What makes a great Easter egg hunt? Share your tips and experiences with Cadbury and you could win a £200 Love2Shop voucher NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

With Easter falling early this year, we're already planning ahead, and Cadbury are looking to hear Mumsnetters’ experiences of Easter egg hunts.

What do you think makes a great Easter egg hunt? Does your family have any traditions - perhaps you base the event on memories from your own childhood Easters? Do you (or the Easter bunny) put together a treasure map or cryptic clues to help find the hidden eggs - and to make the hunt last more than five minutes! Will there be a star prize - or specific eggs to find, so everyone gets a fair share? How do you add to the eggsitement - and more importantly, how can you prevent any arguments or jealousy between the children?!

Whether you’re a fan of traditions or planning an all day eggstravaganza (sorry!), share your egg hunt tips - and your family's favourite Easter experiences - and you will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £200 Love2Shop voucher.

Please note your comments may be included on Cadbury's pages on MN, their social media channels, and possibly elsewhere, so please only post if you're comfortable with this.

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

its more fun if its not too hard, little ones soon get bored if they don't find anything.

Plenty of small easter eggs makes it great fun!

An imagination as to where to hide them

I got some empty 'suprise' eggs off ebay for my suprise egg opening video obsessed toddler at Christmas, can just put 1 or 2 sweeties in each and then reuse foreverrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Paas Easter egg dye. It's American... nothing you can buy here compares. Last time my best friend visited she brought me literally a seven year supply.

Plenty of children and plenty of eggs

Treasure hunt with plastic egg with mini eggs in and next clue, getting harder as they get older.
Chocolate tastes soooo much better when it's in egg shape, and confectionary style chocolate eggs are vile.

Wrap eggs in an extra layer of foil or cling film to prevent them getting muddy/covered in creepy crawlies

I bought some plastic eggs and filled them with prize tokens, each token gets exchanged for a prize - some sweets yes but some non sweets (bunny teddy, hair clips, Easter tshirt etc). My little girl just grew out of her dairy allergy recently so it was a good way to make it fun without her noticing she couldn't have the same as everyone else.
This will be her first year she can have cadburys eggs so looking forward to hiding some creme eggs, mini eggs and a big dairy milk buttons egg on the hunt too!

We don't really do egg hunts at Easter (chocolate is EXTREMELY dangerous for dogs and I would be too scared of our little dog finding and eating the eggs). Instead we leave clues around for the kids to find and solve, with a shared prize for everyone when the last clue is solved.

We do have other traditions, such as painting hard boiled eggs and racing them. We also make our own chocolate cereal nests and fill them with mini chocolate eggs.

The Easter Bunny always brings a few surprises for when the kids wake up on Easter Sunday morning (and yes they are allowed to eat a little bit of chocolate before breakfast!)

As PP have said it's always good to have different coloured eggs for different age groups so the little ones get to join in

A great treasure hunt just needs two ingredients: good quality chocolate and a nice place to hide it. We usually go to Blenheim Palace, in Oxfordshire. We also take a few drinks and enjoy the surroundings whilst savouring the chocolate.

We just do the same thing every year, hide all different size eggs (from tiny to massive) all around downstairs. Blast out the easter bunny song, tell DD to hide outside the door with a basket and bonnet and once she's given the go ahead she's off! We give her clues, and get her to hop occasionally! Hide a star on one egg for a bonus prize. She absolutely loves it and it's so funny to watch!

My advice is not to hide a creme egg in the washing machine and then forget you left it in there. Honestly - don't do that.

Previous years we have done an egg hunt where we hid a load of those plastic eggs filled with various Easter treats, plus a large egg at the end, as our son was young...but this year, I think we'll have lots of cryptic clues for him to follow round the house (& garden if the weather is ok). Our daughter is a bit young, but I'm sure she'll love joining in too... 🐣

Well, it has to be Cadbury's mini eggs, there's nothing better!

A bunny trail treasure map always goes down a treat

If you're running an event for the public, make sure you have enough eggs for all the children attending! Also lovely if you have eggs suitable for those with special diets

Last year we invited our friends to ours. The kids made carrot cones for collecting eggs in - an orange piece of paper with some green paper poking out the top as sprouting.
Each child was allocated a colour and they trawled the garden for eggs in their colour and a big chocolate bunny each. We loved it. One chocolate egg never did get found though, might have to make it easier this year.

I have always done an Easter egg hunt in the house for my daughter ( so weather isn't relevant ) I write cryptic clues that lead to small chocolates and other cryptic clues that eventually lead to the mother lode. These clues have got harder as she's got older, she's now 12, and she's started doing her own hunt for dp and I to follow too.

Easter egg hunts? A family tradition! Wake up to a chocolate Easter bunny for each child and a clue - two lines in rhyme. Follow the clue to the next one - another rhyme, another chocolate for each - and half an hour (and many clues) later the main eggs are found. In and out the garden, up and down the stairs - clues in bags in watering cans, under flower pots, tied on to the car... The secret is to make the clues difficult enough for a real challenge, but easy enough for the wee ones to have a chance to solve them. When we were on holiday, clues were written, tailor made, for where we were staying. Oh, the fun! The building excitement! And each child gets the same reward, so no tantrums. And my job? To write the clues, pack little plastic bags with tiny eggs or chocolates, hide them when the kids are asleep, and relay helpful hints from the Easter bunny if a clue is proving too difficult. My lot are grown now - the last hunt was for the newly marrieds, and (hopefully) grandchildren will join in very soon... Lovely, lovely times...

A really basic map, perhaps with some photos if you have chance.

I have been doing Easter Egg Hunt for Easter Morning for nearly 20 years now, I (well the Easter Bunny) hide eggs around the house and then leaves a number telling each child how many they have to find (I even find my teenage always wants to join in this family ritual) :)
then the main Easter Eggs are left on the doorstep at the end of the hunt

We're going to try a woodland trail Easter Egg Hunt this year - with the Gruffalo & the Big Bad Mouse making a guest appearance! Lots of eggs of different shapes & sizes, including those brilliant rubber boiled eggs!

We like a bit of tradition. We always have our hunt in my parents garden (rain, shine or howling gale). DF made little Easter chick markers to put by the egg stashes a few years ago and these come out every year. DCs have a proper basket to collect them in and then gorge themselves and spoil their lunch.