Adult Easter Party Games

Easter games written for the grown-ups, with no candy and no alcohol needed: press Pick 3 new games.

Adult Easter Party Games

  1. Treasure Plan With Three Errors1. Draw a plan of the yard and mark ten eggs on it with crosses. 2. Three of the crosses are wrong on purpose, and nothing is hidden there. 3. Teams get a copy each and five minutes to search. 4. An egg scores 1. Naming the three false crosses without digging through the flower beds scores 3. Players: 4 to 16 in teams. Time: 15 min. Props: plastic or cardstock eggs and copies of a hand-drawn plan.
  2. Word-Puzzle Trail From Egg to Egg1. Write eight clues in the style of a crossword, each solving to a place in the house or yard. 2. Put clue two inside an egg at the answer to clue one, and so on. 3. Pairs set off two minutes apart and leave every egg where it is. 4. A clue trail is a children's classic: here the clues are word puzzles, and the fastest pair to bring back the last egg's password wins. Players: 4 to 16 in pairs. Time: 20 min. Props: eight plastic or cardstock eggs and written clues.
  3. Boiled or Raw? Spin and Guess1. Put six eggs on a plate: five hard-boiled and one raw. 2. Each guest may spin every egg once on the table and watch how it moves. 3. Everyone points, on three, to the egg they believe is raw. 4. The host cracks the most-pointed-at egg into a bowl to settle it. Players: 3 to 12. Time: 5 min. Props: six eggs, a plate and a bowl.

Next step Get Easter hunt cluesEaster games for the children

How it works

These adult Easter party games give the grown-ups a hunt of their own, with privileges and puzzles in place of candy. They are Easter party games for adults at a lunch: some at the table, some on the lawn.

Read the full guide

Around the meal

Set one hunt before lunch: appetite keeps it short. Choose Games for the lunch table in the All games menu for the gaps between courses, and Match the Decorator to the Egg if guests arrive early enough to decorate one.

What to buy

A box of plastic eggs, a sheet of cardstock and a dozen eggs to boil cover nearly everything. Cardstock eggs are cut by hand: trace around a serving spoon.

Tips
  • Boil and dye more eggs than you have guests: several games use them, and some will crack.
  • Write the hunt slips before the day. Favors Inside, Not Candy takes longer to prepare than to play.

Questions and answers

What are adult games to play on Easter when no children are coming?

Start with Keep Only Three or Hide One Egg Each, Best Spot Wins: both are egg hunts with tactics. Follow with Egg Drop With Three Sheets, and end on the lawn with Deck Chair Set-Up Relay.

What goes in Easter eggs for adults in place of candy?

Slips of paper. Favors Inside, Not Candy fills eggs with small favors, such as first slice of cake or choosing the music, and the clue hunts fill them with puzzles and questions about the family's year.

Can children join these games?

Yes, in mixed teams. Games the whole family ends the day with is written for all ages together, and Today's Quiz, Set by the Youngest puts the children in charge. Their own Easter list is linked below.

What if it rains on Easter?

Choose More filters at the end of the menu, then Works indoors. Every game in Team contests with paper and cardstock eggs is played at a table or across a room, and most of the hunts work indoors too.

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All 40 games

Egg hunts for grown-ups, no candy needed 8

  • Favors Inside, Not Candy 1. Fill plastic eggs with slips in place of candy: first slice of cake, choose the music, excused from clearing the table. 2. Hide one egg for each guest plus three empty ones. 3. Everyone hunts at once and keeps one egg only. 4. Slips are opened together at the table and may be traded until dessert is served. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 15 min. Props: plastic eggs and written slips.
  • Hide One Egg Each, Best Spot Wins 1. Every guest gets one egg with their initials on it and two minutes to hide it in plain view, with nothing covering it. 2. Then everyone hunts everyone else's. 3. A found egg is brought to the table. 4. The owner of the last egg found wins, and must show the spot to prove that it could be seen. Players: 4 to 15. Time: 15 min. Props: one egg each and a marker.
  • Keep Only Three 1. Hide thirty eggs. Mark the underside of six with a dot worth 5 points, six with a dot worth 1, and leave the rest blank. 2. Hunters may carry only three eggs at a time and may not look underneath until the end. 3. They may swap an egg they hold for one they find. 4. After ten minutes, turn the eggs over and add up. Players: 3 to 12. Time: 15 min. Props: thirty eggs and a marker.
Show all 40 games (37 more)

