Ways to Use Your Easter Eggs...after the holiday is over

Here’s the truth: I use more plastic eggs at Easter time than real, hard-boiled eggs. I know, I know. They are plastic. And real eggs are actually a healthy snack. But I’m an honest person, so now you know. 

We have an annual Easter Egg Hunt in our neighborhood that is one of my favorite community events. There are anywhere between 30-50 kids each year who grab their baskets - or pillow cases, in our case - and head to our gorgeous open space in search of the coveted Silver Egg, and grab as many other eggs along the way as possible.

But once the mayhem is over, now what? What do you do with all those plastic eggs?

If you actually make hard-boiled eggs, egg salad is always fun. But if you are like me and wind up with loads of plastic eggs…what can you do?

Save them for next year.

Yep, All the candy and money is emptied out into a small Tupperware container. The kids keep what fits in one container and we donate the rest to a homeless shelter in town. As for the eggs, many of them are put back into a storage bin for the next year. That is one great thing - they are reusable!

Easter Egg Maracas.

If you have toddlers, they probably love making noise, right? Grab some fun colored duct tape, fill then eggs with rice, and tape them up!  For a step-by-step tutorial to create the Maracas shown above, from Shauna Whitman the co-founder of Shwin & Shwin, click here.

Upcycle Simple Holiday lights.

Decorate your plastic eggs and cover up a strand of holiday lights to create a festive atmosphere for any occasion. This easy DIY project can be found here.

Repurpose for Halloween.

Who says plastic eggs are just for Easter? Decorate them for other holidays, too. A plastics egg is just the same size as a skull, right?  For Martha Stewart's DIY skulls project click here. Want to try the spiders? DIY Instructions from Chica and Jo can be found here.

Make a Mini-piñata.

Cinco de Mayo is right around then corner. You could use these as place settings, or just that - mini piñata. Grab some construction paper, create some cones (to make the star points) and trim some fringe. Voila.  For the step-by-step from Mega Crafty, click here.

Make your own Toys.

My son digs this…making his own “Guys”. Grab some google eyes, and wash (or duct) tape…and let the imagination run. 

Something for Grown-ups, too: Make Tea Lights.

This is simple but classy, too. Use the bottoms of the plastic eggs, spray paint them in your color of choice, place tea lights into the plastic egg, and liine up on a wooden board or cake plate. (You can also super glue the eggs to the board so they stay put more permanently.) Instant redecorating!  For the step-by-step from Taylor Made Creates, click here.