Niagara Falls is a remarkably popular holiday destination, even during the bleaker winter months. Not only are the waterfalls a stunning sight even when it’s cold and icy, but hotel accommodations are less expensive, and the Winter Festival of Lights is underway from November through January, routinely attracting over 1 million people to its lush and luminous displays.
As the days begin to lengthen and the weather slowly warms, however, other holidays enter the calendar, and it turns out that spring has its own reasons for visiting Niagara Falls that rival winter’s. In particular, Niagara Falls hosts a couple of separate Easter egg hunting forays: one for kids and one for dogs.
For Kids
While no one is certain when the first Easter egg hunt took place, the fun and competitive tradition has been around for at least a few hundred years, and children, it seems, have always been the primary participants of the hunt. Niagara Falls has its own version of the egg hunt that takes place every year on the Friday before Easter at Fireman’s Park. Put on by the Stamford Volunteer Fireman’s Association, the day’s events start at 11 a.m. and include face painting, a coloring contest, a bouncy castle, visits with the Easter Bunny, guessing games, Boy Scouts, 400 pounds of chocolate, and, of course, Easter egg hunting. Children from ages 4 to 6 can hunt for eggs at 11 a.m. and noon.
Children ages 7 to 9 can hunt eggs at 11:20 a.m. and 12:20 p.m. Kids from 10 to 11 can hunt at 11:40 a.m. and 12:40 p.m. Children 3 and under can look for eggs at any time. Admission to the day’s events is just $3 per child or a food donation to Project SHARE, a nonprofit organization in Niagara Falls that supplies emergency food and support services to people in the area living at or below the poverty line.
For Dogs
Hosted by National Service Dogs (NSD), an organization that works to provide specially trained Golden Retrievers and Labradors to families and individuals in need regardless of their ability to pay, this Easter egg hunt for dogs and their owners is a fundraiser for NSD. Each year, NSD trains and graduates roughly 30 dogs, and this Easter egg hunt fundraiser and others like it are one of its primary means of funding. Participants collect donations and pledges related to the number of eggs (plastic eggs filled with a dog treat) their pooch can find. There are multiple hunt locations on the Friday before Easter, and this year, each location will give out a grand prize of a Bissell DeepClean Lift-Off carpet cleaner package worth over $350. Bring your dog or just go for the fun. The hunt takes place at Burgoyne Woods in St. Catherines. Registration is at 10:00 a.m., and the hunt starts at 11:00 a.m.
Spend Easter in the Niagara area this April. Whether you have children or dogs, or you just like to watch a good egg hunt undertaken for a good cause, these two Easter egg hunting events make being in Niagara in early spring an ever more attractive option.