Need unique alternative Easter egg hunt ideas for your family? We’ve provided four sections of ideas for Easter egg hunt that avoid tons of candy and gobs of plastic do-dahs. Included are recipes, activities, crafts, and suggested egg fillings. (Including a DIY list for creating an Easter symbol egg hunt for after church.) These are simple, natural ideas for alternative Easter egg hunt surprises that won’t send the family into a holiday sugar high! 
More Natural Easter Ideas
Alternative to Easter Grass: Living Easter Basket
Sourdough Colomba Pasquale (Italian Easter Dove Bread)
Alternative Easter Egg Hunt Ideas (No Candy)
I’m not opposed to all candy or all plastic do-dahs, I just get a little weary of how they seem to take center stage at every major holiday anymore. Maybe it’s the homesteader in me, but I’d much rather plan a few alternative Easter egg hunt ideas that I can make myself. Or maybe even forage from around the homestead!
- I have four sections of ideas for you (plus a bonus one!) and each has a little activity attached to it. I hope you have fun with them!
Full disclosure: The last idea is for a treat, but they’re homemade chocolates. These are quite a different thing when compared to their commercial counterparts.
Alternative Easter Egg Hunt Ideas for Crafty Kids
Some children really love to craft, especially when they get together. Hey, some adults are like that, too! Being creative is always a worthy goal, so how about including small craft items inside the Easter eggs instead of sugary candy?
You can select a smattering of random craft materials like:
- Buttons
- Embroidery thread
- Beads
- Small silk pieces or fabric scraps
- Felt/tissue paper circles
- Small ribbon spools or cuts of ribbon
- Small laser-cut wooden ornaments or peg doll bodies
- Glue dots
Once everyone has found the eggs, have them all sit down at a servicable table to create ornaments and keepsakes to take home. Have glue or glue dots, tape, paper, string, and anything else you think you’ll need ready before they’re done hunting.
The parents can get it on the crafting, too, by the way. Encourage the kids to share the items they found (maybe reserve a few extra of each item from the hunt to share around the table).
Random or Themed
You can also pick a theme to focus on. Fr example, let’s say you pick spring birds. Then everything in the eggs should help the kids create different colored birds.
- A variety of feathers
- Perhaps some thin sticks for legs and beaks
- Tiny speckled eggs from the craft store (these are plastic but I love them anyway)
- Shredded brown paper for nest material
- Sand for ocean birds
You could haul out your local birdwatchers guide book and see how many different birds the kids can make. Try a little spring birdwatching after that with water kefir cream soda to wrap it all up.
Or maybe your craft could have a color and product theme like “Pressed Yellow Flower Bookmarks“, or something similar.
- I prefer a big mix of crafty materials because I think kids should have the chance to make their own choices about what they’d like to make.
However, if you have teenagers who are just on the cusp of being too cool for Easter eggs hunts or a group of girlfiends who’d like to embrace a little whimsy, premeditated themed alternative Easter egg hunt ideas work really well.
Alternative Easter Egg Hunt Ideas for Natural Kids
For this hunt, the kids will come together after to create one big mandala on the grass or dirt of your yard. Rhythms of Play can teach you how to make a nature mandala, but it’s basically an artistic collection of natural materials like leaves and lichen placed in a circle on the ground.
In the eggs, you can place:
- Moss and lichen
- Small pinecones
- Twigs and leaves
- Flowers and petals (including pressed flowers)
- Seed pods and acorns
- Wool or alpaca fleece
- Pretty stones and shells
- Small feathers
- Sand and dried clay for color and texture
It’s the most fun to have your children help you collect these materials and prepare the eggs before the family and friends arrive. It gives a little ownership of the activity and helps them feel useful and engaged.
- Making a natural mandala is a great activity if you really don’t want to take anything home with you because the natural elements stay where they’re put. Be sure to take pictures, though!
To wrap up your nature-inspired egg hunt, set up a DIY trail mix bar for the kids to assemble their own trail mix. Kids loooooooove to have choices, so put out as many options as you can.
- The Littles and Me can help you get started setting up your Trail Mix Bar, and then you can swap in whichever items you’d like to suit your diet.
- If you’d rather just provide one option for the trail mix, at least let the kids mix it all up with our Healthy Trail Mix Kids Can Make recipe.
Alternative Easter Egg Hunt Ideas for Hands-On Kids
If you’re goal is to switch your holiday experiences from “stuff” to experiences, fill your Easter eggs with slips of paper that have specific activies outlined on them. Here are some examples of things you could include:
- Eat popcorn after dinner tonight.
- Play a board game with whomever is home.
- Make cookies for your neighbor and deliver them.
- Use sidewalk chalk together, even the grown-ups.
- Do a cartwheel (or your best try).
- Plant some seeds this week.
- Have a water or a pillow fight this week (depending on the weather).
You can gear these activities toward service projects kids can do, or trying new recipes, or kid-appropriate homesteading tasks. Whichever ideas you put into the Easter eggs, be sure to include those that will help build relationships inside your family and community.
- Choose any of the treat and drink options from our 4 Seasons of Homestead Fika article as a delicious way to finish up the day. Also, remember the most important part: to have FUN!
Make a List of Their Activities
Have some cardstock available, as well as some stickers, colored pencils, and glue sticks so that the kids can mount the slips they found. This will create a kind of checklist that they can take home (if they’re visiting) or keep by their beds (if this is a family hunt) to keep track of their activities they get to enjoy.
