Help me fill my eggs.

April 6, 2012 9:01 AM

What are some fun things to put into plastic Easter eggs for an egg hunt?

We're having some friends over on Sunday so we'll be having an outdoor egg hunt for our kids (ages 6 - 10). None of our families are big candy eaters so we're looking for some other fun stuff to put into the plastic eggs.

Don't worry, we will have some candy, we're not totally evil parents. We'd like to avoid cheap plastic toys that will be forgotten about once the day is over.

In the past we've put some grapes in, which are fun and the kids enjoy, but they're, you know, grapes. Not exactly a treat. Just typing that out makes me want to punch myself.

Nothing religious, please.

All the kids and parents have great senses of humor.

My ideas so far:

Money
Candy
Lego mini-figures
Notes that say "YOU GET NOTHING!"
That is all

Ideas?

posted by bondcliff to grab bag (46 answers total)

A hard boiled egg inside a plastic egg would be hilarious.
posted by advicepig at 9:03 AM on April 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

All the kids and parents have great senses of humor.

Real (hard-boiled) eggs?
Fortunes?

How about snippets of a code that, when assembled, leads the kids to a hidden cache of goodies?
posted by backseatpilot at 9:03 AM on April 6, 2012 [4 favorites]

Lotto Scratcher tickets!
posted by muddgirl at 9:04 AM on April 6, 2012 [3 favorites]

1. I really love the "YOU GET NOTHING"

2. Things that create a bigger thing help it from being something that is lost in a day. Your legos are good as are (from my childhood) pogs. Anything that fits this vein works well. Perhaps dominos?
posted by raccoon409 at 9:05 AM on April 6, 2012

- Jokes! You can print them up on pieces of paper and put them in capsule things or just rubberband them.
- silly bands (do kids still like those?)
- sidewalk chalk if the weather is decent
- finger puppets (that tell jokes!)
- magnets, kids love magnets
- fun money like fifty cent pieces, if they fit or old buffalo nickels or coins from other countries
- coupons for something fun that won't fit in an egg
- cool marbles
- miniature kites
- origami sculptures

You might get some other good ideas from some similar advent calendar questions (1, 2).
posted by jessamyn at 9:10 AM on April 6, 2012

Stickers
Temporary tattoos
Japanese erasers
Bike streamers
Friendship bracelets
A coupon good for one Smencil
Silly Putty
posted by hmo at 9:11 AM on April 6, 2012

How about snippets of a code that, when assembled, leads the kids to a hidden cache of goodies?

Oh man, it would be awesome if there was some way you could get a custom jigsaw puzzle done in time for this. When all the pieces are put together they could form an awesome treasure map!

For maximum loltrolling the treasure map could lead to a giant empty easter egg that says ZOMBIE JESUS STOLE ALL YOUR CANDY.
posted by elizardbits at 9:11 AM on April 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

Jigsaw puzzle pieces. This only works if you can guarantee that all the pieces get found. If they're spread across multiple eggs you end up with a nice collaborative effort at collecting the pieces and then assembling the puzzle.
posted by alms at 9:12 AM on April 6, 2012

Definitely stickers! Tiny art supplies i.e. little watercolor sets, crayons, markers?
posted by dysh at 9:12 AM on April 6, 2012

1. I dislike "You get nothing." I love cruel humor; this is cruel without the humor bit.

2. Consider tiny plastic bunnies. Make the kids think!
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 9:12 AM on April 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Foam Capsule Animals.
posted by alms at 9:13 AM on April 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Little slips of paper with tiny URLs that lead to . . . . Rickroll!
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 9:14 AM on April 6, 2012

Sashimi
posted by Burhanistan at 9:15 AM on April 6, 2012

As backseatpilot alluded to, snippets of code or pieces of a puzzle map would be cool. Easter egg hunts usually involve scramble competition. However, by cutting a treasure map into little pieces, it forces the kids to then work together to pool their eggs to get enough pieces to find the treasure.

Who knows. Maybe some little crafty kid will start "selling" his treasure map pieces for candy. XD
posted by temetvince at 9:15 AM on April 6, 2012

These are great so far, keep 'em coming. I love the idea of the treasure hunt/code/puzzle though I'm not sure I'll have enough time to pull it off.

Sashimi

This just made me laugh out loud. I'll save the raw-fish-inside-plastic-eggs-sitting-outside hunt for a sunny day in August though.

1. I dislike "You get nothing." I love cruel humor; this is cruel without the humor bit.

Please trust that I know my kid's sense of humor well enough to know what he'll appreciate and what he won't.
posted by bondcliff at 9:21 AM on April 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

A note that says, "You may exchange this egg for anybody else's egg."
posted by xingcat at 9:23 AM on April 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

Tokens for your local Chuckee Cheese (or similar place). That is if you will actually go to said place.

"Coupon" for an activity (movie, zoo, taking a walk, cooking lesson with Dad, pizza night, popcorn party, going out for an ice cream).

