On Piper’s birthday, we turned gift giving into a scavenger hunt. This is definitely the first of a new birthday tradition, I’d even like to do one for my husband’s birthday! It made gift giving so much fun and filled Piper’s heart with excitement when she deciphered each clue.

How to set up a scavenger hunt

Hide the Gifts

We hid the gifts throughout the house but you could do it in the yard, at the park, and so on.

The Clues

I wrote down where I hid all the gifts on a little piece of paper (because she can’t read yet this worked great). I’d come up with a clue to where each gift was hidden as we went. Some clues were creative:

• Q. “Where does the little dragon sleep at nap time?”
• A. Kenzie’s room (she’s our little dragon!)

Others were more practical questions like:

• Q. “What do we do first thing in the morning when we get downstairs and where?”
• A. Eat breakfast at the table.

For older children that can read you can write the clues down for them to read.

They weren’t hard but made her think and gave her so much satisfaction when she figured it out. The best part, each correct answer lead to a fun little gift to open! Next year I might have to come up with the clues ahead of time.

The Gifts

We had 5 small gifts hidden leading up to her main gift. With each gift we got the biggest smile possible accompanied by jumping up and down and screeching. It was such a fun way to add a little magic to gift giving and make it last longer without the overwhelm presents often bring to small children. I have to admit even as an adult I get overwhelmed with gifts sometimes!

All the gifts we gave Piper leading up to the final gift were themed.

1. An Ariel Cup & a Birthday Button. FYI- the Disney Store gives free buttons for birthdays!
2. Ariel Jammies
3. A Minnie Mouse Dress
4.  A Minnie Mouse Sweatshirt
5. A Rapunzel hair set

Are you catching on to our theme? I may have gone a little overboard on gifting! Can you guess what the final gift was???

That’s right! Disneyland for the whole family!!

Pat created some fake Disneyland tickets for Piper to open for the grand finale. Her reaction was priceless! I will never forget how she lite up with excitement when she found out we were taking her to Disneyland for the first time for her birthday!

I highly recommend doing a scavenger hunt for your kiddo’s next birthday! It was such a fun thing for Piper to wake up to start her day off with some magic!

Have fun and happy hunting!