Easter is on the horizon and we could all use something to look forward to. Planning an Easter party sometimes means an Easter Sunday brunch with the whole family, a kid-friendly creative Easter egg hunt, but other times you may be hosting your adult friends and family at home without kids. Either way, you want to put together a fun party activity.
Easter egg hunts are a popular choice. The Easter bunny hops through hiding eggs for everyone to find that are filled with great trinkets or candies. It’s an easy DIY activity and we’ve put together a list of creative ideas and everything you need for an eggcellent event.
Hop Around a City on a Scavenger Hunt
When you want to see the sights in a nearby city or explore a new travel destination, try one of our super fun scavenger hunts! These adventures are perfect for any occasion. Engage in a little friendly competition as you fight your way to the finish line. Each experience will bring you closer and teach you about your surroundings. Try one today!
The History of the Easter Egg Hunt
Eggs are a symbol of resurrection and during the medieval period, eggs were forbidden during Lent. Once Easter came, eggs were a huge part of the feast. Easter egg hunts are believed to date back to the 16th century in Germany when Martin Luther organized egg hunts for his congregation to celebrate this special time and engage men, women, and children in a fun way. This fun activity is still popular with today’s Easter celebrations.
How to Plan an Easter Egg Hunt
An Easter egg hunt is a simple activity to plan. We will cover the basics first and then dive into variations of this long-time favorite. It’s simple and you don’t need much to make this successful for your Easter event.
First, you need to decide how many eggs you want to hide. This depends on how many people you have participating in the event and how many eggs you want each person to have (add a few extra because some people will be quicker). Plastic eggs can be easily found at most major retailers, like Target and Walmart. They are inexpensive and you can reuse them year after year for the same activity.
Next, decide what you want to fill your eggs with. The most popular option is candy. Choose from a huge variety of Easter candies to put in the eggs. Other popular options include money, small toys, and small trinkets.
Once the eggs are filled with goodies, it’s time to hide them. As long as the weather is decent, hiding the eggs outside is usually the most popular choice. You have a little more space and don’t have to worry about people diffing through drawers and closets. This is another reason it’s important to keep a count of your eggs. You want to make sure all the eggs are found and collected so nothing is found later by a dog or another animal.
When it’s time for the Easter egg hunt, give participants easter baskets or buckets to collect their findings and let them loose. Make sure to tell them what areas they should stick to and if there are any special rules for this hunt. Don’t forget to take pictures and cheer everyone on.
Adult Easter Egg Hunt Ideas for a Creative Twist
If you’re hosting for the Easter holiday and you have a group of grown-ups to entertain, don’t worry, it’s possible to put together an epic adult Easter egg hunt that your guests will love and it will take them back to the fun childhood holiday memories they may have. It’s possible to just follow the instructions above, but you’ll want to make sure to put a little more effort into hiding those eggs because adults are taller and can spot eggs a little easier. If you want to spice it up, try one of these options below.
Compete as Teams in an Easter Egg Relay Race
Divide the adults up into teams and make the Easter egg hunt into a competition. Each team will only have one person go at a time and they must find an egg and bring it back before the next team can go. This helps draw out the activity so it isn’t over in just a few minutes of chaos.
You can hide two colors of eggs and tell teams to only find their own color, or you can just let them go and see which team can get more eggs. Competitions are fun for adults and you’ll be surprised who gets really into the race.
Blend Together White Elephant Gift Exchange with Easter Egg Hunts
White elephant gift exchanges are one of the most popular Christmas holiday party games, so why not incorporate them into your Easter celebration? You can simply hide eggs with slips of paper inside, each revealing a different number. Whichever egg you get is the order you get to select from a group of prizes and the people after you can steal your gift or pick a new one.
There are variations of the game, so you can change up the rules as much as you want. Just make sure to let everyone know the rules upfront so it’s a fair fight for the most sought-after items.
Hide One Golden Egg That is Better Than the Rest
If you want to have a pretty basic adult Easter egg hunt that doesn’t require a lot of planning, but you want there to be something special, consider including one golden egg. You can fill all the other plastic pastel eggs with a piece of candy, but hide one golden egg in an extremely difficult hiding spot and fill it with something extra special.
You could put a $20 bill in it (or more if you are feeling generous) or include a gift card to a local restaurant or something else that any adult would appreciate. You can let everyone know that it’s out there or just let one lucky person discover it. It just adds a little something special to your hunt. If you can’t find a golden egg, use a golden ticket inside for the same idea.
