Easter is one of the most anticipated long weekends of the year … and it’s with all of us staying at home, this year we need to make sure it’s as much fun as possible.
HIDE THE EGGS AND TREATS
If you are hosting an Easter egg hunt for kids and an egg hunt for teenagers, divide the garden into two zones so you can organise based on age groups. Go easy on the smaller kids by leaving eggs on low branches and in open places. You could even demarcate their area to help guide them on the right path. Then, make it more difficult for older ones by hiding them in difficult places such as under leaves, in branches, at the bottom of drainpipes, in the flowerbeds, hidden inside a curled-up garden hose, in the mailbox, or on top of the car tires.
KEEP THINGS FAIR AND SAFE
Younger kids may be at a slight disadvantage compared to the slightly older children, so why not split everyone into even teams with varying ages and tell them to make a ‘team huddle area’. When they find an egg, they have to run back and put it in their huddle area. At the end, the team’s spoils are divided evenly, with victory for all. If you are only catering for toddlers, then you could also do a balloon hunt, which is a lot a lot easier because you can tie an egg or toy to the bottom of each string on a balloon. To make sure that the chocolate-hungry kids don’t hurt themselves by climbing over fences for treats, establish the boundaries of your Easter egg hunt. Tell kids to stay between the house and the pool fence, for instance, or to go no further than the driveway.
THE 50/50 SPLIT
Make sure your egg hunt includes mindful snacking. Incorporate 50 per cent chocolate and 50 per cent small toys, puzzles, activities, nuts, fruit and vegetables for a bit of variety. This will satisfy kids with finding a good batch of goodies and help make it fun for those kids who cannot eat chocolate. If you are hosting an Easter egg hunt for very small kids make sure the eggs are filled with items that do not contain small parts or choking hazards.
BASKETS OR REUSABLE SHOPPING BAGS
Hiding treats is easy, but kids will need something to collect them in. You could give them baskets beforehand and ask them to decorate with colourful ribbons or encourage them to use reusable shopping bags or even backpacks for more of an adventurous feel.
GIVE THEM A MAP
Give each child a copy of a map that leads the way to the treats, or think up some intriguing clues and riddles, and see if the kids can work them out. For smaller kids, read them the clues or help them find visual clues you have set up beforehand, such as bunny footprints drawn on the sidewalk with chalk, or half-eaten carrots that are a tell-tale sign a bunny has been in the area.
THE CLUES
Written clues could add a nice personal touch and make for a great adventure for older kids. You could even go one-step further and write with a UV pen, meaning you can only see the clues with a UV torch. If you have younger children try using picture clues instead.
KEEP A TALLY & FINISHING UP
It is worth making a note of how many eggs you have hidden and some of the sneaky spots you managed to hide them. You do not want your pets to be unearthing chocolate a few months later. Once the kids have completed the hunt, you could also award a bigger prize to the child that collected the most eggs, or another more inclusive idea would be to incorporate a treat-filled piñata for the kids to bash as the final activity in the hunt.
COMPETITION TIME!
Go Digital! Enter the Cadbury Easter Competition on Facebook
Cadbury will be hosting digital competitions for fans to win some Eggstra-ordinary prizes this Easter. From now until April 9, fans can hop over to the Cadbury South Africa Facebook page and help Fluffy save Easter by finding the Cadbury Easter eggs. They can enter the digital competition by simply following the registration prompts.
Once complete, they stand a chance to win daily prizes including one of 100 x R100 Takealot vouchers, one of 50 x R200 Superbalist vouchers, one of 20 Cadbury Easter hampers, as well as the grand prize, one of three 2-night packages at a family getaway for four people sharing. (T’s & C’s can be found on Facebook @CadburyDairyMilkSA under the notes section).
