Every year my husband and I host an Easter egg hunt and morning tea for our friends with children. We love the opportunity to gather all the littles together to do something interactive and fun, as well as the chance to spend time with other parents celebrating this important holiday. Here are some things we do to keep the costs down and maximize our time together:
8 Simple Tips for Hosting an Easter Egg Hunt on a Budget
1. Serve food potluck style. We like to have our gathering at mid-morning on the Saturday of Easter weekend. We ask each of our friends to bring something to share for morning tea and end up with a feast of fruit and pastries, muffins and cookies. I provide juice and coffee and tea and a few other little things. It helps keep costs down for us as hosts, but also gives an opportunity to feast from a table packed with variety and creativity.
2. Ask families to bring their own Easter baskets. I try to have an extra basket or two on-hand in case someone forgets, but this means I don’t have to spend the week before making some sort of cute goodie bag or buy baskets for each child.
3. Use refillable plastic eggs. I have a stash of plastic eggs that I use every year so that I don’t have to buy a ton of expensive candy. After the kids have their baskets full, they get to open up all the eggs, keep the treasures that were inside, and return the shells to us for next year.
4. Fill the eggs with a variety of treats. I do put small chocolates and jelly beans in some of the eggs, but I also use other things to balance out the sugar {as well as keep costs down}. Some of the other things I fill eggs with are: a few raisins, a couple teddy gram crackers or goldfish, a mini pretzels, mini marshmallows, and nickels.
5. Release the kids in “heats” to find their eggs. Depending on the ages of the kids attending, release the kids in two or three groups – first the littlest ones so they can get the super obvious eggs, then the preschoolers so they can find the less obvious ones, then the older kids so they can hunt for the really hidden and hard-to-reach ones. You only have to wait a couple of minutes between each round – kids don’t mess around when it comes to searching for treats!
6. Ask someone to be the designated “photographer”. This doesn’t have to be a pro! Most families would love some pictures of their kids hunting for eggs {and can easily take their own phone pics] but I find it ideal if I can ask someone to make sure and get photos of the parents who are helping their littlest ones. They’ll want to focus on helping them find eggs, not stopping to try and “capture the moment”.
7. Include a simple craft for the bigger kids. There are a million craft ideas on Pinterest {here’s an Easter Inspiration board if you need suggestions}, but there’s no need to go overboard here. I’ve never spent more than $10 on craft supplies to make something fun for those who are old enough or interested. It keeps them occupied for a little while and they always love going home having created something fun to mark the occasion.
8. Have a back-up plan. Living in Australia, I’ve never needed a back-up plan for Easter – the weather is consistently perfect this time of year. But since we’re in Oregon this year we know that spring can throw curve balls. {It’s snowing as I write this today – April 1st!} My back up plan is to have two different rooms in the house where we’ll hide eggs if we have to move indoors – one room for the toddlers and another room for the bigger kids.
I hope you have a lovely Easter weekend and that these simple tips will help if you’d like to host your own neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. Enjoy!
Dear friends, what is your favorite tradition at Easter? If you’ve ever hosted a hunt like this, do you have any tips to add?
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