Include a Puzzle to Solve with the Eggs
Eggs might be easy to find because of their bright colors, but you can make the whole game a little tougher if you include a puzzle to solve. One option is to put a letter in each egg and the participants need to shuffle the letters around to figure out what they spell.
You can also hide actual puzzle pieces in each egg. Divide people into teams and have a challenge that rivals the TV hit show, Survivor. Each team can have people running around looking for eggs while others are busy at the puzzle table trying to piece together the pieces that have already been found. Keep the puzzles to an attainable number of pieces. If you do it with 1000 pieces, your party might just turn into a silent puzzle evening.
Let Kids Hide the Eggs and Make the Adults Find Them
Some people call this a scrambled egg hunt, but it involves the kids even in an adult Easter egg hunt. Another perk is that even the host can participate because they don’t know all of the hiding spots. Give the kids a number of eggs that are ready to go and give them an area to hide them all in. Most people utilize their backyard.
This is a great option if you are having a party that involves kids and adults because everyone can do their own Easter egg hunt and help with the hiding part. It’s a fun way to involve all of your party guests in the classic Easter egg hunt.
Play a Truth or Dare Version
On slips of paper, write down questions and dares that you would normally use in a game of Truth or Dare. You can either include just one in each egg or a slip of paper with both options so they can decide. As each person finds an egg, they need to complete the dare or answer the question that is inside their egg.
You can make this as easy or crazy as you’d like because you know your guests and what they will have fun with. It might be wise to have prizes for the most eggs found. There should be something enticing people to find the eggs even when they are nervous about having to do the dares or answer the questions inside.
Have a Night Time Egg Hunt
If your Easter gathering is happening in the evening, you can still do an Easter egg hunt outside. Glow-in-the-dark eggs can be ordered online and you can also create your own by putting glowsticks inside. Flashlights can also be used if you aren’t able to find glow-in-the-dark eggs, but it might make it insanely difficult.
Invite your guests and tell them to pack their headlamps. Light a bonfire and you can make your entire event outdoors if the weather is good. Add in some s’mores made out of peeps for a great evening party.
Turn the Egg Hunt into a Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are always a fun party event, but it does take a little more time to put together. Send people on a hunt with multiple steps, each with its own clue or puzzle to decipher. Using eggs to hold the clues makes it a festive activity perfect for the Easter holiday.
You’ll have to decide if you want to set up multiple paths or if you want everyone looking for the same items at the same time. Use riddles and puzzles that might be harder to figure out. Throw in some trivia, word finds, riddles, or just normal clues describing the next location. You can also challenge the participants to complete tasks like taking hilarious pictures, doing old school challenges like planking or one of the new TikTok fitness or dance challenges, or anything else that will get everyone involved.
Put a Raffle Ticket in Each Egg and Draw for Prizes
If you are hosting a group of adults for Easter, you may not want to hand out baskets full of candies and toys. Elevated prizes can bring out the competitive side for everyone. Consider putting raffle tickets in the Easter eggs instead of tiny prizes. Then you can have 2-3 large prizes, like a basket of high-end snacks or a case of beer.
People can take all the raffle tickets they’ve received from the egg hunt and put them in a bowl for the prize they want. Then, you can draw out a winner. This is a great way to have some good quality prizes without dropping so much money. Not everyone has to leave a winner.
Ideas for Easter Egg Hunt Prizes and Egg Fillers
If you want to fill your eggs with something a little more exciting and adult-friendly, here are a few ideas that don’t involve candy and toys.
Fill Out Paper Slips with Chores and Favors to Cash In
This option works great for kids, but it can also work for adults. You probably don’t want to take care of chores for your friends and family for the next year of your life, so this might be better sprinkled in with other goodies. You could offer free babysitting or some snow shoveling. You could also involve your kids and have them offer up lawn mowing or dog walking. Everybody can use a little extra help around the house, so this is a great option. It’s best if you are hanging out with your neighbors because people are close by and easy to help out.
Choose a Few Gift Cards
Gift cards for scavenger hunts, coffee shops, restaurants, online retailers, and other spots are great prizes for adults. Plus, you can find smaller ones that fit inside some of the plastic eggs. If they don’t fit, you can always put the info inside the eggs and have them exchange it for the card once the hunt is over.
Some Fancy Beauty Products are Fun and Small
Bath bombs, lip glosses, and makeup samples are all great small options that can fit inside of eggs. Adults can all use a little more self-care and there are plenty of small options you can get your hands on that will be perfect for an adult Easter egg hunt. These items can be for men or women. For the gentlemen, you can include cologne samples, grooming products, and things like that.
