The adult Easter egg hunt you need to know about. If your family is looking to spice things up and have a little fun with the traditional Easter egg hunt, this post is for you. Be warned: you may end up owing money at the end of this holiday…
- Forget what you think you know about Easter egg hunts.
- How my Mom changed Easter
- Round 1 It starts with Easter games
- Why the games are important
- Round 2 The Adult Egg Hunt and the Numbered Eggs
- Egg Hunt Rule You can only find a set number of eggs
- Round 3 The Reading of the Egg Number List
- The eggs each equal a dollar amount
- “The List” often has plot twists
- Who bank rolls this event?
- Recapping the best Adult Easter Egg Hunt
- Round 4 The Egg Toss
- Frequently Asked Questions
Forget what you think you know about Easter egg hunts.
Frankly, you’ve been doing them wrong. This is the Easter Egg hunt you need to be doing.
I know I run a “kids activities page” and I’m more known as a “game maker for children,” but friends, this long-distance dedication goes out to the adults in my community.
(And she writes…)
If your family celebrates Easter, I’m sure there’s some kind of egg hunt tradition for the children:
You either have an inside or an outside-the-house hunt.
Real eggs or plastic ones.
Money or candy.
Is there a golden egg involved?
I’m trying to remember when Easter took a turn for the interesting in our family, because I was raised very straight and narrow: we had an indoor hunt. We used real eggs. There was some light candy in baskets. It was a mundane holiday, or rather, it was as it always had been.
Nothing in my childhood could have prepared me for the Easters of my adulthood.
How my Mom changed Easter
I was late-high-school-age, early college when everything went awry, and my mom started to get a little lively with the Easter festivities.
My mom was a teacher, so she has that natural teacher sparkle about her.
She also found a way to keep a childhood tradition alive that usually fades with age and time, but not when bobbing for peeps and $5 is involved. I’m 43 years old and I cannot wait for my Easter egg hunt this year.
Let’s dive in to how my mom turned mundane kid Easter egg hunting into an Adult Easter Egg Hunt worthy of making it into Google.
Please note: for my children, we do a traditional egg hunt much like the one I had as a child. My oldest is almost 13 and we do not plan on letting him join the adult-hunt anytime soon…or ever….
Round 1: It starts with Easter games
My Mom would never say she is an innately creative person, but Easter really makes her sing. It’s like she stores up for the year and releases a fury of creativity all over us.
In early iterations of what would become her viral Easter festivities, small challenges were sprinkled into the egg hunt. Things like “skip around the deck holding the family cat while singing ‘I’m a little teapot'” could earn you a whole $1. Eventually, those simple challenges morphed into all-out Easter games.
It was a really natural next step.
My mom’s Easter opens with games. She started this long before holiday games were standard content on TikTok – she was a pioneer. A visionary.
Each year, my mom selects a variety of games for her guests to play before her completely unhinged Easter Egg Hunt. Nothing gets you loose for a hunt like playing chubby bunny or fishing for Peeps.
The games have morphed over the years, and many of the children in attendance at Easter play them with us adults.
From giant Jenga to relays to bobbing for donuts and tossing carrots, we’ve played just about every style of simple, Minute to Win it type games that mom could come up with.
In the last few years, mom has asked that each family who attends Easter to bring with them 1-2 party games for the group to play. This has spawned endless amounts of creativity, only making Easter more wild, more fun, and more interesting. As if we needed a boost…
Why the games are important
Silliness, playfulness, happiness, and joy are often associated with childhood. What time and space did we give them in adulthood?
How would it look for children to see adults having fun, being goofy, and letting loose?
We wrap adult joy in with childhood. The two become mutually inclusive, and the message it sends to kids is easy to see: Adulthood isn’t fun. Childhood is. Adults only have fun when it’s with kids.
These Easter festivities turn that upside-down. My mom leans hard into adults having fun for the sake of adults having fun. The children who are invited to my Mom’s Easter (my kids and my best friend’s kids) spend the day hyping up adults, cheering us on, supporting our efforts, and being happy with and for us.
What a beautiful message for these kids: Adults are people. They are joy-filled like you. They are silly like you. They enjoy having fun like you. Kids should see adults laughing with twinkles in their eyes and creating their own memories, regardless of the kids.
Round 2: The Adult Egg Hunt and the Numbered Eggs
After spending time together as a family some days before Easter, dyeing eggs and making memories back-dropped in vinegar smells and newspaper, my mom (in secret) numbers each egg.