Egg hunts for grown-ups, no candy needed, continued

  • Look, Do Not Lift 1. Hide twenty eggs. 2. Hunters may not touch any of them. Each egg found is photographed where it lies. 3. After six minutes, compare phones. 4. Most eggs photographed wins. Leaving the eggs in place means a second group can hunt the same yard right afterward. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 10 min. Props: twenty eggs and a phone camera each.
  • One to Twelve, Signed Off in Order 1. Number twelve eggs and hide them. 2. Each hunter must collect a signature from the host for egg one before touching egg two, and so on. 3. An egg seen too early has to be left and remembered. 4. Eggs go back in their places after each signature. First to twelve wins. Players: 2 to 8. Time: 20 min. Props: twelve numbered eggs, a card each and a pen.
  • This Year's Answers Lead the Way 1. Write six questions about the family's last twelve months whose answers are places or things at home: where did the cat hide in March? 2. Each answer is where the next egg is hidden, with the next question inside it. 3. Teams hunt together and must agree on an answer before moving. 4. The last egg holds a slip that names who does the dishes. Players: 4 to 12 in teams. Time: 20 min. Props: six eggs and written questions.
  • Treasure Plan With Three Errors 1. Draw a plan of the yard and mark ten eggs on it with crosses. 2. Three of the crosses are wrong on purpose, and nothing is hidden there. 3. Teams get a copy each and five minutes to search. 4. An egg scores 1. Naming the three false crosses without digging through the flower beds scores 3. Players: 4 to 16 in teams. Time: 15 min. Props: plastic or cardstock eggs and copies of a hand-drawn plan.
  • Word-Puzzle Trail From Egg to Egg 1. Write eight clues in the style of a crossword, each solving to a place in the house or yard. 2. Put clue two inside an egg at the answer to clue one, and so on. 3. Pairs set off two minutes apart and leave every egg where it is. 4. A clue trail is a children's classic: here the clues are word puzzles, and the fastest pair to bring back the last egg's password wins. Players: 4 to 16 in pairs. Time: 20 min. Props: eight plastic or cardstock eggs and written clues.