Those little rubber balls from the gumball machine.
posted by Sassyfras at 9:30 AM on April 6, 2012

I was thinking about stuff that would occupy the kiddos later on. I want to second the sidewalk chalk and little kites that were mentioned above. Also how about some jump rope or balls to play games?
The hunt idea is cool too; bet the kids would enjoy solving some riddles and finding some great treat at the end.

How do you feel about a water fight in your yard? Check these diy sponge balls out, easy to make & can be squished into plastic eggs.
posted by travelwithcats at 9:30 AM on April 6, 2012

Just watch about putting un-wrapped food into plastic eggs that you're going to hide outside, because: ants. Unless your kids are the type to not care, or actually enjoy some extra protein, that is...
posted by msbubbaclees at 9:35 AM on April 6, 2012

My mom always made* the plastic easter eggs into a scavenger hunt with notes inside leading to something big, but making sure that the first one was in my easter basket.

In a large setting it would make more sense for them to have notes that say "Go look in this place" and then have the place have something hidden that wouldn't necessarily fit in an egg. Like a book! Or, to be mean, a hard-boiled egg.

* I say 'made', but it's not really past tense. I'm 35 years old and I still got my easter egg scavenger hunt this year. But at the end I found a pound of See's candy instead of jelly beans.


Okay fine, there were jelly beans too.
posted by elsietheeel at 9:36 AM on April 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

One egg should be jam-packed full of tiny plastic spiders.
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:43 AM on April 6, 2012 [5 favorites]

Ooh, and another should contain two rubber eyeballs!

Gross is awesome.
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:45 AM on April 6, 2012

Things that are going in Easter Eggs chez Good this weekend (keeping in mind we have an eight year old girl, and this is stuff that lasts us the whole year and I don't mind investing a bit. And, she is nice and shares them with me.):

(There are some of my...erm...her favourite Cadbury mini-eggs - the ones with pop rocks - but that's about it.)

*hair elastics and barrettes
*these little fuzzy chicks (they get packed away between Easters, and we spend a few days playing with them and making dioramas and stuff)
*lip balm in candy flavours
*mini nail polish
*Iwako erasers
*bracelets/necklaces small jewellery
*fun socks
*mini coloured pencils
*a Playmobil mini duo
*flower seeds
*embroidery floss for friendship bracelets
*rubber stamps (like this, but found at the dollar store)
posted by peagood at 9:49 AM on April 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

bondcliff: "Lego mini-figures"

why just mini-figs? why not also blocks?
posted by I am the Walrus at 10:18 AM on April 6, 2012

why just mini-figs? why not also blocks?

These are the smaller sized eggs, about the size of a regular egg. I thought about blocks, and I might do it, but it seems like if a kid just gets one or two eggs he's going to end up with a few measly Legos that he can't very well do much with. Plus while my kid has a shit ton of Legos I'm not sure if the other kids coming are into Legos.

How do you feel about a water fight in your yard?

I'm fine with it but it'll only be about 50 tomorrow and the kids will be in their church clothes. Probably not a good idea.

Also, there will only be three kids.

I might also fill a couple eggs with dental floss. Just to be a dick. (seriously, these kids will get the humor in this sort of thing. Great kids.)
posted by bondcliff at 10:25 AM on April 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

If you put in mini glow sticks or glow bracelets, you can have a night hunt!
posted by mikepop at 10:37 AM on April 6, 2012

My grandparents always did an easter egg hunt for us. Since there were only three of us, we each got our own color eggs. Meaning if you saw someone else's color egg you didn't pick it up, you either giggled about knowing the secret of where it was, or toward the end of the game you became helpful and gave clues as to where to look. As we got toward 8-9-10ish in age, they would tape coins to the eggs (these were hardboiled, dyed eggs), so we each ended up with a few bucks in change, in addition to whatever candy was already in our baskets. They had a yard with a lot of bushes and trees, so the hunts were always challenging.
posted by vignettist at 10:44 AM on April 6, 2012

At least one object that is waaaaay too big for the egg so you have to tape the two halves of the egg to it. Maybe a funny hat? Or a frisbee?
posted by that's candlepin at 11:06 AM on April 6, 2012

When I was little, our big family easter egg hunt included eggs with little pieces of paper in them that said things like "kite" or "barbie" or so forth. At the end of the hunt you would go exchange them for the listed item. It was pretty neat, since I still remember how fun it was to find a super light egg and know you were about to get something awesome.
posted by internet!Hannah at 12:17 PM on April 6, 2012

Little plastic funky erasers!
posted by spinifex23 at 12:18 PM on April 6, 2012

mood rings, fake mustaches, those little snap and pop things you can throw that have gunpowder in them...
posted by coevals at 12:35 PM on April 6, 2012

Money! When my nieces and nephews mostly got too old to hunt eggs for the candy inside, I filled them with change. They were always in need of money as teenagers and, as college students, used the change for parking money. I switched to colorful plastic shopping bags when they were old enough to want something besides Easter baskets and we all got several more years of running around like crazy for an egg hunt. Great times. I also used to host, as a corollary to the egg hunt, the Egg Olympics, where we played silly games, like an egg-in-a-spoon race and a Dress the Naked Bunny contest, which consisted of a page with a bunny's picture that participants used markers and crayons to "dress." We got some interesting interpretations of bunny couture, like the Harley-Davidson biker bunny, George W. Bunny, Scarlett O'Bunny, etc., etc. Even the adults enjoyed the Egg Olympics. Have fun!
posted by Jenna Brown at 1:01 PM on April 6, 2012

I should amend my answer. I didn't fill them with change, I just put several coins in each egg, almost randomly. Part of the fun was getting a heavy egg that was filled only with pennies and nickels or a light one that contained quarters.

