White House Easter Egg Roll

This was an amazing celebration of Easter, albeit a day after. The Obamas really outdid themselves making everyone of all ages and cultures welcome. It was amazing to enjoy the white house lawn with the first family. It’s well organized, the only waiting was after security when we waited in line for our group to go in (about 45 minutes). But there was entertainment while we waited and spirits were high. The volunteers worked hard and were friendly. There were bathrooms and free drinks once we got in, no food so eat before your go. Lots of celebrities and sports stars.
Most of the activities are geared toward little kids. Some have a small wait but the family photo op in front of the white house was worth it alone. My ten year old was a little bored, until the music began and it was singer she loved (Idina Menzel) We lucked out with our time slot (in the morning) and were treated to lots of Mr and Mrs. Obama sightings and Ms. Menzel’s stunning performance of the National Anthem. Once your two hour time slot is over everyone leaves at the same time, and some secret service sometimes closes off walkways which can delay leaving so keep that in mind if your trying to get your hotel for a timely checkout! Souvenir wood egg was neat and overall we had a great time (including our tween). A once-​in-​a-​lifetime event that we’ll always remember.

There are five groups (A to E)…each group will have a slightly different experience, with celebrity performances, a cooking class, etc. The activities were the egg roll, egg hunt, egg dying, crafts, and various obstacle courses and science fair style booths.
Recommendation has always been to arrive at minimum two (2) hours ahead of your time (if 2:30pm, the ‘entrance’ time is 1:45pm). Because of that, at any given time, the groups may be lining up simultaneously… but on opposite sides of the building. Groups A, C, and E were on the west wing side, and B and D were on the east.
Visit the bathroom before going, bring sun protection, drinks and snacks for the line and you’ll be fine. Once inside, free bottled drinks and juices are provided.
It was a wonderful experience for our little girl and a highlight of a memorable trip to D.C.

Well planned and executed! The lines are long, however they move very quickly. You will be in line with thousands of your closest friends. The volunteers were very pleasant, positive, and helpful, full of smiles and welcomes. Definitely and event to take part in for the historical aspect of the event. Kids will be wornout (and possibly cranky) by the time you are finished, however it is a great memory!

This gets 5 stars because it’s a once in a lifetime type event and runs like clockwork… just be prepared for lots of lines, tons of people, and be ready to cross paths with just about anyone!!!
Be there early to get in line so when they open your slotted time’s line, you’re at the front. Only your time group is allowed in and the precious group is ushered out, so if you’re the first in, you should head up to the north lawn hit the lawn games when there are no lines and then you can head down to the arts and crafts, egg hunt, bands, demonstrations, etc. We didn’t follow this plan, but after looking back at the day, this is what I would have done. It’s hard not knowing!!!
The highlight of my daughters day was listening to Debby Ryan (Jessie) read Curious George during story time!
It’s so cool to be so close to the White House and not knowing what celebrities you might see! If you have the chance, by all means go!!!
As the herd your time group out, they load you up with peeps and a wooden egg for each child.
It was fantastic!

This is a cute event, but definitely for the younger kids. I would say 3 – 7 is a good range, as long as your kid can handle crowds. The event has a lot of people dressed up as kids’ characters, activities like egg dyeing, and the roll itself where kids bat an egg with a wooden spoon across a short stretch of lawn with about 7 other players. Cute, but for younger ones. My daughter loved it at 5, much less so at 8. I would imagine kids any older than that would wonder why you brought them– unless they can appreciate photo ops, because you do get close to the White House.

I was lucky to get tickets from someone I know who works for vice president Biden. If you have children this is the perfect event to take them to. There are many activities to keep you busy for the several hours you are allowed to stay there.

Thanks to an online lottery and my son being just shy of the 12 year old age cutoff, we snagged tix to one of the biggest, most famous children’s events in the area. When I say there were a lot of a people at the Easter Egg Roll, I can’t stress enough how ridiculously crowded it was. I mean, it was line after line after line… you get the point. And that was before we even entered the South Lawn area. But once we got in, it was a really nice, fun kid’s event. We saw adorable little Willow Smith perform her one-​hit wonder and got to take pics with two of my favorite DC Top Chefs. And it was kind of surreal to be so close to the White House on a beautiful, clear, sunny Spring afternoon. I was bummed there was no food but they did have Powerade andbottled water. I guess that had to do with the FLOTUS’ new campaign to improve children’s eating choices, though they did surprisingly pass out sugar coma Peeps on the way out.
My kids are older so I can’t even imagine how folks navigated through those crowds with strollers and tiny little toddlers. I would be super nervous to bring a kid under 6 to that event because it’s just too hectic. I have to say I think it is wonderful that us «average» citizens even get a chance to go to the Easter Egg Roll in this day and age of terrorism and political dissonance. They could just shut the whole tradition down. My kids will always get to say they went to the White House and have a souvenir egg to prove it.

