Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt (with free printable clues!)

One of our absolute favorite Easter activities is participating in a fun Easter egg hunt. Because I have older children as well as younger kids we have accumulated quite a few Easter egg hunt ideas that I want to share with you today. Let’s make this year’s Easter Egg Scavenger hunt epic!

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Easter time has its charms and whimsical fun of chocolate eggs (or chocolate bunnies) and the Easter hunt with eggs filled with small prizes. But of course, the best prize of all is the family time spent together out in the fresh air.

We don’t really do the Easter bunny in my house, like the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus, we just do without. So we go all out to have fun with the Easter treats and fun activities, like Easter games. And lest we forget putting together a new exciting Easter treasure hunt every year.

I am the queen of creating some type of scavenger hunt. I am always looking for new ways to keep my children immersed in the fun tradition. When a fun Easter scavenger hunt idea comes to mind, I try to have a lot of fun with it!

Ways to Adjust the Easter Hunt for Kids of All Ages

There are many different ways we can adjust to consider pretty much any age group when it comes to an Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt. With just a few tiny changes we can make sure kids of all ages have great fun.

Tips to Challenge Older Kids (5 and Up)

There are really only two main adjustments to make to keep older kids interested in an Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt past a certain age.

1. Make it more challenging.
2. Make the prizes something they can get excited about.

These printables are available as a free download in the Wonderland Subscriber Library. By simply entering your email address and subscribing you get full access. Please remember these are for personal use only.

Great prize ideas for older kids might be a gift card, cash, their favorite candy, or snack foods.

Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt Ideas That Can Be More Advanced

The best types of hunts for older kids are ones that aren’t simply hidden and sought but require a bit of thought and strategy. These are the types of Scavenger hunts my older kids enjoy the most.

• Grid Map Egg Hunt
• Nighttime Treasure Egg Hunt
• Glow in the Dark Eggs
• Scavenger Hunt with Clues (write your own clues to make it more challenging or personalized to them for extra fun!)

Check out all of these ideas below!

Tips to Make it Fun for Younger Children (4 and Under)

The simpler the better when it comes to egg hunts for littles. One great way to ensure little kids are having fun is hiding them in an appropriate spot. Easy to find for really little kids ages 4 and under.

Instead of clue cards, you might use Easter Egg Hunt Signs with fun clues to help them look in the right order of the clues and area of the yard.

Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt Ideas that are Easy for Little Kids

The best part about adjusting an egg hunt for a specific age group is getting to personalize it. These Easter Egg Hunt ideas are very easy to simplify so little kids have had great fun at the end of the hunt.

• Traditional Easter Egg Hunt
• The Golden Egg Hunt
• The Golden Ticket Easter Egg Hunt
• Glow in the Dark Easter Egg Hunt (as long as they aren’t scared of the dark!)
• The Picture Scavenger Hunt
• Printable Scavenger Hunt (With custom clues)

Tips to Mix Ages and Still Have a Good Time for All

Whether you’re mixing an egg hunt for your own children or multiple families (or a large event) here are a few tips to have a successful hunt!

Use Color Eggs to Group Ages

The easiest way is to use eggs of a different color for the young kids and the older kids. Example: Young kids get blues and greens while the young kids get pink and purple.

I used this in my family, I purchased egg packages with 5 different colors, therefore each one of my kids gets their own color of eggs. This makes sure that my older kids aren’t snatching the little ones’ eggs before they can get to them!

Separate the Yard

Or you can simply hide the eggs for the older kids in different locations from the little kids. Or hide the younger kids in the yard and the older kids in harder-to-reach places. This is the strategy my husband usually uses.

10 Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt Ideas | Time to Pick a Type of Scavenger Hunt!

Most of the time we have an outdoor Easter egg hunt, but occasionally Easter comes in with a storm and we’re stuck indoors. Never fear, there are fun ideas that could definitely be for indoor as well as outdoor hunts.

