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Those of you who know me or have read my blog know that my inclination leading up to Resurrection Sunday, normally would be to write a post about the true meaning of this holiday, drawing attention away from eggs and bunnies and focusing on my Friend and King, Jesus. That is, of course, what I strive to teach my children. In fact, in our home we do not do Easter egg hunts (gasp!). Not to worry, my children have survived the deprivation. Actually they have not been deprived at all. You see we were fortunate in our household to have a child born in late March. Thus when the children were small we had an egg hunt each year to celebrate her birthday. This kept it separate from Easter yet still allowed them the excitement and adventure of an egg hunt with friends. As the children have gotten older we have strayed away from this practice. However, this post has inspired me to maybe surprise them with an egg hunt for the child who has a birthday in May (shhhhhhh, don’t tell : )
One of my struggles with Easter (or birthday) egg hunts, birthday parties, and other such children’s activities is the endless amount of sugar usually involved. Thus when creating my own egg hunt, or when asked to help with other children’s activities, I am constantly on the lookout for fun ways to make it healthier. : ) With Easter egg hunts the challenge is to find tiny, fun, and creative items to stuff inside the Easter eggs that will still bring a delightful glee when the egg pops open.
The List…
If you have a similar interest in keeping sugar to a minimum, I have compiled a list of ideas to make your hunt a little more healthy. The fact the item is listed here does not guarantee it will fit in an Easter egg. Easter eggs come in various sizes. Please verify items will fit in the eggs you have chosen. I used to buy a few jumbo eggs for items too large to fit in the smaller eggs. Please also note this list is not age specific. Please consider the age of the children involved in the egg hunt, with regards to safety when deciding what items to place inside the Easter eggs.
Stickers
Marbles
Finger puppets
Army men
Balloons
Bouncy balls
Barrettes
Hair Ties
Small bubbles containers
Miniature Card games
Dice
Coins
Press on earrings
Miniature boxes of raisins
Goldfish (the crackers not the animals : )
Legos
Magic Grow Capsules
Magnets
Rocks/Gems
Pretzels
Silly Putty
Miniature Slinky
Temporary Tattoos
Whistle
Dollar Bill
Trail Mix
Dried Fruit
Nuts
Gummies (okay candy but hey not as bad for you as most : )
Gum
Grapes
Miniature Nail Polish
Bracelets
Earrings
Rings
Bead Necklace
Foam Stickers
Pencil Top Erasers
Miniature toy cars
Key chain
Play-doh
Jacks and ball
Small plastic bugs
Eye-Patch
Miniature spinning tops
Bendable animals
Pencil sharpener
Sticky hand
Miniature magnifying glass
Parachute men
Cheerios
Shoe laces
Glow-in-the-dark stars
Popcorn
Wildflower seeds
Craisins
Chap stick
Finger Poppers
Mini beach balls
Mini skateboards
Ear buds
Mini self-inking stamps
Pencil toppers
Punching balloons
Hacky-sack
Yogurt covered raisins
Lanyard
Pencil grips
Sunflower seeds
Teddy Grahams
Baby carrots
If your Easter egg hunt involves a group you can get a jigsaw puzzle. Put pieces of the puzzle in different eggs. After the hunt come together to put the puzzle together!
A great resource for small gift and novelty items is Oriental Trading. Or you can purchase your eggs already filled with small toys here. Please let me know if this list was helpful by leaving a comment below. Also if you think of different ideas please share so others can benefit. Have a blessed Resurrection Sunday!
Linked-up @ Blessed Learners, Imparting Grace, Beauty Observed, and Fellowship Fridays
Machelle is a native Texan who values liberty. She has homeschooled six of her children at some point during their educational experience. She continues to home educate the youngest two. One way she expresses her passion for helping others is as a Crisis Chaplain. Some of the disasters to which she has deployed and ministered at are: the Bastrop, TX wildfire (2011), the West, TX plant explosion (2013), the Moore, OK F5 tornado (2013), and the Central Texas flood (October 2013), the Memorial Day Blanco River flood (2015), Hurricane Harvey (2017), the Sutherland Springs church shooting (2017), and most recently the El Paso Wal-Mart shooting (2019). She also currently serves a Regional Deputy Commander for the International Fellowship of Chaplains.