With rising egg prices, my mom has now switched to plastic eggs. These old images of colorful eggs make me so happy, though.
Exhibit A: A collection of eggs with numbers written on the bottom.
My mom numbers each egg chronologically, starting at 1 and ending with the total number of eggs dyed that year. The number of dyed eggs is always a multiple of the number of adults playing her Easter egg hunt game (typically 8).
The numbered eggs get hidden randomly.
We’ll get to those numbers and what they mean in a second.
My dad hides the eggs, and the last few years, he’s let the grandchildren help which adds a level of chaos that is *chef’s kiss.* Kids hide eggs really well.
Some years, we hide the eggs inside. Some years, we have an outdoor hunt. Seattle weather decides how this is going to go down.
I only have pictures of me and my giant mouth doing the actual Easter egg hunt because I’m far too busy finding eggs to stop and photograph others. I know who I am, and I am Monica Gellar.
Egg Hunt Rule: You can only find a set number of eggs
There is ONE rule for our adult Easter egg hunt (other than elbows out, play like a champion): you can only find a pre-determined number of eggs.
Based on the number of eggs dyed divided by the number of people playing (plus the wind speed on a Tuesday), my mom tells us how many eggs we are allowed to find.
It’s usually 10-12. Once you find 12, you have to stop hunting.
So, let’s recap this adult Easter egg hunt so far:
- Eggs are dyed per normal, or plastic is used.
- Numbers are added to the bottom of each egg.
- Eggs are randomly hidden.
- Eggs are collected (only the specific total amount).
I know you’ve been wondering. What do the numbers mean on the bottom of the eggs? Let’s find out.
Once you collect your set number of eggs, line them up in sequential order.
Get familiar with the random numbers on the bottom of the eggs because things are about to get REAL interesting with these eggs.
Round 3: The Reading of the Egg Number List
At this point, I have no way of knowing what eggs have what number OR what each number means. You take what you find during the Easter egg hunt and hope…
You hope you don’t end up owing my mom money at the end of Easter.
Yup. You read that line right. Easter typically ends with at least one person paying my mom for playing.
The eggs each equal a dollar amount
After the eggs have been found, after the eggs have been lined up, after you’ve gotten familiar with what numbers you have, my mom pulls out “The List.”
This is the pinnacle of Easter. The unveiling of the list. She does it with such flair and pride each year. It’s a bit like that moment when the Grinch gets a wonderful, awful idea.
That’s the same kind of smile she gets.
“The List” has every egg number, and each egg number corresponds to a money amount. We all start at $0, use the calculators on our phones, and keep track of our running totals.
All you have is a prayer and a lucky Easter Bunny foot that you found more pluses than minuses… because some of these eggs are worth positive dollar amounts, and some are not… and you are adding and subtracting throughout the game.
She calls the eggs in order: “Who has number 1? Add $1.00.” “Number 2? Add $1.50.” “Number 3? Minus $1.40.” And so it goes: Add 50 cents, minus 10, double everything, lose half, swap with your right neighbor.
The mood among adults during this is ELECTRIC as dollar amounts rise and fall. The kids are absolutely rapt with anticipation for how this will shake out.
In the random set of eggs in front of you, a few bad eggs mean you’re going to pay at the end of Easter. In fact, someone almost always ends up “losing” and having to pay my Mom money to play her Easter game.
Each adult now shows up to Easter with cash or a check, just in case. When I was 20, I paid her $1.12 in pennies to participate in an Easter egg hunt. When I was 41, I wrote her a check for .83 cents.
My sister had a five-year stretch of paying for Easter. She started bringing cash along with a casserole.
I’m often asked for copies of these lists, but I can’t send them out. The amount of money and eggs is personal to our family and the number of participants.
“The List” often has plot twists
One fun note: Each year, my mom has a few plot twists in her list like trivia questions for bonus cash, sibling competitions, and spouse challenges.
The unveiling of the plot twists is always as exciting as the rest of my mom’s Easter.
Who bank rolls this event?
My mom. And she never really knows how much she’s going to “pay out” because it’s all luck of the draw what egg combinations her victims (I mean, players) get. She keeps the dollar amounts low to keep things manageable. She says it’s her price for hosting (we do potluck, so she’s not stuck with a food bill also).
Here are some of the amounts from the list pictured above:
Egg 1: Add $1.00
Egg 5: Subtract $2.00
Egg 18: Give half to the person on your left.
Egg 56: Divide your amount in half.
Egg 60: Double everything.
