Are there Any Novel Egg Hunt Ideas?

There isn't really too much you can write about an Egg Hunt that everyone doesn't already know. The premise is simple and straightforward - fill plastic eggs with toys and candy, hide them, and let the kids loose to find them.

I looked for ways to vary the process, even searching multiple blogs and websites. The funniest I found had an adult in an Easter Bunny costume getting out of a helicopter. Let's just say that isn't within my budget. Friends offered great suggestions like filling eggs with clues to find a large prize or personalizing eggs with significant events from the guests' lives over the past year. I'm not close friends with everyone we invited so that one might prove tricky. In the end, I decided to stick with the basics. As they say, "why mess with success?"

When I sent out the invitation I was careful to call it an EGG HUNT rather than an Easter Egg Hunt. My brother's family is Jewish and my parents always held a "robin's egg hunt" for his kids so they could have the fun of the hunt without the religious overtones. Since some of our friends are Jewish and Hindu I was hoping they wouldn't think it was a Christian conversion scheme (since I'm not a practicing anything.) I just want to see the kids run around like mad things, fill them up with sugar and send them home hyper.

I know that some people may object to my genericizing the event, however I am not holding it on Easter or even on a Sunday. Having done a little research it appears that there may be pagan origins to the tradition of hunting for eggs in the spring. Also, hard boiled eggs are traditionally part of the Jewish Passover celebration so who am I to say that egg hunts should be limited to little Christian kids? I certainly don't limit my children's friends to only little Christians.

Now, how many plastic eggs do you need for 26 kids? I purchased almost 600. That's roughly 23 eggs per child. How long do you think it will take them all to be a found? A friend commented, " Every Easter egg hunt I've ever been to has lasted about 90 seconds...'" I know things that last less than 90 seconds and are worth doing! (C'mon folks, think....)

We felt that it was important for us to provide the filled eggs as they were the focal point of the party. Filling 600 plastic eggs isn't exactly cheap - figure about 5-10 cents an egg and do the math. Someone suggested that I use the spare change I found around the house to fill the eggs instead of candy. I realized that a better idea would be to use the change to pay for the candy! I came up with almost $20 in change -more than enough to fill the eggs.

Knowing that the kids will all immediately plop down on the grass and eat whatever candy they find in the eggs I assumed that I didn't have to provide much more in the way of food or at least desserts.  Instead of a meal we'll offer drinks and light snacks. Friends generously offered to bring treats to share.