10 Family Friendly April Fools’ Pranks To Try in 2026

April is almost upon us — and while the showers are certainly coming soon to make way for May’s flowers, we first have to get past April 1: So let the pranks begin.

I grew up in a household where my Mom loved April Fools Day. Year after year, she would somehow fool us with her creative pranks. Here are a few of her tried and true favorites: these pranks are family-friendly and sure to get a laugh — or a groan — as the month of April kicks off.

• Freeze the breakfast cereal: This was is self-explanatory and easy to pull off. Pour the cereal and milk tonight and place in the freezer! Works every time.
• Put Tootsie Rolls in remote instead of batteries: There is nothing more frustrating than a broken remote. Replace the batteries with Tootsie Rolls and sit back and watch your family member try to solve the problem, or should we say … prank.
• Vegetables in a Krispy Kreme donut box: Evil, yet effective. Grab a Krispy Kreme or your favorite donut shop box and fill it up with carrots, celery, you know the good stuff. Office treats on you!
• Brown “E’s” in a pan: Grab some brown paper and cut out a few “E’s” to place in a tin-foil covered pan. Maybe have some backup brownies for real, because this isn’t going to go over at all.
• Milk’s gone bad: Draw a scary face on the milk jug, and maybe throw a ski mask over it, because the milk has gone bad!
• Put an animal snout on bottom of coffee mug/cup: This is my Mom’s plan for my Dad this year. She has attached a pig snout to the bottom of his coffee cup he uses in the morning, and her hope is when he drinks it in front of his co-workers they will see the funny snout.

April Fools’ Day Prank Ideas

• Put “googly eyes” on random items in the refrigerator: Grab the googly eyes and put them on everything! The butter, the ketchup, the eggs, the probably moldy spaghetti from last week. Go crazy!
• Cream cheese in deodorant: Old church prank from back in my day, and you may say it’s “cheesy” but it’s so funny. Have fun scraping out the deodorant block. Then add a block of cream cheese inside, sculpt it like used deodorant and put it away for your kids or spouse to discover!
• Add food coloring to coffee creamer or any drink in a cardboard container: This is quite a shock to the system, especially early in the morning. Add a few drops of any color food coloring to the coffee creamer or half and half, and watch your family squirm when their coffee turns red, green, or purple.
• Put fake poop on your kids: This sounds … worse than it is. This classic prank involves Nutella and a question. While on the throne, ask someone in your family to bring you some toilet paper. When you accept the roll, have Nutella or melted chocolate on your hand and smear it on them during the exchange. Makes kids freak out, so beware!

Per the History Channel, the holiday full of hoaxes started in the 16th century — specifically 1563. That’s when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. That switch moved the start of the year from the spring equinox around April 1 to January 1 — and back then it took news just a little bit longer to spread. So those still celebrating the new year at the end of March and the beginning of April became the butt of everyone’s joke and were called “April fools.”

The more you know, right? Let us know what pranks you’ve pulled off in the comments!