The highest she’s paid out was $20 to her beloved son-in-law (my husband). The worst loss was my sister in 2010. She owed my mom well over $10. And she paid it. That’s the risk we take when we show up for Easter. I’m sure your Easter is similarly high stakes.
OPTION: I’ve talked to hundreds of families over the years who started doing my mom’s Easter egg hunt. Many of them have a buy-in, like $5 to play. Others do candy instead of money. There are ways to make this work for your family.
Recapping the best Adult Easter Egg Hunt
Round 1: Easter games for adults and kids. It’s a riot. It sets the mood. It gives kids a chance to see adults having fun.
Round 2: A traditional, but adult-only egg hunt with numbered eggs.
Round 3: The reading of “The List” to find out who won (or lost) how much money. You have the plastic eggs with activities for more prizes and bragging rights.
Round 4: Oh, wait, I forgot to mention the fourth.
Round 4: The Egg Toss
Obviously, there’s an egg toss at the end to conclude each Easter’s festivities. Someone ends as a winner. Someone ends covered in raw egg.
Kind of like the Olympic closing ceremonies, but for our bizarre Easter.
I will NEVER in my life understand how Easter took this kind of turn in our family, especially when I think back to how idyllic and traditional it was when I was a child.
Between The List and The Games, I’m telling you: my mom is on to something. As I said, this is the egg hunt you need to be doing.
I’m never one to tell people how to live their lives (I’m great with suggestions, but at the end of the day, you do you), but when it comes to Easter with adults… well, there’s only one right way.
In case your need some inspiration for games, here are games that we have loves over the years and keep coming back to.
Frequently Asked Questions
My mom funds this. In my early 20s, she used it as a way to give my sister and me some extra cash for pizza at college. Nowadays, especially with how many people come to Easter, she’s good at keeping the winnings down to a few dollars per person. A great option: Have a small buy-in. This post has been viral for years and many people have said their family created an Easter kitty: everyone puts in $5 to play.
The kids think this is hysterical. There is nothing more fun than watching the adults they love have some very child-like fun. There’s so much laughing at our Easter.
That’s going to depend on your “adult” ages – my Mom definitely started this when my sister and I were 16 and 19. It was her way of bringing childhood joy back to Easter and she crushed it. Twenty years later, we can’t wait for her Easter egg hunts.
Totally! I’d put a number inside each egg and have that correspond to “The List.”
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Maria says
LOVE THIS. Could you share a copy of the whole list? I’m not creative enough to come up with all those on my own.
Susie says
Hi Maria – Here is the link from the post: https://busytoddler.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Easter-Games-1.pdf HAVE FUN!!!! ~Susie
Emily F says
I’m trying this for the first time in 2025. I think about it every year AFTER Easter, this year I’ve got my game face on. My family isn’t going to know what hit them.
Stacey says
Thank you for this post! I plan on springing it on the family!
Grandparents live in other states but we try to get together with my folks around Easter. One year, my hubby and I met my folks in the middle and stayed at a hotel. While they were getting ready for the day, my hubby and I hide eggs around the hotel room. They were so surprised and couldn’t believe we packed plastic eggs and hid them.
We hide eggs for my son (now a tween). It’s always been tradition that the kids find the eggs first, then they hide them for the adults.
I also do that for Christmastime by hanging candy canes for him to find, then he hides them for me.
I had a daycare for 18 years and one of the ways I taught the kids colors and numbers was I bought foam shapes in each “color of the say”, so for spring was flower shaped foam. I’d hide the 5 of that color of the say and gave the kids find them. Then they’d hide it for me to find.
Can you tell this is our thing? Lol
Anyways, thank you for this idea!
P.s. fo you have more party ideas like this for other holidays or birthdays.
Robin says
Hi! I enjoyed reading how you make your Easter Egg hunt fun.
Since I am not a fan of having $$$ as a focal point for kids…and definitely not a fan of things like trash the birthday cake/wedding dress or a face plant ketchup dip…I just make the end prize something like a Lindt bunny and little fuzzy animal in a plastic egg.
What I do to spice things up is make up a rhyming riddle for each clue in a hunt. Example: ‘It’s not a secret so you can spoil it. For the next clue look on the …………..’. For the little ones, I do a separate hunt with pictures I draw of the place to find the next clue. I always do a video. For my grown kids it is still a must-do Easter tradition.