Games for the lunch table 8

  • Boiled or Raw? Spin and Guess 1. Put six eggs on a plate: five hard-boiled and one raw. 2. Each guest may spin every egg once on the table and watch how it moves. 3. Everyone points, on three, to the egg they believe is raw. 4. The host cracks the most-pointed-at egg into a bowl to settle it. Players: 3 to 12. Time: 5 min. Props: six eggs, a plate and a bowl.
  • Eat One Course With the Other Hand 1. Announce it as the course is served: until the plates are cleared, everyone eats with the hand they do not usually use. 2. Anyone caught swapping back stands and proposes a short toast in lemonade or water. 3. Spotters must name the offender politely. 4. Whoever proposes no toast at all wins. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 15 min. Props: none.
  • Egg Pun Chain, Groans Decide 1. Going around the table, each guest must make a pun on egg, yolk, shell or hatch. 2. The table groans. 3. A guest who cannot think of one in ten seconds passes. 4. The last guest still punning wins. The loudest groan of the round earns a second prize. Players: 4 to 16. Time: 5 min. Props: none.
  • Match the Decorator to the Egg 1. Before lunch, each guest decorates one hard-boiled egg out of sight of the others. 2. The host numbers the eggs and sets them in egg cups down the table. 3. Everyone writes a name against each number. 4. Each decorator claims an egg in turn. Most right guesses wins, and the egg that fooled the most people gets a toast. Players: 5 to 16. Time: 15 min. Props: hard-boiled eggs, dyes or markers, paper and pens.
  • Napkin Rabbit Fold-Off 1. The host folds a napkin into a rabbit, slowly, once, while everyone watches. 2. Guests then fold their own from memory. 3. Stand the rabbits in a row down the middle of the table. 4. The youngest person present judges, without knowing whose is whose. Players: 4 to 16. Time: 10 min. Props: a cloth or paper napkin each.
  • Pass-Around Egg Design 1. Start three hard-boiled eggs going around the table, each with a different colored marker. 2. Every guest adds one thing to each egg as it passes: a line, a dot, a face. 3. Nobody may speak about the design. 4. When the eggs come home, the table names each one and votes for the egg that will go in the middle of the table. Players: 4 to 14. Time: 10 min. Props: three hard-boiled eggs and three markers.
  • Shell Mosaic by Table 1. Save the shells from the dyed eggs eaten at lunch. 2. Each end of the table gets a sheet of cardstock, glue and half the shells. 3. In ten minutes, make a picture by gluing shell pieces color side up. 4. Swap ends to guess what the other picture shows. Players: 4 to 16 in two teams. Time: 15 min. Props: dyed egg shells, cardstock and glue.
  • Unbroken Orange Spiral 1. Give every guest an orange at the end of the meal. 2. The aim is to take the peel off in one unbroken piece. 3. Lay the peels out on the tablecloth. 4. Longest single piece wins. A peel that can be put back together into a hollow orange gets a round of applause. Players: 3 to 16. Time: 8 min. Props: an orange each.

Lawn games after lunch 8

  • Daisy Chain, Ten Minutes 1. Pairs sit on a lawn that has daisies or other small flowers nobody minds being picked. 2. One picks and the other threads each stalk through a slit in the next. 3. After ten minutes, lay the chains side by side. 4. Longest unbroken chain wins and is worn by the host for the rest of the afternoon. Players: 4 to 16 in pairs. Time: 10 min. Props: a lawn with daisies.
  • Deck Chair Set-Up Relay 1. Lay a folded deck chair or lawn chair on the grass ten paces from each team. 2. The first player walks out, sets the chair up, sits in it for a count of three, folds it flat and walks back. 3. The next player does the same. 4. Fingers stay clear of the hinges, and a chair left half-folded must be fixed by the player who left it. Players: 6 to 16 in teams. Time: 10 min. Props: a folding chair for each team.
  • Farthest Throw, Shell Unbroken 1. Each thrower gets one hard-boiled egg and a clear stretch of lawn with nobody on it. 2. Throw underhand as far as you dare. 3. A marker goes down where the egg stops, but only if the shell has no crack. 4. Three throws with the same egg. The longest unbroken throw wins. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 10 min. Props: a hard-boiled egg each and markers.
  • Follow Your String Through the Yard 1. Before lunch, tie a long string for each guest to a small parcel and wind it around trees, chairs and bushes, crossing the other strings. 2. Each guest takes the free end of their string. 3. On go, everyone follows their own string, winding it up as they go, without breaking anyone else's. 4. First to reach a parcel wins, but nobody opens one until all are found. Players: 3 to 10. Time: 15 min. Props: a ball of string and a small parcel for each guest.
  • Six Signs of Spring, by Camera 1. Agree on a list of six things: a bud, a bee, a nest, something yellow, new leaves, a bird carrying something. 2. Pairs walk the yard or the street with one phone. 3. Each sign has to be photographed, not picked. 4. First pair back with all six wins. The best single photo is chosen by everyone. Players: 4 to 16 in pairs. Time: 15 min. Props: a phone camera for each pair.
  • Spin the Sun Hat Onto a Head 1. Partners stand four paces apart with one straw hat or sun hat. 2. One spins it flat through the air and the other tries to catch it on their head, with hands behind their back. 3. A catch that stays on scores 3, and a touch scores 1. 4. Ten throws, then swap. Players: 2 to 12 in pairs. Time: 10 min. Props: a light hat for each pair.
  • Spoon Duel in the Rope Circle 1. Two players face each other inside a rope circle, each holding a hard-boiled egg on a spoon in one hand. 2. With the free hand they may tap only the other player's spoon arm, below the elbow. 3. The first egg to fall loses the bout. 4. Stepping out of the circle also loses. Winners stay on for three bouts. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 10 min. Props: two spoons, hard-boiled eggs and a rope.
  • Wheelbarrow Slalom, Ball in a Pot 1. Stand a flowerpot in a wheelbarrow and put a ball on top of the pot. 2. Each player wheels it through a slalom of five stakes and back. 3. If the ball falls off, stop and put it back before moving on. 4. Time each run. Fastest wins, and nobody rides in the barrow. Players: 3 to 12. Time: 12 min. Props: a wheelbarrow, a flowerpot, a ball and five garden stakes.

