Hold the perfect Easter egg hunt!

The egg hunt is one of Easter's greatest traditions (aside from the chocolate, of course), so if you want to hold one this year we've got some tips to make it go off with a bang. From eggs to prizes, your kids will love hunting for everything the Easter bunny leaves behind!

Eggs-traordinary eggs

The eggs are at the heart of the hunt and there are plenty of options for what you can use. Naturally, chocolate eggs are very popular because every child gets to keep what they collect, but if you're worried about the little ones binging on sugar you could use plastic eggs instead. Boiled eggs are also a great alternative to sweets: egg-painting is a huge part of Easter anyway, and you can put all your pretty creations to good use by including them in the egg hunt!

Gorgeous gardens

Egg hunts are best held outside, so get out in the garden and work out an area for the hunt. If you don't want to use your entire garden, mark off an area with string, bunting or paper chains and then hide your eggs in long grass, bushes and trees! You don't want to lose track of them, so make a rough map showing where they're all hidden, and make sure you have enough eggs to go round - roughly ten eggs per child should be plenty.

Special touches

You can make your egg hunt even more special by adding a few extra touches. For those really out of the way eggs, make some bunny footprints out of felt and scatter them around so that the kids will have a magical trail to follow. You can also make some bonus eggs that will be rewarded with special prizes: paint a couple of eggs gold, or pop a pound or two into some paper egg boxes.

Go, go, go!

Once everything is ready, it's time to start the hunt! Give all the kids an Easter egg basket each, start a countdown and set them off. You can choose to time the hunt, or only end it when all the eggs have been found. If there are lots of very young children in the hunt, partner them up with older kids to give them a bit of help. When the race is over, count up the points quickly - everyone will be impatient for prizes!

Eggs mean prizes

Egg hunts aren't all about the winners and we don't want any disappointed tots, so make sure every child has a fair haul of sweeties to take home with them; you could even give everyone a small prize for taking part. Don't forget to give a big prize to the team that finds the most eggs - some cute vintage toys are ideal - and a consolation prize to whoever found the least.

However you celebrate, you can make your home and garden look the part with Easter decorations from DotComGiftShop!