01 The Traditional Easter Egg Hunt

Traditionally in our family, Easter egg hunts are held on Easter Sunday, usually after service. When I was a little girl my grandmother would come over to our house when we were at church and hide a chocolate easter bunny for each of us kids. It was literally the highlight of the entire event.

Supplies You’ll Need

• Plastic Easter Eggs or Wooden Easter Eggs
• Small Prizes or Candy
• Easter Basket, Pillow Case, Canvas Bag
• Prize Egg, Bigger Prize

How to Have a Traditional Easter Egg Hunt

Option #1. It’s very simple. Optionally, fill your plastic eggs with candy, small prizes, or spare change (my kid’s favorite). Then hide the eggs in various places in different locations. Everyone makes out like a prince or princess with a basket full of goodies!

Option #2. Hide a bunch of blank eggs (or empty eggs) and the kids get one big prize at the end.

Option #3. Hide the blank eggs, once again, except this time there are one, two, or three, special eggs that are the “prize eggs”.

02 The Golden Egg Hunt (or Treasure Hunt)

For this special hunt, you will need the normal supplies, plus a big golden egg for each child.

This was inspired by these giant golden eggs they sell every year at Dollar Tree. This is another version of the traditional egg hunt with a “prize egg”. Except you can also use Easter egg hunt clues in the plastic eggs that will lead you to the one golden egg.

I don’t have to tell you how much fun my kids had with this one.

03 The Golden Ticket

This is a play on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where there is one golden ticket.

These printables are available as a free download in the Wonderland Subscriber Library. By simply entering your email address and subscribing you get full access. Please remember these are for personal use only.

Supplies You’ll Need

• Plastic Eggs
• A Golden Ticket
• A Grand Prize (of your choosing)

If you’re a fan of everyone winning, then by all means give one golden ticket to each child. You can use your own riddles or the free printable easter clues below to lead them to it. Or they can just find it at random (though that would be the end of the hunt).

04 Glow in the Dark Easter Treasure Hunt

This Easter egg scavenger hunt is ultimate because who doesn’t love glow-in-the-dark? It comes in really handy for the chance of bad weather and needing to do an indoor hunt as well!

Supplies You’ll Need

• Plastic Easter Eggs
• Glow in the Dark Mini Sticks
• Easter Baskets
• Flast Light *optional

All you need to do is put one mini glow-in-the-dark stick in each egg, hide, and turn off the lights (or go outside in the dark)! It definitely helps to have this hunt at night.

Also, when you hide them in your living room ensure there aren’t any overt trip hazards! Ask me how I know this…

This is one of my kid’s favorite hunts and they end up taking turns hiding the eggs for each other over and over. Which means an evening of fun from such a simple concept.

05 A Nighttime Easter Treasure Hunt (with Map and Flashlight!)

This is definitely sure to be a big hit with big kids, particularly who can follow a rudimentary treasure map. Fill each egg with a different clue or fun riddle and hide a little treasure chest where X marks the spot!

Supplies You’ll Need

• A flashlight for each child
• A map of your backyard’s “landmarks”. It doesn’t have to be fancy but does have to be legible enough for a child to understand. So try to make them clear. You can number each landmark or name them.
• A Treasure Chest

How to Create Your Easter Treasure Hunt

The first egg will have a clue that will lead them to the next egg. Each egg you hide will have a sequential clue (use the free printable clues if you like). The very last egg will have the treasure’s hiding spot.

I found these amazing mini wooden boxes and wood burned my kids’ names on them, we use them every year now. I like to put money in the treasure chest, but it could be literally anything! And maybe this year I’ll actually bury the treasure!

06 A Grid Map Egg Hunt

This was one of our most enjoyable hunts to date. Each of my kids continued to hide the eggs literally all day for each other to find. The best part is this is actually learning physical geography, map reading skills, and critical thinking.

