How to organise an Easter egg hunt

As Easter approaches, children wait eagerly for their annual Easter egg hunt to rush around the garden and house in search of delicious chocolate treats.

The Easter egg hunt has existed for hundreds of years. Originating in Germany during the late 16th century, Protestant reformer Martin Luther told the men in his congregation to hide eggs. Women and children would then hunt for them. This was a representation of women finding the rolled-back stone of Jesus Christ’s tomb after his resurrection. In Christian teaching, the egg is often described as a symbol of the stone blocking the tomb, giving rise to egg-rolling races throughout Europe.

The Easter bunny further embellished this tradition. Or Easter hare, as German botanist and physicist Georg Franck von Franckenau first referred to t in 1682. This creature would bring a basket of decorated eggs and hide them around the house for the children who had been good that year. Now, chocolate eggs are more popular than your traditional breakfast egg, but the tradition of the Easter egg hunt continues.

Location

The choice of location is important for an Easter egg hunt. It needs to be large enough to not be too easy, but also not so large that it’s impossible. Of course, this will depend on the age of your hunters. Make sure that the participants know the limits of the search so that they don’t go wandering off, and always have an indoor back-up plan in case of rain.

Hiding spaces

Never forget to count how many chocolate treats you have before hiding them! Otherwise you’ll end up discovering old or half-melted eggs around the house for months to come. Have some hidden in a mixture of easy-to-find and trickier locations and remember you can give clues if they are way off track.

Buckets and pails

Have a receptacle that your hunters can collect their chocolate treasure in. This could be baskets, buckets or even paper bags – all are an effective way to stop the chocolate melting in hands and pockets.

Strategy

There are various ways to organise the hunt. The classic, free-for-all hunt means children can find as many eggs as they can, and the winner is the person with the most eggs at the end. However, this could be unfair if you have a mixture of ages. Try giving the younger kids a head start so that they are more likely to find their share of eggs.

If you prefer a less competitive atmosphere, then colour code the chocolate. This way you can either assign one colour per child, or tell them that they can only have one chocolate of each colour. This means you can also ensure each child gets one of each type of chocolate. It’s the best way to reduce the likelihood of arguments!

What chocolate to choose

The most exciting part of any chocolate hunt is deciding which chocolate they are going to find. The children will be more motivated if they have seen a fellow participant with an exciting new chocolate goodie that they don’t have yet.

At Hotel Chocolat, we have a wide variety of bite-sized chocolates that would make a perfect addition to your Easter egg hunt. Our chocolate bunnies are available in a variety of flavours to suit every palate. You could even have our Extra-thick Easter Eggs as a prize for the winner!

At Hotel Chocolat, we believe in less sugar, more cocoa. This means that the flavour of our ethically-sourced cocoa is at the forefront. The result? Milk chocolate tempers its creaminess with the depth of cocoa flavour, and our dark chocolate entices with earthy aromas and deep chocolate notes. Level up your Easter egg hunt this year with our quality chocolate.