April 16, 2014 @ 10:37 am
It indeed is a great idea to keep sugar to a minimum with all the health hazards it brings with.Great job! Happy Easter 🙂
Vinodini Iyer recently posted…Peplum Picks
April 16, 2014 @ 6:57 pm
Thanks Vinodini. We do not avoid sugar completely in our home. I just do not like to be inundated with it all at once!
Machelle Baker recently posted…Change: How Do You Deal With It?
April 16, 2014 @ 11:01 am
Love this! Thanks for sharing, perfect timing! 🙂
April 16, 2014 @ 6:59 pm
Thanks Angelica. I was afraid it was too late for most people. But then there are always people like me who put these things off until the last minute : ) So I decided to share anyway.
Machelle Baker recently posted…Baby Steps: Planning
April 16, 2014 @ 1:16 pm
Great ideas! Also, I love your graphic 😉
~Jess
April 16, 2014 @ 7:00 pm
Thanks Jess. I was a little impressed with the graphic myself : )
Machelle Baker recently posted…Laundry Leviathan
April 16, 2014 @ 1:34 pm
What a great list! I never even thought of a lot of those! And nice job with the Picmonkey image. 🙂
–Gena
Gena recently posted…Review “Curiosity Quest” DVDs
April 16, 2014 @ 7:03 pm
Thanks Gena. I had fun making the graphic. Made me want to see what else I could do : ) It took me quite some time to realize how many things would fit inside a plastic egg. But once I did, I was on the hunt!
Machelle Baker recently posted…Spring Cleaning: The Heart of the Matter
April 16, 2014 @ 6:19 pm
We don’t do Easter egg hunts either, at least not on Easter. We do it after the Easter holiday. I do offer my children candy (although I prefer items from your list), because they rarely get to eat candy and since we don’t celebrate Halloween either, I figure this is the one time I should let them have that pleasure. 🙂
Clara @A Slice of Homeschool Pie recently posted…7 Reasons Why Stressing Over Homeschooling Is Unnecessary
April 16, 2014 @ 7:09 pm
Clara, we don’t do Halloween either. However, I inherited an unbelievable sweet tooth from my grandfather. Thus after holidays, Halloween, Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day, etc. I try to make a trip to the store and buy candy when it is half-off : ) Even then, I eat most of it. We don’t completely avoid sugar in our home. I just prefer moderation spread out over time instead of getting your fill for the year in one setting…lol
Machelle Baker recently posted…Disaster Relief & Home Education
April 17, 2014 @ 12:18 am
Now this is right up my alley!!
LOVE love this post!
We eat pretty much sugar free in our house and do a lot of sugar free cooking.
Thanks for all the fantastic ideas X
Bek Mugridge recently posted…Bek’s Chocolate Wrap Up. Healthy & Moorish Chocolate Easter Ideas From The Vault
April 18, 2014 @ 11:31 am
My sister can’t eat sugar at the moment, but they sound like good alternatives!
Sophie Bowns recently posted…Aftermath
April 19, 2014 @ 1:49 am
We dye hard-boiled eggs (partly because my daughter has a major sweet tooth, and like you I don’t want to bring in that many treats at once,) but your list is a really great idea. I may try that next year. Thanks for the good ideas!
April 21, 2014 @ 3:38 pm
I think having an egg hunt for a spring birthday is a fabulous idea! Great ideas for your egg fillers. I can tell that you put a lot of thought into it. I never thought about an eye patch before. How fun!
Thank you so much for linking-up at Beauty Observed last week! It was very nice to have you!
Elizabeth recently posted…The Bloodmobile
June 8, 2014 @ 3:35 am
This blog post is a great help. Even though it’s too late when I found this post, this will surely help me in finding ways to have non sugar egg fillers. I had an experience way back two years ago when my son joined Easter egg hunt in a neighborhood’s compound. When one child has eaten a very sugary egg filler that cause her juvenile diabetes to level up, he was rushed to the hospital and thank God he was okay. Now, in our home owners meeting, we agreed that in conducting Easter egg hunts, we should be more vigilant and careful so that the incident won’t happen anymore. Thus, this article will certainly be a big help for us. Thanks 🙂
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