EASTER: Planning an Egg Hunt?

For some congregations the Easter Egg Hunt is a huge outreach extravaganza and for others it's a simple community celebration.  Either way, whether on Saturday or Easter Sunday, invite the neighborhood to participate and share the love!  Let us always remember that the purpose of the "event" is not to get people into your church or to see how many participants we can entice with our games and prizes.  It's about sharing the joy of the resurrection with our neighbors and friends.  Prizes are fun but the ultimate prize we've already won.  This is the message!

Ideas to help share the Story

• Have the congregation donate plastic eggs and individually wrapped candy.
• Have lunch bags (brown or white) and the first activity is to decorate your bag.  You can provide markers, stickers, and cut out paper shapes and letters, etc. 
• In order for every child to get eggs, you may limit their "findings" to a certain number.  Once an older child has found their limit they can help the younger ones.
• Have some eggs that have small novelty toys inside them. (See Oriental Trading.)
• Create some gold or silver eggs that are special prizes.  Inside they contain the Bible verses that tell the story of Holy Week.  After the hunt is over hand out the prizes as you tell the story to the large group.  They can be like the Wonka golden tickets and receive a special prize like an Arch book.
• If you have large prizes, make sure they point to Jesus.
• If you have a small group (or you can have them work in teams) have the story of Holy Week in special eggs and after they've found all the eggs, they have to put the story in order and share it to win the major prize.
• Major prizes can be gift cards for stores or restaurants, games, videos, or books from the local Christian book store.

Games

• Egg Roll - kids push a hard boiled egg a certain distance with their noses.
• Egg Toss - uncooked (if outside) eggs in a traditional toss.  You'll want to use hard boiled if you're inside.
• Capture the Flag Egg - instead of Capture the Flag have the kids capture some distinctly colored eggs.
• Hot Potato Egg - play the music and pass the egg until it stops.
• Egg Balance Relay - the kids have to balance an egg on a teaspoon as they relay, pass the spoon to the next in line and go until their whole team has a chance.
• Easter Bonnet contest - give the kids some craft supplies and let them either decorate simple hats or create their own out of newspaper, silk flowers, fabric remnants, etc.

If you want 1000 PRE-FILLED eggs for $136 try the Ayers Plastic Easter Eggs.

He is risen, indeed!