harder to find, use the following tricks to hide an egg in plain sight, or in a location almost no one thought to look. This can also make the hunt more entertaining for the adults watching the children search or trying to guess the location of the last remaining eggs.
    • Camouflage the eggs. A red egg might be harder to find in a flowerpot full of red flowers, while a blue egg could sit on top of a blue cushion while young children walk right past it.
    • Hide the egg in plain sight by putting it in with undecorated eggs in an egg carton in the fridge.
    • Keep an egg under your hat or in your pocket.
  7. Decide whether a special prize egg is a good idea. Consider hiding a special prize egg with a unique color and awarding a special treat to the finder. This can make the Easter egg hunt more fun, but the competition may upset children who are younger or worse at finding eggs.
    • Choose a treat that the children will get excited about, such as an extra large candy or chocolate rabbit.

Running other Indoor Activities with Easter Eggs

  1. Decorate-Easter-Eggs. There are plenty of safe, easy ways to decorate eggs. Hard boil the eggs in advance, then have the children use crayons, food coloring and sponges, or paint to decorate the eggs.
    • Children might want to keep their eggs once they've decorated them, so you might want to hide a separate group of decorated eggs for the egg hunt.
  2. Turn the Easter egg hunt into a treasure hunt. Instead of letting the kids loose to find all the eggs at once, give them clues to each egg in turn. For a real "treasure hunt" feel, write the next clue inside each egg, and have the last egg hold gold chocolate coins as "pirate treasure."
    • The clue could be a riddle, a hidden reference to an object in another room, or a reference to something the kids did once. For instance, an egg hidden in "the jungle" could be in the center of some houseplants, while an egg hidden "in the land of birthday cakes" could be on a cake stand in the fridge.
  3. Roll the Easter eggs. Make a ramp out of a wooden plank leaning on a stack of books. Cover the ramp and floor with a blanket in case of broken eggs, then have each person release their egg from the top of the ramp. The person whose egg makes it farthest wins a prize.
  4. Have the kids compete in an Easter egg spoon race. Have the kids line up in two or more rows. Each of them holds a spoon. Place an egg in the spoon of each kid first in line. When you say "Go!" each line has to move its egg to the end of the line without the egg touching anything but the spoons.[3]
    • If an egg falls, you can either put it back on the first spoon or let the kids try to pick it up with only the spoons.
    • While the kids can literally race their Easter eggs by pushing them with their noses, hopping while holding them, or another method, this race is more suited to an indoor location.

Tips

  • Decorate rooms or areas in which Easter eggs are hidden with Easter-themed decorations such as ribbons, plastic green "Easter" grass, or pastel-colored balloons. This will help keep children informed on the places they are permitted to search for Easter eggs.
  • If you don't have much space to hide eggs, ask a friendly neighbor whether it would be all right to hide a few eggs in his or her apartment or house. Make it clear how many children will be searching and what age they are. If the neighbor is not experienced with children, suggest that you limit the search in their home to a 15–30 minute visit restricted to one room.

Warnings

  • Children may climb furniture to reach eggs visible but not reachable from the ground. This could be dangerous if you "hide" an egg by placing it on a high shelf on a bookcase or other heavy object that could tip over when climbed.

Related Articles

  • Plan an Indoor Easter Egg Hunt
  • Have an Easy Easter Egg Hunt for Your Little Toddler

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 http://www.divinedinnerparty.com/ideas-for-easter-egg-hunt.html
  2. ↑ http://thestir.cafemom.com/toddler/119348/best_easter_egg_hiding_spots
  3. ↑ http://www.kidactivities.net/?tag=/inside+easter+games

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