Team contests with paper and cardstock eggs 8

  • Balance the Egg Mobile 1. Each team gets two straws or thin sticks, thread and six cardstock eggs of different sizes. 2. Hang the eggs from the sticks so that both sticks rest level when the whole thing is held up by one thread. 3. Ten minutes on the clock. 4. A judge checks with one eye shut. The most level mobile wins. Players: 4 to 12 in teams. Time: 15 min. Props: straws, thread, cardstock eggs and scissors.
  • Camouflage Cardstock Eggs 1. Each team takes five cardstock eggs and a box of pens. 2. Color each egg to match a place in the room, such as the curtains, a book spine or the rug, and set it there in plain sight. 3. Teams swap rooms, or swap halves of the room. 4. Three minutes to spot the other team's five. Eggs still unfound score for their makers. Players: 4 to 12 in two teams. Time: 20 min. Props: ten cardstock eggs and coloring pens.
  • Cardstock Egg on Its Point, No Tape 1. Give each team a flat egg cut from cardstock, as tall as a hand, and one extra sheet of paper. 2. With no tape and no glue, make the egg stand upright on its pointed end. 3. Folding, slotting and tearing are all allowed. 4. The first egg to stand for a count of ten wins. The neatest stand wins a second point. Players: 4 to 16 in teams. Time: 8 min. Props: cardstock eggs and paper.
  • Egg Drop With Three Sheets 1. Each team gets one raw egg, three sheets of paper and an arm's length of tape. 2. In ten minutes, build something that lets the egg survive a drop from shoulder height. 3. Drop them one at a time onto a tray or outdoors. 4. Unbroken eggs go on to a drop from a raised arm, until one team is left. Players: 4 to 16 in teams. Time: 20 min. Props: raw eggs, paper, tape and a tray.
  • Fan the Paper Egg Home 1. Cut an egg from thin paper for each team and set it on the floor at a start line. 2. Each player flaps a folded newspaper behind the egg to waft it to the far wall. 3. No touching the egg. 4. A fanning race is usually one racer against another: here it is a team relay, and the newspaper is handed on at the wall. Players: 4 to 16 in teams. Time: 8 min. Props: thin paper eggs and a newspaper for each team.
  • Five-Egg Limerick, Put It in Order 1. Each team writes a five-line rhyme about the day, one line on each of five cardstock eggs. 2. Shuffle the eggs and hand them to the other team. 3. That team lays them in the order they think is right and reads the rhyme aloud. 4. A correct order scores for the readers. The writers score if the room laughs. Players: 4 to 12 in two teams. Time: 15 min. Props: ten cardstock eggs and pens.
  • Flip an Egg, Answer to Keep 1. Write a quiz question on the back of each of twenty cardstock eggs and lay them face down. 2. Teams take turns flipping one. 3. A right answer keeps the egg. A wrong one turns it back over, and everyone now knows the question. 4. Most eggs wins. Players: 4 to 16 in two teams. Time: 15 min. Props: twenty cardstock eggs with questions.
  • Paper Egg Chain From One Fold 1. Fold a long strip of paper like a fan. 2. Draw half an egg against the folded edge and cut it out, leaving a join at the side. 3. Open it up to see how many eggs are linked. 4. Each team gets three strips and five minutes. The longest chain of whole, joined eggs wins. Players: 4 to 16 in teams. Time: 10 min. Props: paper strips and scissors.