- Having a small keepsake will also foster the idea that these activities are a kind of gift for themselves and the family – they’re going to be SO much fun to do!
This will also help Mom and Dad keep track of the anticipated activities and plan them over several days or several weeks depending on what’s listed. This actually extends the holiday and gives us even more time together celebrating Easter and all it means to us.
Alternative Easter Egg Hunt Ideas for Christian Kids
Have you ever tried an Easter symbol egg hunt?
- This is the alternative Easter egg hunt that my family does every year on Easter Sunday. We do other egg hunts and more secular celebration on Saturday. For Easter Sunday, this is one of our special ways to remember the purpose of the day.
An Easter symbol hunt is simply an Easter egg hunt that swaps out candy for small symbolic items from the Easter story. You can set up as many eggs as you want, but I would cap the total at ten to twenty, especially if you have small children.
How it Works
Once all the eggs have been found, everyone comes together and sits in a circle. (Well, this is how we do it at our house.)
I get out the list and we go in order according to the story of Easter week. Each egg has a number and we start with number one, which is a fake palm frond leaf.
When Jesus entered Jerusalem at the beginning of His last mortal week, the people threw palm fronds at His feet. This action signified that they were celebrating Him as a king.
- We have a scripture that goes with each symbol, but when our children were all very young, we only read two or three of the most significant for the sake of time.
As we go through the story, using each symbol to guide us, the kids rummage in their baskets to pull out the correct number egg to open it and show everyone. The youngest children are asked if they remember what each symbol means.
- If they do, they get to explain it. If not, the older child who found the symbol gets to explain it. The grown-ups fill in gaps as needed, but otherwise this is a very child-driven presentation.
We’ve held this Easter symbold egg hunt for over twenty years and it’s still so moving when the last child open the last egg to reveal nothing inside. “He is not here, He is risen!”
DIY Symbols of Easter Egg Hunt
To make your own Easter symbol egg hunt, choose some of the symbols from the Easter story. Symbols like:
- Palm fronds
- A donkey
- The alabaster box to annoint Jesus’ feet
- A piece of naan or other flatbread
- 30 pieces of silver
- A purple robe
- A cross
- A nail
- Spices to preserve His body
- A round stone
- The empty tomb
There are many others to choose from as you read through the last week of the Savior’s life. What stands out to you?
Then, pick a small item (that will fit inside an egg) to represent that symbol. For example:
- A palm frond = a silk palm leaf or a green construction paper palm leaf cut to fit.
- A donkey = a small plastic donkey from the novelty or farm store.
- The alabaster box = A piece of plain cloth with spicy perfume/scent.
- 30 pieces of silver = 30 fake round jewels from the craft store, or 3 dimes.
- A purple robe = A piece of purple or even red cloth to fit.
- A nail = an actual nail or upholstry nail (which looks a little more authentic).
- Spices = whole cloves and star anise tied up in a piece of cloth. You can add essential clove oil drops as the years go by and spices fragrance diminshes.
- A round stone = a river rock that is smooth and round that will fit inside the egg.
- The empty tomb = an Easter egg with nothing inside.
Purchased Kits
This idea has gotten popular enough that you can now purchase ready-made kits with all the symbols and eggs you’ll need. They come with an explanation of the symbols and a synopsis of the Easter story.
While our possessions were in storage for years, we went ahead and purchased one of these kits from kits from FamilyLife and we’ve really enjoyed it! They chose a few different symbols than we did, so we got to experience some new perspectives.
- In fact, if you have a friend who is curious about Christianity around Easter time, consider making or purchasing one of these kits to explain why Christians revere this holiday so much. Better yet, invite them into your Easter circle and teach them in this hands on way. It’s educational, reverant, and fun all at the same time!
Bonus: Alternative Easter Egg Hunt Ideas for Chocolate Lovers
I put chocolate candy and sugar candy in a totally different category! If you don’t want sugar candy, but don’t mind some healthier chocolate candies, here are some great recipes.
- One caveat: You probably only be able to hunt for these once because healthy candy recipes don’t include preservatives. Also, chocolate will start to melt if the day is warm.
Healthy Chocolate Candy Recipes
Homemade Chocolate Bars - 4 Ways
No Bake Coconut Bounty Bars
5 ingredient Homemade Peanut Butter Eggs
Chocolate Orange Truffles
Healthy Homemade Mounds Candy Recipe
Mix All the Alternative Easter Egg Hunt Ideas!
This doesn’t have to be an either or decision; go ahead and mix them up. This can be particularly effective if you have a range of ages and both sexes. My son is alone amidst four sisters, so he always appreciated variety in the Easter eggs, for sure!
I usually start buying or preparing for the kids’ Easter baskets in February, so I can do it slowly and economically. I can’t really hide what I’m making in the kitchen because we all live in the same house and the kids are drawn to goodies like flies.
- Not everything has to be a surprise, though – sometimes the anticipation is just as exciting as a surprise!
Anything you purchase can be held in reserve and put in their baskets to be that surprise, especially if you do the Easter Bunny at your house. However you celebrate, enjoy your family and this special time of year.
He is Risen!
For more Easter ideas, grab your copy of Homestead Holidays and get ready for this year or next. Celebrate all the days in between, too!
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