Send Your Kids on a Christmas Treasure Hunt
After a year of rising prices driven by inflation, many families are cutting back on their holiday spending, including gifts. Making a rule about not giving gifts to other adults is one thing, but you’ll probably want to give your kids a holiday they’ll remember (due to something other than a lack of gifts).
One way to do this – and stick to your budget – is to plan a Christmas treasure hunt at home. Here’s what to do.
How to Plan a Christmas Treasure Hunt
First, a brief introduction to this type of “hunt” . A Scavenger Hunt involves players or teams competing to collect and/or photograph the most listed items in a given amount of time. A “treasure hunt” is when players or teams follow a series of clues (sometimes in the form of riddles) to find some kind of prize at the end. This is also the one we are talking about here.
Sure, you can take the time to write your own Christmas treasure hunt tips, but if you don’t have the time or energy for that, there are plenty of generic holiday-related tips on the internet. You can either write them yourself or use some of the free downloadable and printable tips available . (Most of these are erroneously labeled as scavenger hunts, so don’t let that fool you.)
Alternative: less time-consuming holiday hunting
Separately, there is a hunt where various prizes are hidden in a given location, and the participants just need to find them – a classic example is the hunt for Easter eggs.
Since treasure hunting usually requires the ability to read clues, if you have younger children, you can opt for this type of Easter egg style hunt. But given that it takes a lot less time and effort than a real treasure hunt, it might make more sense to make this version, whether or not your kids can read.
All you have to do is hide small prizes (like a treat, stickers, a small toy or dollar store trinket, etc.) throughout the house and/or yard, and then let the kids go.