Growing up the youngest of nine children, my mom had to get creative with the Easter egg hunt each year. Somehow she had to engage the teenagers and delight the young children all at the same time. Then, as we all grew older she held hunts for all the grandchildren, but there are so many of them (42 currently) that it got to the point that we would hide a bunch and then scatter the candy and prizes all over the lawn and like the start of a race – let the children loose into the yard to gather treats.
Here are 8 really fun Easter egg hunt ideas to mix things up:
- To help avoid the “gimmies” have your children fill a basket for another child in the family. That way, as they go around looking for treats and prizes, they’ll have the other child in mind instead of rushing to gather everything for themselves.
- Hand them their first clue and send them off on a scavenger hunt with a prize/treat at each stop for each child and a clue to find the next location.
- If you’ve got teenagers, allow them to hide the items for each other. My mom did this, but underestimated the incredible hiding spots teenagers could find and we were still discovering hidden treats months after Easter. So, if you go with this, perhaps have them keep a record of what they hide where. 
- Designate a certain color of plastic egg for each child, that way you (and they) know everything is distributed equally.
- Rotten Eggs: hide a few eggs that have slips of paper with something like, “You have to scratch Mom’s back for 5 minutes before you can eat another piece of candy” or “You must empty the kitchen trash before you have another piece of candy”.
- Instead of filling the plastic eggs with candy, fill them with Monopoly money or slips of paper with a dollar amount. Then open a “store” or have a family auction for treats and prizes.
- Fill each egg with a slip of paper with a number on it, then have each treat or prize have a corresponding number. Once they’ve gathered their eggs, they can trade their papers for prizes!
- Hide some of the eggs with coin money in them and then have one golden egg that is hidden with $5.00 inside it.