Easter Activity Planner
Plan a full day of Easter fun for kids. Get a timed schedule of egg decorating, hunts, crafts and games tailored to age group, location and duration.
What This Schedule Actually Looks Like
Pick the age group (3-5, 5-7 or 7-9), the location (garden or indoor) and whether you want a morning or afternoon plan. The tool returns three age-appropriate Easter activities scheduled in sequence, each with an instruction and a duration in minutes. A typical 5-7 garden afternoon comes back as: Easter egg hunt (75 mins), pom-pom chick crafts at the kitchen table (60 mins), Easter-themed picnic tea (60 mins). That is roughly 3 hours 15 mins of activity, which is about right for an Easter Monday afternoon before the kids' attention starts to fray.
The age-banding genuinely matters. A 3-year-old will love finding hidden chocolate eggs but cannot follow a multi-stop riddle hunt. A 7-year-old will be bored by a five-minute basket craft. The activity options are filtered against the age you pick: rhyming clues for 3-5s, written clues with light riddles for 5-7s, cryptic multi-stop hunts for 7-9s. If your group spans both ends, build for the older child and let the younger one shadow them.
Hosting at Home: The Bits Most Parents Forget
Have everything for every activity laid out before the kids start. Cotton wool for the bunny tails, paint for the eggs, the chocolate eggs already hidden, the picnic blanket where you can grab it. Switching between activities is where most kids' parties lose momentum, and a 5-minute set-up gap with bored 6-year-olds becomes a 25-minute argument. Build in 15-minute breaks for snacks and drinks between each activity, even if the kids do not want one, because the adults always need it.
On the egg hunt: count the eggs out loud before you hide them and write the total on a Post-it. Every year, parents discover melted chocolate behind the radiator the following August because nobody knew there were 32, not 30. For 5-7s and 7-9s, mix the difficulty: a few in obvious places at child eye-line, a few harder ones for the kids who finish first. If you need printable clue cards specifically for the egg hunt, [Easter Egg Hunt Clue Generator](/easter-egg-hunt-clue-generator) generates them for you with rhyming clues that match the age group.
Allergies, Weather and the British Easter Reality
British Easter weather is famously unreliable, and the tool's location switch (garden versus indoor) should be your honest starting point. If the forecast is borderline, plan two versions: one for dry, one for wet. Indoor egg hunts work fine if you hide eggs at child eye-level around the living room and corridors rather than in cupboards or under sofas. For dietary requirements, supermarket allergen-free chocolate eggs (Cadbury, Moo Free, Nomo) are now in every major supermarket from late February onwards. Keep a separate stash labelled with each child's name if you have multiple allergies in the group.
Frequently Asked Questions
What time of day works best for an Easter activity day?
Late morning to early afternoon (10am to 2pm) tends to work best. Children are at their most cooperative just after breakfast, energy dips around 1pm, and most adults want the day done by mid-afternoon. The tool offers a morning or afternoon plan because most families pick one or the other rather than running activities all day. If you have older children (7-9) who can sustain a longer day, run the morning plan and add a relaxed picnic and movie in the afternoon.
How many Easter eggs should I hide for a hunt?
Aim for 8 to 12 eggs per child for a 30 to 45-minute hunt. Mix mini eggs (count for 1) and full-sized eggs (count for 5) so the hunt feels generous without over-loading on chocolate. For very young children (3-4), keep the count to about 6 per child and place them at obvious eye-level locations to keep frustration low. Always count the eggs before you hide them and write the total down.
What can I do for Easter without buying loads of chocolate?
Plenty. Decorate hard-boiled hens' eggs with food colouring and paint (the natural-dye option in the 5-7 schedule uses tea, beetroot juice and red cabbage). Make pom-pom chicks from yarn and a fork, or paper bunnies with cotton wool tails. Bake hot cross buns from scratch. Plant spring flowers in pots together. The traditional Polish and Eastern European tradition of decorating eggs (pisanki) is genuinely beautiful and barely costs anything.
Is Easter Monday a UK bank holiday in 2026?
Yes. Easter Sunday in 2026 falls on 5 April, with Good Friday on 3 April and Easter Monday on 6 April both being UK bank holidays in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland has Good Friday but not Easter Monday as a statutory bank holiday, although most schools and employers still observe it. The activity planner is most often used to fill the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, or Easter Monday itself.
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