These printables are available as a free download in the Wonderland Subscriber Library. By simply entering your email address and subscribing you get full access. Please remember these are for personal use only.

Supplies You’ll Need

• A Grid Map
• Plastic Eggs
• Coordinates written on pieces of paper for each egg you’ll hide

How to Create a Grid Map Egg Hunt

This one I thought of last year and we had a blast, so we’ll likely use it again this year.

1. First, print out your grid map, card stock is best.
2. Then draw your backyard (or park) landmarks, and make them distinguishable.
3. Then create your coordinates. A3, C1, B4, etc. Wherever you’re going to hide the eggs. I found it easier to decide on the spots and then write the coordinate of those spots according to the map.
4. Your first egg will lead to the next egg. Therefore, each egg needs to have a coordinate in it.
5. And the last egg (before the prize) will have the coordinates to the prize.

Note: Now I took 10 eggs for each of my kids and chose 10 hiding spots on the map. The first egg holds the second egg’s coordinates, and so on and so forth.

Make sure to not put in the coordinate paper until you’re hiding it, otherwise, you can easily mistake what order they go in and the hunt will not be successful. The last egg will hold the coordinate for the treasure! We used the treasure as their actual Easter Basket. I reset the game for each child, but they all used the same map.

07 A Picture Scavenger Hunt

This type of Easter egg scavenger hunt is absolutely perfect for younger kids. It doesn’t require much skill except recognition of what’s in each picture.

Supplies You’ll Need

• 12 Photos printed out
• Easter Egg Basket
• Special Treats
• 12 Pack of Easter Cards

How to Make an Easter Egg Picture Hunt

1. Take 12 pictures with your phone or camera of different hiding spots in your yard, the park, or your home.
2. Then print them out either on your printer or at a photo service (upload to Canva or Word and print them out).
3. Insert one photo into each card and label their envelopes 1-12.
4. The first card is where your child will start the hunt, so leave that one out.
5. Hide card #2 in the space pictured in card #1.
6. Each card will lead to another hiding spot. The picture in THAT card is where you will hide the next card.
7. Card #12 will have a picture of the last hiding spot, this is where to hide your treasure (golden egg, golden ticket, or even their entire easter basket!)

This particular hunt is so enjoyable for little kids! My 3-year-old had a blast because it was much more precise having a picture to go by.

08 A Free Printable Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt (with fun Egg Clues!)

This year we’re going to have a lot of fun allowing my two youngest kids, my 5 and 3-year-old, to try to figure these clues out together. I made indoor clues, outdoor clues, and even color clues so you can decide which one works best for you! Or, do all three!

Supplies You’ll Need

• Free Printable Clues
• Fun Prizes
• Plastic Easter Eggs
• Easter Egg Baskets

These printables are available as a free download in the Wonderland Subscriber Library. By simply entering your email address and subscribing you get full access. Please remember these are for personal use only.

How to Use These Printable Easter Egg Scavenger Clues

The easter eggs are actually optional for this activity. You could simply print them on cardstock, use a single-hole punch, and hide them (tie them with string) in different places.

1. Cut out your 10 individual cards. If you’re hiding them in plastic eggs, use regular printer paper so they’re more pliable. Otherwise use cardstock.
2. The first card is to be given to the participant to start the fun!
3. Each sequential card will be hidden where the last clue is sending the child.
4. “You’ll find your first clue where the bathing is done”, so you would hide clue #2 somewhere in the bathroom, bathtub, shower, etc.
5. “The next clue is hiding under something with legs”, hide clue #3 in this spot. And so on and so forth.
6. When you reach your very last clue, “You’ll find the treasure where sleep finds you!”, you would hide their golden egg, golden ticket, prize, or easter basket.

Of course, these ideas can be used for many other occasions as well! Don’t feel boxed in by Easter. You could use the treasure hunt or grid map for birthday fun, or other holidays.

Thanks for stopping by!

Julie