I was in the last group at 3 pm with my kids. Yes, the lines were long. But what do you expect? This is the White House and people want their kids to be on the lawn for this tradition that dates to the 1800s. And tickets are free. You have to expect to put up with lines and a bit of frustration in exchange for the historical experience.
In previous years, you had to camp out overnight on the White House grounds to get a ticket. This year, it was a more open process on the internet, so that made tickets easier to obtain for those of us who didn’t want to camp out in the rain with the homeless people in DC.
It was cool to get up close to the White House on the south lawn. I hadn’t realized before what a great view you have from the south side of the White House — you can see not only the Washington Monument but the Jefferson Memorial. We were close enough to actually see Obama in the Oval Office through a window.
My kids got to see his daughters’ new outdoor playground, and have photos taken with Clifford the Big Red Dog and the Easter Bunny. They also got to roll eggs on the lawn, get read to by a professional DC United soccer player, play games, including basketball on the outdoor court, hear bands and color eggs.
All in all, it was worth the long wait in lines, and you can’t beat free tickets.

By some stroke of luck, I managed to get tickets to the White House Easter Egg Roll in a matter of 5 minutes. But I almost wish I didn’t. Almost.
First off, the place was a human zoo, almost as bad as the cherry blossom street festival, with too many people trying to do the same few things, and way too many godforsaken strollers. I mean, I understand that if you have an infant, you NEED a stroller. But if you have a child who is capable of walking, I really think you should leave the stroller at home. Not only because it makes you a traffic obstacle to everyone around you, but also because you become frustrated at not being able to maneuver around crowds and steps and security, and your kids start getting into danger when you are too focused on your futile attempts to move your stroller around. We took a 5 year old, 4 year old and 3 year old and I am so glad I had the wisdom not to try to cart them around in a stroller, even though their feet were tired by the end of it. That’s why there’s naptime.
My biggest gripe is that we were standing in line and waiting around for more time than we were actually on the South Lawn. For whatever reason, probably because the group before us actually got to see the president, our group’s entry was delayed by nearly an hour. Yet they still pushed us out at our allotted exit time. Also, once we got onto the lawn, we had to wait in more lines to do most of the activities there. It was like being at an amusement park on Spring Break, just waiting in line for 2 minutes of fun… except that the White House is right there.
The actual activities were OK, nothing stellar, but OK. There was an egg hunt, egg dying, face painting, some other lame craft-​making, soccer, jump roping, the egg roll, and a bunch of characters to take pictures with. I didn’t recognize the majority of them, but there was a smurf, Clifford, an old school Winnie the Pooh, Sponge Bob and Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street. We didn’t even have time to do the actual egg roll because the line was too long and then they stopped the activities and kicked us out. They hand a music stage and a storytime area too, but really, there is just no time to do it all.
We did get a free souvenir egg though. So by the end of an hour, I was exhausted from the tiring activity of waiting. Luckily the girls held up really well, and we all went to lunch afterward, the end.
I don’t know if I’d want to do it again, but if I did, I would aim for the first group, just so at least we could get our full time slot’s worth. Or maybe I’d go for the second group, since they were the ones to actually catch a glimpse of Obama and hear Fergilicious sing the national anthem.

Primo’s dad had made it his mission in life to camp out and get tickets for the White House Easter Egg Roll this year. (Hey, more power to you. I’M not staying out all night on the mall!) And, whadda’ know, he was successful. He showed up at 9:30 on Friday night to be there for the 7 am Saturday distribution. People that came after that were told by the park rangers to go home because the chances of them getting tickets were very slim.
So, I grab Primo from school and we metro down to meet up with Dad. Our tickets were for the 1:45 entry time.
After waiting a good 45 mins to get through the security checkpoints we finally get into the South Lawn. It was:
Overwhelming.
Waaaaaaaaaay too many people.
Apparently they gave out 20K tickets and ALL of those people were still there! There were lines for everything. Everything. To take pictures with the wandering folks in bunny suits you had to que up. The line for the Easter Egg Roll itself stretched all the way across the lawn. We didn’t even think about standing in that line. We did get to color some bunny ears, and take some pictures, and dye an egg — it wasn’t completely hopeless.
On the way out they hand you a goodie bag with a book and a painted wooden egg in it. On the back it was signed by the president and the first Lady. Dad made a funny, «Look, it’s signed Beelzebub and Laura!» (heh, heh, heh…)
We went to Pot Belly’s and then home. Primo crashed out in the car and didn’t wake up until 5 am this morning. Dad is talking about doing it again next year and going earlier to get tickets for an earlier time. My thinking is «been there, done that» — but if he goes to all the trouble to get tickets again I’ll go.