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Easter egg hunts were a big deal in my house growing up. Like, a really big deal. To put it into perspective for you, every year my mom had an extensive list of rules, clues and prize information on deck at all times during the hunt. Easter egg hunts were of course just for fun, but we all knew what they really were: full blown Hunger-Games-style take-no-prisoners competitions amongst the siblings. Maybe that’s a little dramatic, but it’s not far from the truth! There were clear winners and losers in our hunts. Feelings would sometimes get hurt (mostly mine), but they were always a good time and were definitely memorable. My mother always had fun surprises along the way, and even the “rotten egg” got a really good prize!
My mother never hid candy inside the eggs that we hunted. We always had candy in our Easter baskets, but never in the eggs. If anything was in the eggs, it was money. It was always a blast finding an egg and hearing coins rattle inside! It made me start to think about other really fun things you could incorporate into Easter egg hunts. While I don’t know that I’ll want to do competitive Easter egg hunts with my children, I do plan on making their hunts really fun in ways similar to what my mother did for us. One way I’d like to do that is to put all sorts of different surprises in the eggs that they find!
I really wanted to think of things other than candy to put into the eggs. Easter candy is my very favorite seasonal candy (I’m looking at you, Cadbury Cream Eggs), but we always put candy in the Easter baskets that we open before the hunt, and I really don’t want to encourage more sugar than is necessary. So without further adieu, here’s 15 Egg-cellent Easter Egg Fillers (That Aren’t Candy!)
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Money
- This one is probably a favorite among kids – depending on their age of course. I remember being so excited when I found money eggs during our Easter egg hunts. You may want to make a note of where you hide money eggs, because you definitely don’t want to forget one!
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Stickers /Temporary Tattoos
- Sticker/tattoo sheets are easy to roll up and put into plastic eggs. Be sure to get the long, skinny sheets and not a booklet of them. Here’s an example of stickers that would be easy to roll. (And tattoos, too!)
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Mini Nail Polish/Lip Balm
- If little girls are participating in the egg hunt, mini nail polish and lip balms would definitely be a fun find for them! You can typically find multi-packs for kids on Amazon, or at drug and super-center stores. Nail art stickers might also be a fun idea to go with it! This is another one that you will want to remember for sure where you hid them, because nail polish does not need to be exposed to heat outside.
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Bouncy Balls
- What kid doesn’t love bouncy balls? Amazon often carries multi-packs of bouncy balls with numerous designs on them. You can view their selection of bouncy balls here.
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Goldfish cracker snacks
- This one is great for toddlers and younger kids. I can’t think of many kids that don’t love those little cheesy cracker snacks! You can also find BUNNY shapped cheddar and graham cracker snacks on Amazon here! 😉
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Balloons
- Balloons are always fun! If you have a few bigger eggs, buy those punch balloons with the rubber band tied to the end. You can find multi packs of those at any dollar store.
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Hair Bows/Clips
- This is another one for the girls! Hair ties, mini hair bows and hair clips would be really fun to find, and these always come in multi packs!
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Legos
- One cool thing you could do with Legos is to buy a small figurine set (25 pieces or less, etc) and hide a few pieces in each egg. Once all of the eggs are found, start building the set! If multiple kids are hunting, you can buy multiple Lego figurine kits and color code the eggs. For example: All purple eggs contain the Lego spaceship figurine pieces. All blue eggs contain the Lego race car figurine pieces, etc. Have kids work together to sort and build the sets!
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Puzzle Pieces
- Think along similar lines as what was mentioned above for Legos. They sell mini puzzle packages at all dollar stores!
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Toy Cars
- Sometimes you can find these in multi packs. Hot Wheels will be a little more expensive, but it’d sure be fun to find a car or two when opening up an Easter egg!
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Raisin Packs/Fruit Snacks
- If you buy a few larger eggs, small raisin boxes and fruit snack pouches will fit perfectly in them.
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Silly Putty/Playdoh
- The small packs of Play-Doh and silly putty will also fit perfectly in larger eggs. You’ll want to be sure to find all of these, as slimey stuff doesn’t tend to do very well when sitting out in warm weather.
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Costume Jewelry
- Aside from your typical girly dress up jewelry, branch out and find some that would appeal to boys, too. Oriental Trading has a slew of different types of bracelets: awareness bracelets, slap bracelets, jelly bracelets, religious bracelets, etc.
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Privilege Coupons
- This one is my favorite. There’s so much room for creativity! Print out little slips of paper that have special surprises written on them. Examples can include the following: One ice cream date with Mom/Dad. One trip to the bowling alley. One picnic at the park. 10 minutes of extra screen time, etc.
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Knock Knock Jokes
- This one is totally free and makes for lots of laughs! Print out the silliest jokes, short stories, or even riddles/brain teasers and tuck them in the Easter eggs. Kids will really get a kick out of sharing the jokes with others!
No matter if your family has competitive Easter egg hunts or just casual fun egg hunts, having special surprises inside the eggs is sure to bring a smile to anyone searching for eggs!
For more fun Easter ideas, check out these posts:
Easter Snack Crafts for Kids | 20 Easter Basket Fillers for Babies
What are some items that you think would be great to hide in Easter eggs?
Don’t forget the Golden Egg!!! Also bible verses are appropriate. I’m excited to read these ideas for fillers. I would have never thought of most of these. How interesting and exciting!!!! Now I’m ready to go shopping and/or be creative!!!
A lot of great filler ideas. Thanks for sharing them.
Love these ideas, I think we’ll go with snacks and hair bows for my daughter. I can’t wait to start decorating some eggs with my daughter too.