Vicki says
I have done an adult Easter egg hunt for years where there is money and candy in them and they can only find a set number of eggs. My daughter sent me this to do it like you this year along with your games. They sound like fun so am definitely doing this with my own dollar amount. I love the adult egg hunt I do every year and sad when we can’t for some reason even though my adult children range from 36-42 years old. It’s a tradition we look forward too and enjoy. What fun it will be adding the games you listed.
Londa says
This sounds like so much fun. I was wondering how I was going to entertain our young adults (no grandchildren yet). This sounds awesome! Question: How do you play lollipop golf?
Joanne says
I’m so happy I came across your post! I think I will start a new tradition this Easter with the numbered eggs. My adult children can use something to shake things up. lol. I jokingly said,
So no Easter baskets this year, right?” And I got replys that they might have other plans, not feeling so well – may not make it…lolol” Thanks to you and your Mom. Happy Easter!
Chris says
Hi,
I’m wondering if everybody starts either with $0 or a pre-set amount before the reading of the list.
Susie says
Everyone starts at 0!
Sue says
I love this hunt! We did it last month at my daughter’s house. I made the game, the kids hid the eggs. They even picked eggs for me so I could participate too! And we all had a blast.
I made the last egg a switch so no matter how excited you were with your amount, it wasn’t yours after all. I must say the switching was the best part!
They all liked it so much they want me to create a version for thanksgiving!
Thank you so much for sharing it! And thank mom for creating it!
Sue
Leslie says
I always like to do something different each year. This is going to be fun. Thanks for the idea.
Marilyn kindred says
So I have a question do you add up the total of the egg’s number as your starting amount of money?
Lisa Jeter says
I like this egg game , do you each bring a set amount of money ?? So then when mom says add .50 cents … you add or take away 1.50 you take that away !
Let me know I want to do this this year !
Carol says
I’ve just found this post while looking for ideas for this year – it sounds like so much fun.
Could you tell me, if your egg number corresponds to the list saying ‘ add $1 to person on your right’ does that mean you subtract from your own total and they add to theirs?
Secondly, does your mum start with a jar of money? Is it just all kept track of by each player and they owe at the end or get paid by your mum?
Thank you
Susie says
Hey Carol, These are great questions!
1. You start with $0. Some years, you are in the negative for a long time if you get bad eggs…
2. The only time money totals is impacted amongst players is if the list specifically calls it out “SWAP with the person next to you.” “Give 1/2 to you sibling.” “Get half from the person to your right.”
3. Mom does not handle any of the accounting. We keep track on our own using our phones. At the end, we all call out our totals to much laughing. I paid mom 37 cents via check last year to play Easter.
Hope this helps!
Susie
Carol says
Thank you so much Susie.
I can’t wait to try this with our family this year.
Shawna says
I was looking for some fun ideas to do with my three college age kids. Somfsr this is the best I have found! I have made up games similar to this in the past, but I like the idea of mixing in am standard Easter egg hunt, and adding the cash component is genius! Would you mind if I emailed you to get your mom’s ideas for the animal games? I’m also trying to decide between making a list like your mom, or just using plastic eggs and putting strips of paper with the bonus/penalty written on it. Is there something in particular you really like about the list method? (P.S. – our cat, Geordie, will definitely be included somehow in these antics!)
Donna Horn says
Ok Susie, my oldest daughter just sent me your Adult Easter Egg Hunt idea! Wow, it sounds like a blast. Yes, this is last minute, but I think I can pull it off! I think I am a bit like your mom. Retired teacher, a fun side and love to be creative at the expense of my four children and their spouses.
I have a problem, between them we have four toddlers, 22, 20, 8, 16 month old’s and two 3m and 2month infants. should I try to run this hunt while we hope they are all down for naps?
Or do I split them up. The hunt at nap time and then the animal games when they go down for bed?
We will have to hide the kids eggs during nap time, so when they wake up they can hunt.
Can you give me a few ideas for your animal games competition since I am running out of time? I promise I will be more creative next year!
Anne says
About how much money does your mom put into this ans how many adults are there?
busytoddler says
I think she budgets a worst-case scenario that each person could win as much as $20. This has never happened – or rather, someone might win that much, but someone is bound to owe $3. Usually there are 3-4 adults playing so I would adjust money amount depending on the number of adults playing.
Megan Olson says
Can I come to your house for Easter? This sounds like a blast!
Stargirl says
So does everyone bring a jar of loose change and small bills to the egg hunt?
busytoddler says
We didn’t used to…but now we do (lol)
Joan says
What us chubby bunny and how do you play with a lollipop for golf????
Corrie says
This is hilarious. I respect your family so much. Your mom especially.