How to Host a Glow in the Dark Egg Hunt

This is one of my favorite traditions! We have been hosting a glow in the dark egg hunt every year for the last 3-4 years, and its been a hit every year. I love hosting this event, and I think you would love it too. Here is my list of tips and tricks on how to host a glow in the dark egg hunt. For reference I keep this super simple and spend about $100 on the whole thing, with about 20 kids in attendance. I also do the egg stuffing a little different so you could get away with spending a lot less!

What is a Glow in the Dark Egg Hunt?

A glow in the dark egg hunt is an egg hunt that takes place at dark. You put mini glow sticks in the eggs and then throw them around the yard for your kids to find. My kids have always been little (5&under) so we just toss them everywhere and there isn’t a lot of hiding involved. Once they get older we are hoping to actually hide them all to make it a little more challenging! But either way its lots of fun. I hide enough eggs for all of the kids to collect about 10-20 eggs. This year I will put out about 400 eggs for the kids to find.

What supplies do I need?

You can make this as fancy or as low key as you want. I feel like I fall somewhere in the middle, with the fancy part. I have some tips about stuffing the eggs that I will share further down, so make sure you keep reading. Ultimately you need two things for this party:

Regular size Eggs
Mini Glow Sticks

I’m sure you will do your own research and see that they make glow in the dark eggs. You don’t want them. They have to be “charged” in the sun (400 eggs to charge is a lot!) and they are super flimsy and break easy. You want to do the glow sticks! Then you need something to use as a prize. I do a little gift bag with something nicer in them, instead of candy. I have done various combinations, including:

Chalk
Bubbles
Prize Eggs-filled with snacks
Candy Bags
Snack Bags

How to Host a Glow in the Dark Egg Hunt

So let me run through the whole party for you. I send out an invite to all of our friends. I try to keep the party smaller so I don’t have to stuff as many eggs. We will have the guests arrive at about 7:30 so that we can explain rules and make sure everyone has what they need to egg hunt. At about 8 the dads will go hide the eggs. We hide them in a common space in front of our house, and I will put kids around it before we let them go to hunt the eggs. I try to set the little kids up for success, because the bigger kids are PROS at egg hunting. Then after the kids have hunted their eggs, they will trade me their eggs for their prize bag! Then the kids will play until their parents take them home! I don’t do any kind of food, or even snacks. It’s very low key. When we move into our new house we might host with pizza since we will live farther from town!

Tips I’ve Learned Along the Way!

Don’t put anything in the egg! The glow stick won’t glow as bright if you put something in there with the egg. Also, the kids will just dump the glow stick on the ground and it will be an extra mess to clean up. I always stop the kids before we start and tell them, “There isn’t any candy in the eggs, so please don’t open them. When all the eggs are collected we will trade all your eggs for a fancy prize!” This works out pretty well. Then we don’t have kids opening eggs while they hunt and getting upset that there isn’t any candy. I make little prize bags with something in them for all the kids. This year I am doing a bubble wand and a package of chalk with some candy! The prize depends on how many kids are coming.

You can crack your glow sticks and stuff eggs about an hour before your guests arrive! The glow sticks will glow for a few hours before they start to dim, so you don’t have to worry about when you stuff them. I have a few of the moms help stuff the eggs before we get started and then send the dads out to “hide” the eggs while the kids play for a bit.

You have to buy regular sized eggs or bigger! The smaller eggs won’t work. The mini glow sticks will be to big for them. So make sure you get the right sized egg, because there isn’t a lot of bend in the glow stick to force them to fit in the tiny eggs.

Make sure you know when dark is! One year we had a glow in the dark egg hunt in the sunshine! It was still a ton of fun, but not exactly as cool as it could have been. The sun will set later than you think (think 8pm) so make sure you plan accordingly. The party will get awkward just standing around waiting for the sun to go down.

Think about ages. I have a 1, 4, and 6 year old, and our friends range from newborn to 8+. One year the big kids were like vacuums and the smaller kids didn’t get a single egg. Since the eggs glow this isn’t overly challenging. So getting more eggs or setting some parameters will help! I plan for every kids to get 15ish eggs. I will spread the kids out around the yard to prevent everyone going for the same eggs. I will also make an area specifically for the smaller kids. Or if our party gets any bigger I will make it more of a challenge by saying:

You have to collect 10 blue eggs
Collect 15 eggs and the first person back gets to pick their prize first
I will recycle eggs! When kids bring me their baskets I’ll hand them to my husband to go recirculate them. (there isn’t any candy in them remember!)
Making different areas based on age (front yard babies, side yard toddlers, back yard big kids)