Eco Friendly and Frugal Ideas for Easter Egg Hunts

Easter is fast approaching and with it, the all important Easter egg hunt.  Well, all important if you are a kid.  For me, a mom trying to be green, Easter presents a quandry.  Those plastic Easter eggs are pretty much are designed to hold small plastic items that will shortly be tossed – not something I want to support.  My kids don’t go much for real dyed eggs for the hunt – they have been brain washed for a toy and candy filled Easter egg hunt.  But as much as I don’t like plastic toys, I also don’t want to go the candy route.  My children will be bouncing off the walls for days on end.  What to do?

Well, here are some ideas for a bit more Earth friendly Easter egg hunt, and some are more frugal as well:

• Re-use those eggs.  I’ve got bunches of yes, plastic eggs, that we use every year.  They got passed down to us and we will pass them along when my kids get a little older.  I collect the eggs at the end of each hunt, clean them and just re use them.  Not completely green since they are plastic, but better than tossing them.  And, if I need more, I pick them up at the thrift store.


• Grow something.  The last couple of years I’ve made seed packets and put those in the eggs.  You can use tiny envelope packets and print instructions on stickers to stick on the envelopes.  If you can’t find tiny envelope packets (usually at a craft store), you can use very small “jewelry” bags too – but those are plastic so not as great as the paper envelope, which you can get made of recycled content.


• Feed the birds.  Just like the seed packets, you can include wild bird seed too.  My kids had a blast feeding the birds with the wild bird seed.


• Save some money.  Coins are always a hit – just make sure the age group is appropriate for this potential choking hazard.  And you don’t just have to use US coins – my kids loved the fancy coins they found.  I just stuck in some of the coins we had left over from various trips over the years or that I collected as “bad” change.


• Stones!  Polished stones (found at the craft store) are also popular, particularly since we just call them true treasure.


• Go crafty.  You can also make up craft packets – a few beads and some hemp string or something along those lines, age appropriate, can be popular.

What ideas do you have?  Leave a comment with your tips for an Earth friendly Easter egg hunt.