Have you ever thought about hosting a neighbourhood Easter Egg Treasure Hunt?

The task can seem a bit overwhelming – maybe you’re not sure where to start?

I’m here to let you know it can be done in a few easy steps – with minimal effort and expense. This is especially true if you pick up some of the items needed on clearance the year before!

Let’s get to it – planning a Neighbourhood Easter Egg Treasure Hunt! This won’t be like a typical hunt where eggs are simply strewn about and children randomly pick them up. This hunt will involve clues that lead children around your neighbourhood to a few specific spots, finding eggs and further clues along the way.

1. Send Out Invites to Families

Google Easter Egg Hunt Invitations Free and see the MANY options available for printing and distributing to your neighbours. Make sure to include the date, time, location, and RSVP information. Invite the whole family, so that little ones can hunt with their parents if needed. Or invite adults to share some tea, coffee, and good conversation while they are waiting for the children to complete the Egg Hunt.

The hunt could take place on Easter weekend, or during the week leading up to Easter. Usually family celebrations happen on Easter Sunday or Monday, so Saturdays are great days for families to participate in an egg hunt for an hour or two.

2. Gather Supplies

If you know your neighbours well, you can plan the hunt together, and share in gathering the necessary supplies. If not, the initial expense and effort will be minimal for you, and then you will be equipped to host the event annually if you choose. Here’s what you will need:

Plastic eggs

Pick up one colour for each child participating (or you will have to mark the eggs in different ways if you have more children than egg colours! Use stickers, write names with a Sharpie, or have a colour for each family instead of each child.). The dollar store will have a wide selection of plastic eggs, the thrift store may have some available, or you can pick them up even cheaper on clearance at any store after Easter (if you are planning ahead!).

*We found packages of 8 different plastic egg colours at Dollarama for $2 each, we needed 6 packages for our 6 clues = $12 for eggs.*

Baskets or Bags

Pick up one basket or bag for each child participating. Make sure the basket is large enough to hold the amount and size of plastic eggs you will be hiding for each child. You can find baskets lying around your house, at the dollar store, or the thrift store. Again, you can pick them up very cheap on clearance after Easter.

*We found packages of 2 green gift bags at Dollarama for $1 each, we needed 8 bags for the 8 kids we are inviting = $4 for hunt bags.*

3. Purchase Items for the Easter Egg Treasure Hunt

You can find a great selection of inexpensive candy or small Easter items at the stores. Pick up items that are individually wrapped for safety and hygiene reasons. Ideas for candy include packages with multiples (to keep costs down) – lollipops, candy powder in plastic shapes, fruit-filled hard candies, Jolly Rancher candies, small chewy taffy candies,and cream eggs or mini eggs. Try to have a variety of 5 or 6 different items. Each child will not need an abundance of candy since much of the fun of this hunt comes in having to look for the items around the neighbourhood. Be sure to pick up small packages of Smarties to go with a special Easter message for your last clue of the hunt!                                                   *We found most of our candy at the dollar store, and were able to pick it up for less than $10. We splurged on some mini wrapped cream eggs at Walmart that cost $3.50.*

4. Write the Clues

Choose a few familiar spots the children visit often around the neighbourhood. You could ask other families if you could use their yards or porches for a designated hunt spot, or draw maps for the children to follow. We have a tiny forest space, a tobogganing hill, a newpaper box, and an outdoor toy box on our front yard that all the neighbourhood kids use – familiar locations like that. Then, you could either send the kids out to look for eggs at locations marked on a neighbourhood map, or you could leave clues at each spot for them to find the next location. At the final location, be sure to include a special Easter message in the plastic egg with the candy. Or consider handing out something special as the children are arriving or leaving.

*We have 6 sites scoped out around the neighbourhood, and Josh loves to write up clues, so we’ll go that route. We’ll start the kids off with an initial clue that will lead them to the first location. There they will find one of their designated eggs (they’ll each be given a specific colour egg to search for). Their egg will contain a candy and a clue to search for the next location. We’ll be using large plastic containers with lids to hold the eggs at each location, since there may still be snow on the ground where we live!*

5. Start the Children on the Easter Egg Treasure Hunt!

Give the children a bag or basket and their first clue to lead them to the first location on the hunt. Parents can accompany little ones if needed, or older kids can be paired up with younger kids. You could have teams if you have many children in your neighbourhood. Another idea is having more candy hiding in random places at the final location of your hunt (for example – your yard house or one of the neighbour’s yards or houses, depending on the weather!).

And there you have it – a Neighbourhood Easter Egg Treasure Hunt for 8 Children – $30 and 5 easy steps!

Do you have any simple ideas for a crowd for Easter?