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

[hann24]

Small eggs that are wrapped in foil are best, that way they don't make a mess of wherever you hide them. Also make a note of the hiding places so you can offer handy hints if the children are stuck!

[angiehoggett]

Last year I found some brilliant stuff online and created a great easter egg hunt, I'll be looking online again for some great games and fun

[RACHELSMITH45]

We hide eggs in the garden and in the house with a little treasure hunt theme. Last year outside our daughters room we had signs and clues all over to help lead her to all the eggs! She loved it and this year her brother will be at an age to be able to enjoy it with her. We also enjoy lots of Easter themed crafts. They're only little for so long!!

[pfcpompeysarah]

Some sneaky clues, shared activities, good company, lots of chocolate eggs with brightly coloured designs along with tiny toys as consolation prizes in some areas.

[sooz83]

I think variety is the best part of an easter egg hunt and as much as I adore chocolate I think adding other prizes such as fluffy bunnies and ducklings go down great, we also used to put egg pictures in to be coloured and held a separate competition for the best colouring.

[lhlee62]

I have never done one, but I love this thread and will be pinching some ideas! I can't wait to try and do one for my daughters.

[LeeR1985]

I keep the little plastic tubs you get in kinder surprises and hide them around the house. I put 50p in each one and if my daughter finds all of them (usually 7 or 8), she 'wins' a big easter egg :)

[taz10]

dont make it to hard involve all the family

[mamof3boys]

My father in law always does an Easter egg hunt for my children every year. He writes brilliant clues for each child, and they have they own eggs to find so there;s no arguments. I'm glad he does it as I could never come up with the clues that he does. The children love it.

[Jeffjefftyjeff]

To find the main stash of Easter eggs we do word based clues that increase in complexity with the age of the child. They spell out like locations and are often of the type 'my first is in frog but not in dog'....

If there's a group of kids we get a pile of magazines and circle a letter somewhere in each one. Each child has to find the circled letters and put them on a post it then stick on the wall. Once they've got them all, as a group they rearrange to find a word where the eggs (or a further clue!) are.

Or we do a massive free for all to find little eggs hidden round the garden! One year we had loads of dandelions that we're going to go to seed so we got teams of kids to compete to gather the most dandelions for extra eggs as a prize!

[fazkin]

Map and clues for the older children and colourful eggs to hunt for the younger ones.

[gamerwidow]

We use age appropriate clues to help the DC locate the eggs. Also don't forget where you've hidden the eggs like we did one year.

[tubbss]

We pool the prizes! At the end of the hunt the prizes are shared equally

[BellaWella86]

Simplicity! As a child, my nan would buy little chocolate rabbits and hide them round the house. We'd have so much fun trying to find them. So simple, yet fun.

[rhinosuze]

We have clues leading to locations for my little girl and her friends - I always plan an indoor hunt too in case it rains

[gp12]

My kids love clues that direct them all around the house and garden to eventually find the treasure trove of chocolate. When they were smaller, we used to hide eggs before they woke up so it looked like the easter bunny had done it

[compy99]

small eggs are easier to hide, have little signs with clues on, or pictures for non-readers, if indoors, make a note how many and where they are as a melted "unfound" easter egg that isn't discovered for ages is not good!

[hbakfam]

Fun costumes and expensive Easter eggs!

[RichardHead]

Enough eggs and then some so that the youngest manage to snaffle a few without losing out to the older ones.

[KittyKat88]

My DDs are still quite little and love to prepare their own Easter baskets, which is a nice craft activity. The DH then hides lots of little eggs and fluffy chicks around the garden for them to find. As a child, my mum used to blow eggs and we'd then decorate them, which is a tradition I have carried on with my DDs too.

[JoJoBaldwin]

Laminated colourful egg shapes all numbered 1-5 for the children to find. The children then have to find one of each number in order to win a real egg at the end of the hunt. This mitigates against the problem of some children finding lots of chocolate and others finding none!

[Charbru123]

Just using loads and loads of choc eggs with stickers corresponding to each person :)

[hareagain]

Adults vs kids. Gets everyone going every year without fail.

[OnMyShoulders]

I'd like to do what I did as a child but DH thinks it's weird. My family used to all go up a big hill and roll our chocolate eggs down. Then it would be a dash to get them at the bottom before any dogs did (that wasn't part of the game - just a necessity!). We have 5 DC and have an egg decorating competition now. They each decorate 3 eggs and then DH picks the winners. On Easter Sunday, we hide little chocolate eggs all over the house and DH writes funny clues. The DC range in age from 2-14 so we give them each an allocation to find so that it's fair for the little ones. Normally we count how many eggs we've hidden so we know when they've all been found but last year, silly DH forgot and I was finding eggs for bloody months.

[Funkyferret]

My local park does a great egg hunt. You are given a sheet of clues and have to write down the image (bunny, daffodil, etc) on the eggs (they're real boiled eggs) when you find it. It costs £1 per child and every child submitting the correct answers (I don't think they are too strict!) gets a prize - a chocolate easter egg but also they have nut and dairy free options and even a little cuddly toy if you'd rather not have chocolate for allergy or dietary preferences and have a word beforehand.