I regularly put on an Easter Egg hunt at my church for 60 kids. We actually go overboard and fill about 1,200 eggs. The trick is to make this fun for the least amount of money (we are a small church.) Even if you do a small Easter Egg hunt at your house, you can benefit from some of the advice in this post.
Anyhow, the first thing to do is to purchase the plastic eggs. I purchased them in bulk a long time ago through Oriental Trading Everything Easter. I try to get some 2" and some 4" sizes for larger items. You can regularly buy eggs anywhere for 12 for $1, but I noticed that Big Lots has them 12 for 33 cents, which is a good price that is usually only found after Easter. I have the kids give back most of the plastic eggs every year so this doesn't become a big reoccuring cost.
The next thing to do is fill them. I use a variety of methods. First, I try to buy valentine candy on clearance -- 75 % to 90 % off for the bulk of the candy. Of course, I look for candy that would also work for Easter in terms of color, etc. I then fill in the candy with specific Easter themed items like these candy cross bracelets.
I then fill a lot of eggs with novelty items that I usually gather throughout the year when Oriental Trading Company, Inc. has sales or you can use another bulk novelty retailer. But it certainly helps if you have a year to fill them to get the best prices. I find that the kids love light up items (which are pretty expensive) and sticky items (which are comparitively cheap.) I usually set aside some eggs with larger toys for preschoolers. We have the preschoolers go to a separate room from the older kids.
Right now there are two specials for Easter at Oriental Trading:
Enjoy 5% discount on your order of $60+ with coupon code OTCSP051 at check out.Valid from 02/21/05 to 03/07/05
Pay only $2.95 for standard shipping on your order of $60+ with coupon code OTCSP052. Valid only within the contiguous U.S. from 02/21/05 to 03/07/05
You can figure out which one gets you the best discount.
We usually have an egg stuffing party on a Sunday afternoon at my house where a bunch of adults and older kids come to help.
We then put up sign up sheets, which you can download here if you would like. Just click and it should open. Download parentpundit_easter_egg.pdf
As you can see by the signup sheets, we usually combine the Easter Egg hunt with a craft, lunch (hot dogs and peanut butter and jelly), and an Easter cake. We also give out the recipe for Forgotten Cookies, which is a "must do" annual tradition at our house. The instructions are here Download parentpundit_forgotten_cookies.pdf
If there is "downtime" where some kids get to the Easter Egg hunt before others, we have some readymade coloring sheets to keep the kids busy between events. You can download the sheets here Download parentpundit_easter_coloring.pdf
We ask the kids to bring a basket, but we always have extra baskets on hand for those who forget. (I try to get them on clearance at Walmart or something and just store them at the church every year. I also store the empty eggs at the church in huge plastic containers.)
If you have some traditions at your church or home that you would like to share, please email me or write in the comment section!
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