45 Fun Easter Egg Hunt Ideas to Spice Up the Easter Bunny's Favorite Holiday Tradition
Toddlers, teens and adults can welcome spring with these creative twists to the scavenger hunt, from bunny trails to golden ticket eggs.
Adults and kids alike can bask in a family-fun day of Easter crafts. Imagine the possibilities: You can decorate hard-boiled eggs, make Easter wreaths and DIY your own spring-inspired baskets to use as Easter decorations or gifts for guests. Moreover, many of these DIYs are creative ways to upgrade your Easter egg hunt, making the classic tradition even better than the years before.
Our Easter egg hunt ideas below will add unexpected and festive twists to the beloved Easter Sunday game. If your family plans to celebrate, challenge them with a timed scavenger hunt, where they search the indoors and outdoors for colorful eggs. Instead of the usual marbled or ombré eggs for the hunt, consider DIYing carrot treat cones or placing puzzle pieces inside plastic eggs to assemble after the search. Scatter balloon landmarks and bunny markers in the gaming area — whether it's the living room, playroom or backyard — to easily lead your little bunnies to their hidden treasures. An even cooler idea: Put glow sticks inside the eggs for a glow-in-the-dark game that’s as fun as it is unique. And the best part? You may already have most materials in your kitchen or craft box, including paint, card stock, tissue paper, Legos and rice. That’s a win for you, the kids and your budget.
So put your crafting and gaming skills to use with these Easter egg hunt ideas. And for more scavenger hunt twists, these Easter egg hunt ideas for adults will have all the grown-ups feeling both boozy and competitive.
Carrot Treat Cones
They'll never expect you to hide these carrot treat cones for the hunt! Scatter a few around the house, along with your decorated eggs, for players to find. Or, give them to every kid who participated, because everyone deserves a gift on Easter (especially one full of delicious sweets)!
Indigo Natural Egg Dye Eggs
Using indigo dye, you can create stripe or shibori patterns on your hard-boiled white eggs. It's a beautiful shade that'll make your eggs stand out during the Easter hunt. Plus, who wouldn't want to take one home as a gift?
Fabric-Wrapped Eggs
Use lightweight cotton fabric to make these gorgeous egg transformations. When done, show the players all the eggs, then hide them in places that match the fabric's design or color (for example, hiding a yellow plaid egg next to your plaid pillow). Once hidden, have adults and kids alike search for the hidden treasures.
Paint Pen Eggs
For this simple yet creative idea, use paint pens to decorate your eggs. We share how to design flowers, leaves and swirls on the eggs below. Or, consider writing clues or drawing out hints to help players find the others.
Steps:
FLOWERS: Create flower patterns on the eggs, starting with dots. Expand on them to make more of a petal shape.
LEAVES: Make a vine pattern by drawing lines vertically from the top to the bottom of the egg. Add a leaf shape to the ‘vine.' Let everything dry completely.
SWIRLS: For the abstract swirl pattern, create a swirl and add dots in between and around it. Make sure everything is dry before displaying!
Gingham Eggs
For this gingham egg design, you'll need hard-boiled eggs (you can also use blown-out or wooden craft eggs), acrylic paint and a 10 mm flat paintbrush. They're a cooler way to decorate your Easter eggs for the scavenger hunt.
Steps:
- Water down craft paint until it is the consistency of heavy cream.
- Paint vertical stripes down the sides of the egg. Don’t use too much paint to avoid drips. Let your painting dry.
- Next, paint horizontal stripes around the egg and let it dry. If desired, darken the overlapping squares of color with more paint to emphasize the gingham look.
Egg Carton Bunnies
Instead of having them find Easter eggs, how about adorable Easter egg carton bunnies instead? Fill them with candy and decorate them with pom-pom noses, googly eyes and drawn-on whiskers.
Lemon Easter Egg Hunt
They may looks like lemons, but they're far from being the sour tasting fruits. Tuck these lemon-inspired eggs away for your little bunnies to hop around and find. Afterwards, add them to any Easter baskets for gifting.
Easter Egg Hunt Riddles
After hiding their Easter basket, lead them straight to their prize with these printable clues. What's more, there's no need to brainstorm the clues yourself, as all the riddles are there to just print and play.
Character Egg Hunt
Blogger Debbie hid these white eggs, easily designed with characters from the animated movie, Sing, for her kiddies to find. You can transfer characters onto your own eggs using printable tattoo paper.
Bunny Garden Doors
These DIY bunny doors are the coolest hiding spots for a few eggs. Plus, imagine how amazed kids will be when they stumble upon the oval doors, made of wooden plaques, when hunting for eggs in the backyard.
Easter Egg Counting Hunt
For your kids just learning to count, tuck these math printables into plastic eggs and hide them around the house. Let them find the eggs and put their counting skills to use to figure out the correct order.
'90s Easter Egg Hunt
Get ready to have a '90s-themed Easter party. DIY your own throwback Easter eggs for a scavenger hunt to remember using acrylic paint.
Colorful Easter Treat Advent Calendar Hunt
Count down to Easter with these vibrant advent calendar Easter bags. Place your colorful eggs and candy in each bag and have your family search for their treats per day.
DIY Money Bag Easter Eggs
Instead of making your family find eggs around the house, turn them into these mini pink money bags, easily made with pink tissue paper, paint and dollar sign stickers.
DIY Easter Gift Box
After a successful Easter Egg hunt, gift the winner their very own Easter gift box. Fill it with candy or homemade treats, including marbled egg sugar cookies.
DIY Easter Bunny Lollipop Hunt
While regular Easter egg hunts are fun, the eggs aren't ideal treats. So, swap them with bunny lollipops. The only materials needed: tissues (or tissue paper), twine, pink or white card stock, and scissors.
Geometric Paper Easter Eggs
DIY your own Easter eggs using geometric paper. Fill them with M&M's for everyone to enjoy after the game.
Roly Poly Fabric Easter Bunnies
Your kids will love discovering these adorable bunny faces during their hunt. They're easy to make and blend in with any Easter home decor.
Typography Easter Eggs
Add your own typography to decorated eggs for your family to find. The words can be hints to other eggs scattered throughout the space.
Painted Wood Slice Easter Eggs
Along with being cute additions to your holiday decorations, these painted wood slices (designed using chalk paint) can be placed all around your home for an exciting Easter scavenger hunt.
Marisa (she/her) has covered all things parenting, from the postpartum period through the empty nest, for Good Housekeeping since 2018; she previously wrote about parents and families at Parents and Working Mother. She lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn, where she can be found dominating the audio round at her local bar trivia night or tweeting about movies.
Mariah Thomas (she/her) is an assistant editor for Good Housekeeping, where she covers home and lifestyle content. Mariah has more than four years of editorial experience, having written for TLC, Apartment Therapy, Women's Health and Avocado Magazine. She received her master's degree in journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and published her first book, Heart and Soul: Poems of Thoughts and Emotions, in 2019. She's also the founder of RTF Community, a platform for creatives of color to connect, learn and showcase their work.
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