Easter holiday activities for kids (beyond the egg hunt)

The Easter holidays are two weeks long, weather-roulette, and bracketed by chocolate. The egg hunt handles one morning; here is the rest of the fortnight.

Upgrade the egg hunt

• The clue trail — riddles leading location to location beat scattered eggs from age five up.
• The torch-lit hunt — same garden, after dark, foil eggs and torches. Completely different event.
• The National Trust trails — most properties run Easter trails; combine with the gardens at peak blossom. See our National Trust with kids guide.
• Egg rolling — decorate hard-boiled eggs, find a hill, race them. Centuries old, still undefeated.

Spring is happening — go and see it

• Lambing farms — open farms across the UK do feeding sessions in April, and bottle-feeding a lamb is a core childhood memory.
• Blossom walks — cherry and blackthorn peak in April; the National Trust publishes a blossom map. Photograph the kids under the same tree every year.
• Tadpole checks — find a pond, visit weekly through the holidays; the frogspawn-to-froglet arc is the season's best free serial.
• Bluebell woods (late April) — the first great display of the year. Stay on paths, bring the camera.
• Dawn chorus — one early morning, any woods, 6am. Loudest natural sound in Britain and small kids are up anyway.

For the rainy half of the fortnight

Egg-decorating championship (paints beat felt-tips), hot cross buns from scratch, the spring version of the rainy day list, and one museum you've never tried.

Make it repeat

Easter photographs beautifully — blossom, lambs, chocolate faces — and repeats beautifully too: same blossom tree, same egg roll hill, every year. Log it all as you go and the spring pages of the family yearbook write themselves. More seasonal lists: 40 UK adventure ideas.