Carry on.
posted by Jenna Brown at 1:04 PM on April 6, 2012

balloon
nuts (since they're YOUR kids and you know it's safe)
grass
mini pretzels
pebbles
posted by wryly at 2:21 PM on April 6, 2012

Cute little hair clips, ribbons or bands.
Temp tattoos
cheap earrings or jewelry
Lipglosses
Cute stationery - you can get fun paperclips, clips, pencil sharpeners, erasers all sorts of fun little things.
Coupons for things. . .say you taking them out for pizza, or to get out of doing a chore for a night.
Cadbury cream eggs, I like the whole eggception thing and most of my eggs have eggs of some sort in them.
posted by wwax at 2:34 PM on April 6, 2012

Pudding! Everyone likes pudding!
posted by Thorzdad at 2:42 PM on April 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

Other than some candy, things my nine year old will find Easter morning include:

erasers shaped like food
a wind-up pecking chick
Easter socks
balloons
Star Wars Beanz
some off-brand Polly Pockets situation
a dissolving egg with a foam bunny inside (i think? who knows what that's going to turn out to be)

The Easter bunny also always brings a toothbrush, toothpaste and floss, because he has a cross-promotional deal with the Tooth Fairy and because my kid's mother is a dick.

Plastic bugs and one of those springy snakes that pops out would also be fun.
posted by looli at 3:14 PM on April 6, 2012

Combos. Nuff said.
posted by grateful at 5:28 PM on April 6, 2012

Wasabi Peas
posted by Confess, Fletch at 7:11 PM on April 6, 2012

I always like putting out eggs with odd messages in them. Something like 'You are now aware of every time you blink,' or 'I am delighted to have been of entertainment.'

An easy puzzle/clue thing you can do with eggs is put 'Warmer' or 'Colder' into eggs and lead the kids toward some hidden prize that way.
posted by Garm at 8:19 PM on April 6, 2012

Pudding! Everyone likes pudding!

Oh my yes, I was just going to suggest something gross like cracking a raw egg into one of them, but pudding is probably less awful. On reflection though, perhaps still not a good fit with the church clothes. Maybe something dry like popcorn kernels or sand?

I like the idea of encouraging cooperation and activities after the hunt:
- a simple toy in one egg (superball, balloons, jacks,...) and instructions for a game that uses that item in another egg.
- mix up parts - the head of a lego minifig in the wrong egg, mismatched earrings or socks (with a note saying which is the "home" egg to prevent arguments)
- homemade pictionary, charades, riddles, or trivia cards

Some legit gifts:
- novelty bandaids
- seed bombs or some large, fast-growing seeds like sunflowers
- dress-up paper dolls or small papercraft models
- costume bits - eyepatch, moustache, face paint
- an egg shaker
posted by bethnull at 11:16 PM on April 6, 2012

Fortune cookies.
Inventive packaging jokes - put something small inside and fill the space with feathers.
While not something to put -in- the egg, maybe just have an egg-sized box blatantly labeled 'EGG'. Inside is an egg.
Can you put a plastic egg inside a real one? Utilize science!
Get a couple of smaller eggs, fill them with toothpaste.
Art supplies! Sidewalk chalk, crayon halves, etc.
posted by mikurski at 3:13 AM on April 7, 2012

Oh!

If you're doing some candy - yesterday, I found some of the Jelly Belly Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans I'd stashed away for a special occasion... heh heh heh...
posted by peagood at 5:38 AM on April 7, 2012

nuts (since they're YOUR kids and you know it's safe)

Heh. My kid has a nut allergy! This is actually a good idea though and since he's ok with walnuts (as long as they're still in the shell) a few eggs have walnuts in them, including one that is taped shut.

Ok, eggs are ready to be hidden. We've got:

Various candy
A few bucks in change
Some plastic snakes. (should be fun when they open them. I couldn't find spiders)
One egg has a thing of dental floss. Best. Dad. Ever.
Walnuts
Some super balls

I love the idea of pudding, but we didn't have time and it might be a bit too messy what with the church clothes and all.
posted by bondcliff at 5:11 AM on April 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

It's too late for this year, obvs, but for posterity let me add that when I put things out last night I discovered that I also had an Egg of Bunnies modelled on the barrel of monkeys game. The bunnies were awesome fun to hid on account of their being able to hang from their ears in unexpected places.
posted by looli at 9:50 AM on April 8, 2012

For next year, confetti!
posted by peagood at 4:43 AM on April 10, 2012