(Woman’s Day) There are few harder times to be away from your family than during the holidays. Because of social distancing – which will be keep your family and others safe and healthy in the long run – many people will be altering their Easter plans this year. But just because you can’t have the extended family over doesn’t mean you can’t virtually celebrate together. Yes, the includes the Easter egg hunt. A little bit of planning and some technological tricks can allow you to come together with your loved for an epic Easter egg hunt.

Set a time and a place
Get a time and date in your calendar and on everyone’s schedules. The whole point of a virtual Easter egg hunt is to come together with loved ones, so it’s imperative to make sure everyone knows when to “arrive” to the party. If you’re technologically savvy, send out an electronic calendar invite. If you want something a bit simpler, a phone call, text message, or email will suffice as an invitation.

Make sure everyone has some goodies
The excitement of the search is a huge part of what makes an Easter egg hunt exciting, but one thing that might top that is the thrill of cracking open your plastic eggs to discover a treat inside. A virtual hunt is no reason to miss out on some tasty goodies, so it’s important to coordinate with the other parents who are attending to make sure they can secure some goodies for the kids to indulge in after the hunt is over.

Prepare your Easter eggs
Whether you have a large family at home or you’re the only person in your house, if you’re going to host a virtual Easter egg hunt, it’s important to fill the eggs. virtual-easter-egg-hunt-eggs The brighter the eggs, the easier it will be for little eyes to see.

Try to work out the technology kinks before the big day
Technology can be the best thing ever and the most wrinkle-inducing source of stress. To make sure that stress doesn’t impact your fun day, test out your video-chatting program of choice before Easter. FaceTime and Zoom are the easiest to use, depending on how many people are attending your Easter egg hunt. If you’re only calling one other person or family, FaceTime is probably the easiest.

Be the best hunt leader you can be
Hosting a virtual Easter egg hunt means that you’ll become a mix of a tour guide, videographer, and Indiana Jones during the event. When everyone has logged on to the videochat, you’ll slowly explore your home or backyard, facing the camera to see what you’re seeing and narrating the scene. All eggs should be hidden in places that will be easy to see on camera so that as you wander the area the kids on the other end of the chat can shout out when they see an egg.

Count up the eggs and enjoy a treat
After the big hunt is over, you can show the kids how many eggs they found and gathered in their baskets. You can crack them open together to show there’s a goody inside, and the parents on the other end of the call can distribute some treats to the kids to enjoy. At this points the adults should also indulge in a chocolate bunny or two, or perhaps each have a cup of coffee or tea and a nice chat to catch up.