Okay, okay, I know we have a few weeks yet til Easter. I know you don’t want to think about it yet and you were annoyed when those hot cross buns started hitting the shelves straight after new year! I get it, honestly, I do. But the reason I am posting this now, is because it takes a bit of preparation to do an awesome easter hunt!
You might use these ideas for your kids or your family, but the best group to do this for is your peers! That way clues can be personal or amusing or adults only themed for a laugh, or they can be hard. If you do a kiddy version the clues have to be easier and less intensive. But it is of course up to you.
It’s the kind of activity where it is easier to work backwards. So you might hide a big egg or box of chocolates or whatever in a locked treasure chest, or even a suitcase used as a treasure chest. Then you place it very clearly in the room with a note on top outlining their quest to find the key or code. The note should contain some sort of clue. Example “Start at the place with windows and space, where you can enter and escape, but there are no doors.” (The answer is keyboard so that will take them to the keyboard where you can place your next clue.)
an example of a clue to start
It is up to you if you want to leave a little chocolate there, or make all the clues chocolate related. You can use props if you have them like diaries with keys that need to be found to unlock the next clue, children’s toy safe’s that need codes to be figured out to be opened. You can be creative and use balloons as colour codes or riddles for codes instead of clues. You can use puzzle boxes and trick locks and all sorts of fun cool tools to take it more to escape room level.
Another great idea is to use google forms to generate the questions so that they have to type in the answers. Beware though if you choose this option it is extremely case sensitive so one word answers are best. You then create a QR code that takes them to each clue to submit their answers. There are plenty of freeqr code generators. This is fun, but time consuming, and I recommend a practise run so you can troubleshoot any mistakes!
They might find a balloon in one place, with a qr code, which eventually takes them to another balloon – but at one puzzle the code might be colours so the answers will depend on them remembering which order they found the balloons, or they might have numbers on the balloons for example.
I find it helpful to draw a kind of flow chart, which starts at point a, has a reference to the clue at point B, then flows to point C etc… And if you are using QR codes, you can literally place them anywhere, like at the park down the road or under the table at the restaurant, even if you only subtly stick it there yourself when you arrive.
Clues can range from personal such as “what year was I born?” so you can get to know each other better or test your knowledge, to riddles where the answer might be “tissue” and then the next clue is in the tissue box. They can have a theme, such as all risqué clues and riddles, or all about a certain topic, movie or era.
Some idea’s I have used in the past include hiding small keys inside frozen heart ice blocks, using a kids toy jewellery box that you create a colour code to open, a diary where you need a password to open it. I have done red white and green balloons with numbers on them and a clue about the Italian flag, so they had to put the colours in order to get the code. I have used luggage locks both with a key and with a code. I have used puzzles so they have to solve the puzzle to get the answer. I have used mirror text clues, and picture clues and word maze clues.
I have had endings where the key is actually in my coat pocket, or their handbag for example all along. I have done ones in the house and ones on the road where I plant the codes as we go, if we are going from place to place.
I have even usually got hints, that are also clues and riddles, though easier to solve. Some clues have rhymed, some are timed, some are blind! (Braille)
What helps is thinking about where you want to sequence the clues, and then thinking of riddles or things that will bring them to that spot.. So if you want the second clue location to be mailbox, you can find a clue where the answer is mailbox and then place a locked diary in the mailbox with a qr or clue on top that will tell them to leave no stone unturned in searching for the key. Because maybe you have placed a key inside a fake stone at the foot of the mailbox or in the stone garden? Once they find the key, they can open the diary and that contains a clue for the meter box maybe. Anywhere you like!
Phones and chargers can be good for this, just set them so that when they crack the code, the lock screen or screen it opens to is the next clue, and for added effect, have the phone be dead. Then at some point they find a charger, and later on they find a phone and they know they have to plug it in to get the answer.
It’s really fun, it puts the magic back in easter and you get to be like big kids again hunting for eggs left by the easter bunny! But it does take planning, and then you know the answers. But don’t let that fool you. Sometimes it is MORE satisfying for the people who set up the hunt than those doing it!
Have fun with this, and let me know how it goes! I would love any new tips or tricks to try with my friends and family too!
❤ Love,
Your Best Friend ForNever
xx
