17 Fun Indoor Easter Egg Hunt Ideas That Work in Any Weather
You gotta have a plan B in case it's cold and rainy.
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There are plenty of reasons to move the annual Easter egg hunt inside. You might do it for purposes of social distancing as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. You might like the control or keeping everything in a certain, walled-off space. Or you might not have the outdoor space: As someone who’s lived in a city apartment with no backyard access for more than ten years, indoor Easter egg hunts have been my daughter's only option.
What I've learned in those years is that what you lack in space to conceal eggs in great quantities you have to make up for in innovation, making each one more of a challenge or game to find. But it’s not just city-dwellers like me who should have a stockpile of indoor Easter egg hunt ideas in mind. Even if you're planning on having an outdoor Easter egg hunt, one cold or rainy day could move the festivities indoors anyway.
With these indoor Easter egg hunt ideas, you might not want to bother venturing outside at all. Lots of them try to make the hunt just a teeny bit harder, either with clues to follow, puzzles to solve or challenges to overcome to find the eggs. Others involve indoor activities that you can also use as Easter basket goodies even if you do have an outdoor hunt. There are even some ideas for different prizes and Easter gifts for kids, so you’re not constrained by the size of a plastic egg. Happy hunting!
Leave Clues
Instead of leaving a ton of eggs all over every nook and cranny of your apartment, you can carefully hide a few of them, and then offer a trail of clues that'll help kids find them. It combines the fun of a an egg hunt with the thrill of a scavenger hunt. And, for the design-challenged, you can even buy pre-made clue cards on Etsy.
Make a Bunny Trail
For little ones who might not be able to search all the nooks and crannies by themselves, an indoor "bunny trail" can help keep them on track. Use fun signs to leave some not-so-subtle hints.
Make It a Raffle
To add a second layer to egg-hunt fun, consider including raffle tickets inside the eggs along with candy or small prizes. Then, when the hunt is done, you can hold a raffle for some bigger Easter gifts for kids.
Do a Virtual Hunt
With some advanced planning, you can create an egg hunt that's entirely online. Or, if you don't want to make your own virtual egg hunt, you can find a company that'll set one up for you. Watson Adventures, for example, has an online game starting at $19 per person where kids have to find eggs hidden in different museums around the world. (They can also set up private games.)
RELATED: How to Host a Virtual Easter Egg Hunt With Family and Friends While Social Distancing
Hunt for Things Other Than Eggs
Whether real or plastic, there are only so many things you can do to hide an egg. But with some expertly applied toy block tape and brick eggs, you can stick eggs under tables, on the side of furniture and other places they wouldn't normally think to look.
Make It Interactive
They might not be able to run around in the grass, but that doesn't mean you can't get them to expend some of their boundless energy during their egg search. Print out these directions, slip them inside the eggs and, every time a hunter finds one, they have to do the action inside. After all the mooing and hopping, they'll be ready for a nap.
Get the free printable from Alice and Lois »
RELATED: Easy and Creative Easter Egg Ideas That Anyone Can DIY
Hunt in the Dark
Close the curtains tight — or wait until nighttime — and let the colorful glow guide the little scouts. You can either buy glow-in-the-dark plastic eggs (these are lit by batteries, so you don't have to worry about charging them in the sun), or you can use DIY glow-in-the-dark dye on real eggs.
Include a Word Search
Hunting for the right letters can be just as thrilling as hunting for eggs, right? If you really want to go the extra mile, you can make your own word search that somehow contains clues to the locations of the hidden eggs. Or, you can download this one and make it one of the found prizes.
Get the free printable word search from Hey Let's Make Stuff »
Turn It Into a Letter-Hunt
If you want to take the word search idea a step further, you can combine the two and make the eggs into the words themselves — a message that can only be "unscrambled" if you find them all and place them in the right order.
Add an Extra Puzzle
To add a second layer of challenge, conceal a puzzle piece inside each plastic egg — kids have to find them all to solve the puzzle. Use a blank, draw-on jigsaw puzzle to write the final clue to where the Easter baskets are hiding.
Do It Blindfolded
Make the festivities even harder by adding a blindfold; you can either direct the kids to the eggs "hotter/colder" style, or, if they're younger, fill them with coins or other noise-making prizes and shake them until your toddlers find you.
Incorporate Sound
Take the sound idea one step further and make the hunt a "sound match" game. Fill pairs of plastic Easter eggs with objects that sound different when you rattle them — bells, Lego bricks or coins, for example — and see if kids can find the matches. (Just watch out, since these small items can be choking hazards.)
Switch up the Prizes
It's hard to fit good prizes in the small, plastic eggs — and keeping prizes with real eggs is even harder. If you don't want to use candy or a small piece of junk, consider hiding "points" with each egg — the harder the hiding spot, the more points or tickets — that can be combined for a larger Easter gift. Or get even more creative, and hide "privilege cards" that can be used to get out of chores or get extra treats like more screen-time.
Use Camouflage
If bright, plastic Easter eggs stick out too much against your décor, this twine eggs might be harder to spot. Plus, you can use them as a rustic decoration before and after the hunt.
Enlist Fairies to Help
Make these fairy jars as a DIY craft before Easter, and you'll bring a little of the outdoors inside. Then, the fairies can help the Easter Bunny hide the eggs around the house. If your kids need an extra hint, the votive candles can offer a clue. And, since these don't scream "Easter," you can use them afterward for whatever fairy treasures your kids collect. (Or, if you like the idea of using mason jars but aren't into fairies, you can do the more traditional Easter egg or Easter bunny.)
Color Code It
If your two kids' ages are such that one has a competitive advantage when it comes to egg-hunting, assign each child a different color egg to find. That way, the toddler can find some easy ones and while the big kid hunts for the harder ones. Or, if they're close in age, you can assign a certain point value to different colors, depending on how well they're hidden. At the end, you can see who found the most eggs and who found the hardest eggs.
Turn the Tables
Once they've found all the eggs, let them grab a few and hide them on you. They can use the "hotter/colder" method to direct you to their hiding spots. Just promise not to peek!
Marisa (she/her) has covered all things parenting, from the postpartum period through the empty nest, for Good Housekeeping since 2018; previously, she wrote about parents and families at Parents and Working Mother. She lives with her toy-collecting husband and daughter in Brooklyn, where she can be found helping out her team at bar trivia or posting about movies on Twitter and Bluesky.
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