Active Easter Party Games and Activities

This is a given for any Easter event! If you have a large outdoor space to work with, your egg-seekers will get more physical activity (so fling those eggs far and wide). If you have a large group of hunters, especially with a wide age range, consider creating age-group zones for kids to seek in, so toddlers won't get trampled by overexcited older children.

Fun variation for very early risers, or those who still might have snow on the ground: Stuff plastic eggs with glow sticks to turn them into glow-in-the-dark treasures to find.

Susan Adcox, grandparenting expert, has lots of fun ideas for playing with those Easter eggs after your seekers find them all: the Wolf and the Eggs, Hot-Boiled Egg, Egg Toss, Steal the Egg, and several more games starring Easter eggs (raw, hard-boiled, and plastic). More »

Add an Easter twist to any relay race. Start by having participants wear bunny ears and hop from place to place. Then add more Easter charm by using themed props and rules: For a dress-up relay, use bunny tails and noses. For drop-the-penny, use jelly beans or miniature chocolate eggs. And of course, don't forget the classics: egg-and-spoon and armload-of-(plastic) eggs! More »

Line up all your Easter partygoers for a few rounds of the classic bunny hop dance. Here are the steps in case you forgot what comes first. More »

Maybe your church, community, or neighborhood puts on a parade to showcase Easter finery. If not, you can march out on your own. Be on the lookout for signs of spring while you're at it! More »

Swap a large plastic or plush egg (or an Easter basket) for the flag and you can play an Easter-themed edition of Capture the Flag. More »

Play game show host and have party guests take on these egg-inspired Minute to Win It games. While these ideas call for raw eggs, you can always substitute plastic ones for a less messy version that's easier for little kids to play. More »

Didn't get an invitation to the famous White House Easter Egg Roll? Host your own, or include one in your Easter festivities. You can use hard-boiled colored eggs or plastic ones. Challenge kids to roll them across a finish line in several different ways: by pushing them with a spoon, gently kicking them with their feet, or even crawling on the ground and using their noses to move the eggs forward. Or come up with more creative ways to move those eggs!

For bowling, make your own pins using recycled plastic bottles. You can print out bunny pictures to decorate them, or fill them with Easter items like jelly beans or those tiny fuzzy chicks. Use a small rubber ball to knock over your pins—or try a hard-boiled egg.

For bocce, use hard-boiled or plastic eggs instead of the typical bocce balls. You need one white egg to serve as the pallina or target. The goal is to roll the other eggs as close as you can to the pallina without touching it. (If you want to be daring, use a raw egg as the pallina.) More »

This game is adapted from Family Fun magazine. You need at least four or five players. Choose one to be the Bunny; the rest will be the Eggs. Each Egg should choose a color to identify with: the pink egg, the blue egg, the green egg, and so on.

Designate a home base for the Eggs and a separate one for the Bunny. These can be trees, picnic tables, hula hoops or plastic cones, etc. Also determine a loop that the Eggs will run: from their base to a certain spot in the yard and back. You can make this is simple or as complex as you like, adding instructions (like hopping) and obstacles (like scrambling under a tree branch.

The game starts with the Bunny calling out colors. Once an Egg hears his color, he must run the course while the Bunny tries to tag him. If he gets home safe, the Bunny picks a new color. If the Bunny does tag the Egg, they switch places and the Egg becomes the new Bunny.