Tiny Liquor Bottles and Jell-O Shots Can Fit
If you have a group of friends or family members that enjoy cocktails, you can definitely use those to stuff the eggs. Jell-o shots can be made using one of the hundreds of recipes online. There are options that use champagne, wine, or liquor, so you can try one or multiple to prep for your party.
Many liquor stores also sell all kinds of small bottles. You can find all the favorites in small airplane sizes that you can fit inside of the eggs. These can be fun to enjoy at the party or your guests can take them home and save them for later.
Who Doesn’t Love Money?
You can never go wrong with money. Whether you include scratch-off lottery tickets or some cold hard cash, people will be excited to head out and search for eggs if they know there’s the chance of leaving with some extra money from your party. Coins, bills, and the lottery tickets all fit inside easily, but if you only use money, it might end up being an expensive game to put together.
Add These Easter Games and Activities For More Fun
Whether you’re hosting a party or just entertaining your own family, there are some other great games and activities you can put together for the Easter holiday. Here are a few ideas that stick with the theme and everyone will love them.
Set Up a Jelly Bean Tasting Event
If you haven’t tried every flavor of jelly beans inspired by the candy in the Harry Potter franchise, you need to pick some up at the store. You can get the large box that comes with a spinner. This makes for a great party game. Have each person spin for their turn and wherever the arrow lands, that’s the jelly bean you have to try. It might sound like a super easy game, but with flavors like boogers, earwax, and black pepper, you never know what you’re going to get.
Try Games or a Fun Eggsperiment!
Many of us participated in experiments in middle school or high school where we had to come up with a container that could safely get an egg from a window to the ground without breaking. See how much you and your family and friends remember from science class. You’ll want to make sure you have some supplies or you can communicate ahead of time so people come with something already assembled.
Spoon races are another fun competition. Assign everyone to teams. Each team gets a spoon and an egg, and each person is assigned a section of the course, like a relay race. Each racer needs to balance the egg on a spoon without dropping it and run to the next person on their team and pass it to their spoon safely. If you really want to make it challenging, tell them they cannot hold the spoon with their hands but instead use mouths.
Have a Peep Art Competition with Trophies
Peeps are little marshmallow treats that people love at Easter time. There are a variety of colors available, so they can be used to make some fun creative decorations. Some communities host large competitions for artwork using peeps. Get some ideas and invite your friends over to create your own works of art!
If people are all making their own, you can have your own competition and allow people to vote for their favorites. Another option would be to team up with friends and family to create one to submit to any local competitions. Usually, the information can be found in your local news,
Play a Little Champagne Pong
If you are hosting an Easter brunch, it’s possible that you’ll be serving champagne at your event. One way to liven up the party is to play a version of beer pong that uses champagne. At many party stores, you can find plastic champagne cups which are perfect for the game because glass will definitely break. Fill each cup with a little bit of champagne and take turns throwing ping pong balls across a surface to attempt to land them into the cups.
Decorate Easter Eggs
Lisa Frank Easter eggs might just be the throwback that inspires your adult friends to get a little crafty at your Easter party. With so many different egg dyeing ideas floating around on the internet, it’s the perfect way to invite everyone to get creative.
Once you’ve finished, you can immediately break them open and make some deviled eggs for everyone to enjoy. The setup process is simple and adults should make way less of a mess than kids doing this project.
Bring Out the Egg Poppers
Have you ever just wanted to break an egg over someone’s head? That might seem a little aggressive, but there is a fun tradition that comes from Spain where eggs are filled with confetti and meant to be broken open. They are known in Spain and Mexico as Cascarones. The tradition stems from an old punishment of actually breaking eggs over childrens’ heads when they misbehaved.
Use a pin or a knife to create a small hole at the end of the eggshell to allow the insides to be emptied out. Clean out the insides and then let them dry. Then you can fill them with confetti or even glitter and plug the hole with glue or a small piece of paper. It’s a fun party trick, even if it gets a little messy.
Start Planning Your Adult Easter Egg Hunt!
Give yourself plenty of time to prepare and let us know what you decide to try or if you have any ideas to add to the list.
Frequently Asked Questions
Grownups can have a ball searching for eggs, too! Throw a fun-filled adult Easter egg hunt! Fill eggs with interesting surprises, and offer holiday-themed food and cocktails. It’ll be eggcellent!
Some surprises for your adult Easter egg hunt might include beauty products, lottery tickets, mini bottles of alcohol, and classic candy. Keep it simple, and test the items for fit ahead of the event.
There are several treasure-like hunts available for grownups! You could try scavenger hunts, geocaching, or even an Easter egg hunt for adults.