Games the whole family ends the day with 8

  • A Button for the Best Moment 1. Write six moments of the day on slips and put one in each cup of an egg carton: the hunt, the lunch, the lawn games and so on. 2. Everyone, from the youngest up, drops one button into the cup for their favorite. 3. Count the buttons in each cup aloud. 4. The youngest person retells the winning moment, and anyone may add one detail. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 10 min. Props: an egg carton, slips of paper and a button each.
  • The Egg in a Coat Pocket 1. While coats are being fetched, the host slips one small paper egg into a guest's pocket, unseen. 2. Nobody checks until they are home. 3. Whoever finds it sends the family a photo. 4. The finder brings the first game next year. A host who is caught in the act must try again with a different coat. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 5 min. Props: one small paper egg.
  • Guess the Lawn Count, Then Clear It 1. Stand at the back door and look at what the day has left on the lawn. 2. Everyone guesses the number of things to be picked up. 3. Clear it together into one basket, counting aloud. 4. Closest guess is excused from carrying the basket in. Players: 3 to 20. Time: 10 min. Props: a basket.
  • Last Egg at Dusk 1. As the light fades, the host hides one last egg, bigger than the rest, somewhere in the yard. 2. The whole family hunts together, with small children going first for one minute. 3. Whoever finds it does not keep it. 4. They write their name and the year inside, and they will hide that same egg next Easter. Players: 3 to 20. Time: 10 min. Props: one large plastic or wooden egg and a pen.
  • One-Minute Rabbit Puppet Show 1. Teams of mixed ages get ten minutes and a napkin, a sock or a paper bag for each person. 2. Make rabbit puppets and plan a show that lasts one minute. 3. Perform from behind the sofa. 4. Every show must include one thing that really happened today. The grandparents award the prize. Players: 4 to 16 in teams. Time: 20 min. Props: socks, napkins or paper bags, and pens.
  • Rhythm Round With Egg Shakers 1. Put a spoonful of rice in a few plastic eggs and tape them shut. 2. Sit in a circle. The first player shakes a short rhythm. 3. The next repeats it and adds a beat of their own. 4. When the rhythm is too long for the youngest player to copy, they start a new one. Players: 3 to 12. Time: 10 min. Props: plastic eggs, rice and tape.
  • Round Up the Lost Eggs 1. Count how many eggs were hidden today and how many came back. 2. Announce the gap. 3. Mixed-age pairs get five minutes to recover the missing ones, and the hiders may answer warmer or colder. 4. The pair that brings in the last missing egg wins. Players: 4 to 20 in pairs. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • Today's Quiz, Set by the Youngest 1. The youngest two or three write, or dictate, ten questions about the day: who found the most, what fell in the pond? 2. Everyone else answers on paper. 3. A quiz about the day is nothing new: here the children are the quizmasters and the judges. 4. Their ruling is final, even when it is wrong. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 15 min. Props: paper and pens.

How this list was compiled: Our suggestions, written for this site for an Easter lunch at home where most of the guests are adults. The wording is ours, and the player counts and times are our estimates. No game needs candy or alcohol, and none is an eating race. Egg rolling, egg tapping and the other old egg customs are on our children's Easter list and are not repeated here. No outside source was used: the list states no date, history or traditional rule as fact. Licence: own work