Get ready for Easter with Heritage Park Laundry Essentials. This article offers tips for hosting a fun and successful Easter egg hunt and for cleaning up after!

Here at Heritage Park, we love Easter for so many reasons: the deep symbolism of rebirth, the renewal of the Earth as Spring comes and -- of course -- chocolate Easter eggs. Read on to learn a bit of history of chocolate eggs; gather some fun ideas for hosting your egg hunt; and get tips for cleaning up all that chocolate everywhere.

Why Are Eggs a Symbol of Easter?

The tradition of giving eggs at Easter is rooted in ancient pagan Spring festivals, which celebrated the renewal of life and the end of winter. Eggs were seen as symbols of new life and fertility, and were often decorated and exchanged as gifts during these celebrations. As Christianity spread throughout Europe in the early Middle Ages, the symbolism of eggs was merged with the Christian belief in resurrection and renewal at Easter. 

Chocolate candy eggs are a comparatively new tradition, having arrived on the scene in Germany and France in the 19th century. And though we firmly believe there is no such thing as bad chocolate, apparently these early chocolate eggs were bitter and hard to digest. By the mid-1800s, the Cadbury company in England had revamped standard recipes to allow chocolate candy to be poured into molds and mass manuproducedfactured, essentially introducing modern milk chocolate Easter eggs to the world. Today, the variety of chocolate Easter eggs on the market seems nearly limitless (although Cadbury does still account for nearly 20 percent of Easter candy sales worldwide).

On The Hunt: How to Throw a Successful Easter Egg Hunt

The tradition of hiding and hunting for Easter eggs dates back to the Middle Ages in Germany, when Martin Luther was said to have hidden eggs for his congregation to find at Easter. The Easter egg hunt was further popularized during the long reign of Queen Victoria of England. In 1876, the White House got in on the fun by hosting an official Easter Egg Roll on the day after Easter, a tradition that continues to this day.

Assuming you won’t be hiding eggs on the grounds of Windsor Castle or rolling them across the lawn at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, here are some tips for prepping a fun and successful Easter egg hunt.

1. Separate children by ages and run two hunts. Allow the little ones to go first, perhaps collecting easy-to-spot oversized eggs like these. (Egg link on amazon)
2. Bunny ears for everyone! (Bunny ears link)
3. Add a theme for a fun twist. For example, you can have an animal-themed egg hunt, where each egg contains a small plastic animal (plastic animal link) or a sports theme (sports eggs link). 
4. Host an Easter treasure hunt. Instead of hiding eggs, create a treasure hunt where the clues lead the participants to the hidden eggs. This adds an extra element of adventure and mystery to the egg hunt and is perfect for a rainy Easter morning. (treasure hunt link)
5. Give your egg hunt a glow up. Use glow-in-the-dark eggs for a fun nighttime or indoor egg hunt. This is perfect for older kids and might even get young teens in on the action. (Glow in the dark egg link).
6. Raise the stakes with a few golden eggs filled with cash. Our favorite Uncle used to hide one $20 bill for a lucky hunter to find. (golden eggs link).
7. Load up on the chocolate eggs. Sure, we enjoy a good jelly bean. But nothing compares to a great chocolate easter egg. These Hershey’s solid foil wrapped eggs are a classic (Hershey’s link). We’re also partial to Cadbury mini eggs (Cadbury mini egg link) and Reese’s peanut butter cup eggs (RPBC egg link).

Chocolate Clean-Up is Easy with Heritage Park All-Purpose Laundry Detergent

There are almost as many ways to get messy on Easter as there are places to hide an egg. In all the fun and frenzy, little ones (and grownups, too) seem to get chocolate everywhere: their dressy outfits, tablecloths, grown-up’s skirts and pant legs, furniture, rugs, guest towels…the list goes on. 

Fortunately, Heritage Park All-Purpose Laundry Detergent is perfect for cleaning up chocolatey messes. Our pH-neutral, concentrated formula is made with plant-based ingredients to gently clean and remove stains while protecting fine fabric. Our detergent also contains a proprietary blend of cleaning enzymes made to break down and remove tough stains, including protein-based stains like chocolate. You can use Heritage Park All-Purpose Detergent to wash clothes and table linen, as a pre-soak/pre-treatment, and as a spot cleaner.

• Spot clean chocolate rugs and upholstery with a mildly diluted solution of our detergent and water.
• For chocolate stains on clothing or table linen, first scrape off any extra chocolate, soak in a solution of cool water and Heritage Park All-Purpose Detergent and launder as usual.
• Pre-treat stains with an enzyme spray made of 1:1 solution of water and Heritage Park All-Purpose Detergent.

Note: The laundry enzymes in our detergent are made to dissolve protein-based stains. As such, our regular formula should not be used for routine washing of silk, wool, and other protein-based fabrics. For these, we recommend Heritage Park Silk and Wool Detergent. However, you can use our All-Purpose Detergent on a limited basis to remove stains from these fabrics; proceed with caution and test on an inconspicuous area first.

Of course, our enzyme blend also works to target and remove all types of stains. Learn more about how enzyme detergents work here and tips for removing common stains here. At the same time, our detergent is made with a minimal list of ingredients to be safe and gentle on fabric and sensitive skin. Our fragrance-free formulas are also lab-certified hypoallergenic. And -- speaking of Easter -- our products are Leaping Bunny certified as cruelty-free and never tested on animals.

The Heritage Park team wishes your family a very Happy Easter. As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions regarding our products, stain removal, or fabric care in general. We are here to help!

Heritage Park Laundry Essentials

At Heritage Park, caring for fine fabric is our passion. As lifelong collectors of luxury sheets, towels, and cloths, we found many commercially available "gentle detergents" either damaged our fabrics or didn't get the job done, leaving stains. We knew we could do better. So we developed a formula with the perfect balance of powerful -- yet safe -- ingredients designed to remove tough, set-in stains while remaining gentle on luxury linens. Please connect with us at (800) 977-1841 or visit our store or email us with any product feedback or cleaning questions.