The Bunny Hunt
Celebrating an annual Easter tradition that keeps the whole family hopping!
When my three sisters and I were young, it was our father who hid our Easter baskets each year. Sometimes the treats were hidden inside the house and other years they were hidden outside. Daddy really enjoyed tucking our baskets of decorated eggs and chocolate bunnies in hardto-find places.
As we grew older, our father took special delight in making the search for our chocolate bunnies as difficult as possible. I remember one year when I was a teenager, I found my basket nestled behind the valance of the curtains in my parents’ bedroom.
Daddy had a large yard with shrubs, trees and many flower beds. Bunnies were inserted behind weathered boards that looked like they had not moved for decades; hidden amid the wood pile and the rock pile; shoved deeply beneath the shrubbery; and even buried under stumps, brush and grass clumps. One year, my husband, John, had to climb a ladder to get his bunny out of a fir tree!
Even after my sisters and I all got married and began families of our own, Dad continued to host the Easter Bunny Hunt every year. We told him that he didn’t need to do it now that we were adults, but he always said it was a good excuse to get his girls together. The size of the group grew steadily as we all had our own children, and one year it became so large that Daddy couldn’t remember where he had hidden all the bunnies —and therefore no help was available for the last searchers.
The following year as he hid each chocolate bunny, the location was recorded on a master list. We were then told that as each person found their bunny, we were to tell Daddy where we found it so he could cross it off the list. This enabled all of those who had already found their bunnies to continue to search—but not tell— until everyone could give “helpful hints” to the last person, or persons, who had yet to find a bunny.
Although some of the children have grown up and moved or attended college elsewhere, my sisters and I, along with some of our children and their families, still live in our hometown. While it’s been many years since the entire family has been present, everyone who is able always attends the bunny hunt. The number of participants averages between 20 and 30 each year. When our children were all growing up, one or more of them would often bring along a friend to enjoy the festivities. Daddy would purchase enough one-pound solid chocolate bunnies for everyone, plus two or three extras in case a family member who didn’t think they could attend came at the last minute, or if someone issued a last-minute invitation to a friend.
The bunny hunt evolved into an integral part of our family life. Our future spouses were “vetted” at the bunny hunt. Our children’s boyfriends and girlfriends were invited and we jokingly said they had to pass the bunny hunt test before they could join the family.
For my sisters and I, attendance at the annual bunny hunt is a time-honoured tradition and we don’t miss it if at all possible. Daddy died in 2006, but he had the pleasure of seeing his grandchildren and great-grandchildren scatter all over his yard every Easter, looking for chocolate bunnies.
After Daddy passed away, my sisters and I decided that the bunny hunt had to continue.
For several years before our dad died, my sisters and I had been taking turns hosting the bunny hunt because hiding the chocolates was becoming too difficult for our elderly father, especially on his arthritic hips and knees. A year or so before Dad passed away, my youngest sister built a house on the acreage at my dad’s place. She also has a large yard, so often the bunny hunt is held at her place. Two years ago her son, Craig, purchased our father’s former house and was immediately told that he would be hosting the bunny hunt the next year—so we could all be back at the familiar old place.
Craig did such an outstanding job hiding all the bunnies—he was wise enough to buy smaller ones that could be hidden in harder-to-find spots— that my sisters and I were transported back to the years when Daddy was younger, sneakier and made our searching more difficult than he could do in his later years. Craig was unanimously nominated to hide the bunnies the following year, as well.
Every Easter Sunday, rain or shine, we gather together and eat the salads, ham, turkey, hot cross buns and pies that we’ve prepared. Then, we go outside to be told the boundaries for the bunny hunt and then the search is on! Once all the bunnies are found, we divide into two large teams and play a highly competitive game of bocce ball, which entails much laughter, joking and “trash talking.”
My sisters and I are now senior citizens and most of our children are in their 30s and 40s, many of them with almost-grown children of their own. At last year’s gathering, we calculated that the bunny hunt in its current format is almost 50 years old! Daddy would be very pleased that his daughters have continued a tradition that he so enjoyed. We gather in his honour, remembering his belief that the bunny hunt is a good excuse to get everyone together for good food, good times—and chocolate!