Every Easter my family has a tradition of hunting Easter eggs through the house immediately when they get up. I can remember watching excited little faces grabbing a basket at the threshold to their doorway just waiting for mom and dad to say “go!” then watching them scramble through the house in search of all the eggs. We’ve been doing this early Easter morning hunt for over 10 years now, and don’t plan on stopping any time soon. However, not that they’re (much) older, I can tell you a big kid Easter egg hunt looks a lot different than it does for toddlers and preschoolers. Mostly, a sense of humor needs to be injected when you are dealing with pre-teens and teens.
Lucky for my kids, mom has a really twisted sense of humor and isn’t afraid to use it! I’m going to show you today, my family does Easter mornings Easter egg hunt and give you a few principles to do this on your own. Your ideas will probably be better than mine once you get rolling!
A review of egg hunt items according to age
There are a million things you can put in eggs, but you have to make sure what’s in them is what your kids are going to like. Here’s how we’ve stuffed our eggs over the years:
Easter egg items for toddlers and preschoolers
Band-Aids, Nana choking hazard toys, individual pieces of candy
Early elementary school
Small toys, coins, candy, Small Easter themed erasers
Middle school and high school
Money.
College
Money and beer
We’re in that middle school and high school range of things, so our kids get excited about money hiding in the eggs. Even so, my husband and I had issue just handing over all those dollar bills, so we sat down one evening and had the biggest case of the giggles ever coming up with ways to make the kids “earn” their Easter egg booty.
How to set up a big kid easter egg hunt at home
First things first in setting up an older kid Easter egg hunt is stuffing the eggs. We pretty much established in our household that nobody cares about the candy or the toys anymore and they just want the money. Of course, mom and dad don’t want to make it that easy for them so we add a twist to our money in the eggs.
On Easter Eve, we sit down at the kitchen table and laugh ourselves silly coming up with wilder and wilder things for the kids to do for a few bucks. This is part of the Easter egg hunt fun, parents.
They get the money, but they better work for it. It’s not hard work and it’s stuff that’s going to amuse us the parents–so a double win for everyone.
Example crazy task: ten dollars for licking your own elbow. We write this on a slip of paper and stuff it in the egg.
PRO TIP: The really great thing about asking your kid to lick their elbow is that they will try for hours and not be able to do it because it’s physically impossible. You could put $500 on that slip and they still would not be able to lick their own elbow. It’s just hours of amusement for YOU. You see the pattern here?
A few other crazy tasks favorites for big kid Easter egg hunts at home:
- Do an interpretive dance to Bohemian Rhapsody
- Do 30 burpees
- Write a haiku about your brother’s dirty socks
- Eat a teaspoon of cinnamon (another impossible task, just steer clear of the eater)
- Wash mom’s car
- Wear your clothes backwards for an hour
We don’t write tasks on all of the slips of paper (we aren’t that mean!) We do throw a few quarter and 50 cent slips in without anything for them to do just to keep life interesting. After the egg hunt is done and they’ve looked through all their slips of paper, they have the option of performing the tasks for mom to laugh at, or cash out the totals on their papers.
This year I did think about doing something different, but I’ve been harrassed by my kids for about a month now about setting this up again. I think they loved it more than I thought.
Free printable for Easter egg stuffing
Just so your Easter egg slips are properly festive, I’m supplying you a free printable. Of course, plain white paper works just as well, but if you really want to look like you went to tons of effort, I’m here for you!
Download the Easter free printable here.
Leave a comment with a crazy idea!
We’re still penning this year’s crazy list, and would love to hear any ideas you have. I think all the other readers would as well, so leave a comment!
Tracy
Saturday 30th of March 2024
My kids are 10,16, and 17. The Easter bunny has always hid eggs for us to find every morning. I normally stuff 300 eggs. This year I told the older girls I was not doing the egg hunt, I couldn’t believe how upset they were. So glad I came across your article today. I am going to try this tonight. Thank you!!
K
Saturday 8th of April 2023
Please delete the teaspoon of cinnamon idea for an egg hunt. Very dangerous and the CDC has issued warnings against it.
Karen W
Monday 3rd of April 2023
So doing this for this easter! Wear a sheet styled as a dress and show the parents. Juggle 3 balls Go up and down stairs 10 times in one minute Eat an oreo that starts on forehead. No hands Peel a tomato 10 jumps on a pogo stick without falling eat a boiled egg. (it is amazing how many kids do not like boiled eggs!)
Paula Biggs
Friday 19th of May 2023
All fabulous ideas!!
Pauline
Monday 11th of April 2022
This is perfect for my age range of kids…13-23…We put money & lottery tickets, some candy & gum too, every year but this year wanted to change it up. When we have brainstormed some ideas, I will come back & share…BIG THANKS!
Paula Biggs
Monday 25th of April 2022
So glad the older kid egg hunt article was a help to get creative juices flowing!
DellLena
Thursday 14th of April 2022
@Pauline, what teen ideas were u able to come up with
Cecelia Todd
Sunday 21st of April 2019
This is the best idea ever!!! Love it!