How to Organize a Fun Easter Egg Hunt in Central Park
You may remember how fun the Easter egg hunts organized by Central Park were when you were a kid. Every year, the City of New York would hold a huge Easter egg hunt for all the kids in the city, right in the middle of the world's most famous park. It is really no wonder that you want your own kids to experience the same delight at finding hidden plastic eggs stuffed with treats like chocolate and jelly beans. Unfortunately, as of 2010, New York is no longer holding public Easter egg hunts in Central Park. Just because the city is not organizing an Easter egg hunt does not mean that you can't hold your very own! There are not any laws regulating Easter egg hunts in the park, so you should just get together with some other parents and stage some Easter fun of your own.
Collaborate
Sure, you could just hide a few eggs for your own kids to find. Wouldn't it be more fun if you held a little party, though, and staged an Easter egg hunt for your kids and some of their friends? You should talk to other parents you are friendly with and ask them if they would be willing to get together with you to hold a small Central Park Easter egg hunt. You can ask other parents you know from your kids' school, from the playground or from your building. An Easter egg hunt will be more fun with more kids, but since you are holding it in a very public place you will probably want all of the grown up help you can get. Other parents can also help you to get ready for the hunt.
When you are considering whom to hold your Easter egg hunt with, try to find other parents with kids who are about the same age as yours. That way, all the kids will have a fair chance at finding eggs. If you do want to invite a broad range of kids, though, you could make a rule about how many eggs each kid can take so that preteens do not end up with all of the eggs, leaving toddlers empty handed.
Stake out a Spot
Once you have some other parents on board with your Easter egg hunt, you guys should find the perfect spot in Central Park to hold your event. Central Park is huge, so you can't hide eggs all over the Park. You will need to find a manageable area to hold your hunt. The area you choose should be small enough for you to see all the kids at once. Keep in mind that Central Park is a public park. There will still be plenty of other people around while your hunt is going on. Try to find a spot in the park that is not heavily trafficked. Of course, you will also want to find a spot that has plenty of good egg hiding places, rather than a very open, grassy spot.
Fill Your Eggs
Traditionally, kids hunted for actual, hard boiled eggs for Easter. Your kids probably are not going to get too excited about finding hard boiled eggs though. Instead, you can pick up plastic eggs and fill them with treats. Small chocolates or jelly beans are usually an Easter hit. Some people prefer to fill their eggs with little toys or stickers. Make sure that if you invited very small children, though, that you do not fill eggs with potential choking hazards. If you do not want your kid eating sugar or your kid has allergies, you can fill up your Easter eggs with change, Cheerios, nuts, raisins or trail mix. Ask the other parents to help you with making the eggs and make sure that you are aware of things like peanut allergies before you get started.
The Big Day
Since you are holding your Easter egg hunt in a public park and you don't actually have any space reserved, somebody is going to have to get to the park early to claim your spot. In fact, it might even be a good idea to have an alternative spot just in case the spot you originally scouted turns out to be unusable. While a few parents are watching the kids, other parents can go to the park and hide the eggs. It is a good idea to note exactly how many eggs you have hidden. That way, you can make sure that all of the eggs are eventually found. You don't want to accidentally leave chocolate filled eggs all over the park, especially since chocolate can be deadly for dogs and other animals to ingest. Once your eggs are hidden, you are ready for your hunt.
