Lyndsey Fun and exciting ideas to make this St. Patrick’s Day special for your kids.
There are so many holidays that have fun activities and traditions surrounding them, but St. Patrick’s day doesn’t always get the same appreciation. We never did anything special or exciting for St. Patrick’s day growing up, and it’s fine if you don’t. Honestly, I just really appreciate any excuse to do something fun and different with the kids! I suppose I don’t need an excuse, but these 10 exciting ideas for St. Patrick’s Day with kids may change your mind.
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What is St. Patrick’s Day?
St. Patrick’s Day is actually a day to celebrate the Christianity reform in Ireland, started by St. Patrick himself. St. Patrick’s Day is a celebration of St. Patrick, and the changes to the Irish culture, said to be celebrated on the day St. Patrick passed. There are many different takes on St. Patrick’s day, but today it’s a celebration of Irish culture with parades, special foods, dancing, drinking and music. You can find some interesting facts and myths about St. Patrick’s Day discussed by National Geographic Kids, that you can find here!
10 Exiting Ideas for St. Patrick’s Day With Kids
If you are looking for a fun and exciting way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with your kids, check out these ideas below. St. Patrick’s Day can be a wonderful opportunity to celebrate and have fun with your family.
1. Leprechaun Coin Hunt
If there is one thing my kids enjoy, it’s hunting for items. No matter what time of the year it is. A Leprechaun coin hunt is a cheap, fun and easy way to get your kids excited about St. Patrick’s Day. All you need are some chocolate gold coins, and some bags for your kids to collect them.
Hide the coins throughout your house and have your kids hunt for them (you can do this in the morning, or at night). There isn’t a whole lot of detail to provide about this fun activity, it’s as simple as that.
If you want to do a little extra, you can get green hats or pots for “pots of gold” that they can use to collect their coins!
2. Make St. Patrick’s Day Treats / Leprechaun Treats
Making treats for St. Patrick’s Day can be a fun and delicious activity for you and your kids. There are so many great St. Patrick’s Day treat recipes out there, or Leprechaun Treat recipes that are super fun to make. On the plus side, these are also delicious to eat. Check out some of the examples below.
Leprechaun Bait by Our Tiny Nest
30 St. Patrick’s Day Treats for Kids by Mama Cheaps
Leprechaun Floats by Julies Eats and Treats
3. Wear Green / Dress Up
It is said that if you wear green on St. Patrick’s Day, you will be invisible to the leprechauns. If you aren’t wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day, the leprechauns can see you, and pinch any human they can find!
Wearing green is such a long standing tradition on St. Patrick’s Day, but you can make it so much fun! There are so many different cheap items you can get that your kids will love. Glasses, headbands, hats, t-shirts, tutu’s, and many other fun dress up items to make the day more exciting and special.
If you want to turn this into even more of an activity, try your hand a tie dying a St. Patrick’s Day shirt! You can just use different shades of green and tie dye as you please, or you can try making a tie dye shamrock shirt!
MrTieDye on YouTube has actually shared a wonderful tutorial on how to tie dye a shamrock t-shirt! You can find the video here: How to Tie Dye a 3 Leaf Clover or Shamrock
4. Decorate for St. Patrick’s Day
You can get a lot of cheap and fun St. Patrick’s Day decorations from your local dollar store. You can also find lots of decorations online. Another fun activity would be to cutout shamrocks and put them on your kids doors!
5. Attend a St. Patrick’s Day Parade
One of the many traditional celebrations for St. Patrick’s Day is a parade. There are many different places that put on a St. Patrick’s Day parade. Check your surrounding areas and see if there is a parade near you, or some type of community celebration. Many times, St. Patrick’s Day parades will have traditional Irish music and dancing, along with foods and other celebratory fun!
6. Have an Irish Meal
A very typical American-Irish meal that is served on St. Patrick’s Day is Corned Beef and Cabbage. This is personally one of my favorite meals any time of the year, but what a great excuse to make it. Don’t forget to add the Irish Soda Bread as well!
Corned Beef and Cabbage by The Food Charlatan
Traditional Irish Soda Bread by Countryside Cravings
Corned Beef and Cabbage is a very American-Irish tradition. If you would like to serve more traditional Irish Food, check out this post from All Recipes, What Irish People Actually Eat on St. Patrick’s Day.
7. Set a Leprechaun Trap
Setting a leprechaun trap is a fun and exciting way to make this St. Patrick’s Day memorable for your kids. This one takes a little more effort to achieve, but it totally worth it! You can make this activity as elaborate, or as easy as you would like.
These leprechaun traps are a great idea to pair with the NY Times best seller, How To Catch a Leprechaun.
If you aren’t sure what to make for a leprechaun trap, check out SIMPLE + AMAZING LEPRECHAUN TRAPS FOR BUSY PARENTS by Mimi’s Doll House. This will give you some great ideas to get you started, or to use on their own!
8. Create Leprechaun Mischief
Leprechaun mischief can be whatever you want it to be! It can be signs that a leprechaun visited your house. It can be the leprechauns playing tricks on the kids or parents. You can make this really fun!
This is also a great idea to pair with the NY Times best seller, How To Catch a Leprechaun. You can even get some ideas from the book!
You could make green baths for the kids, green pancakes/breakfast, leave green leprechaun prints in the house, leave glitter trails, rainbow window markers and so many more ideas!
If you are looking for some ideas for leprechaun mischief, check out these 17 Leprechaun Pranks for St. Patrick’s Day by Parscaeli.
9. Have a Treasure Hunt
Hunting for a pot of gold just seems like a must for St. Patrick’s Day! You can just use a regular pot of gold coins, or you can make up a fun treat bag or basket for your kids as well! To make a treasure hunt, you will want to leave clues in different areas of the house that will help lead your kids to the treasure.
You can make up clues on your own, or there are many free printable treasure hunt clues for St. Patrick’s Day available. Check out these St. Patrick’s Day Treasure Hunt Free Downloadable Clues by The House Wife Modern.
10. St. Patrick’s Day Crafts
Crafts are always a very fun and creative way to celebrate a holiday with kids. There are so many different options, difficulty levels, and time associated with doing crafts. You can make very simple crafts, such as coffee filter shamrocks, or more difficult crafts such as an elaborate leprechaun trap.
You can find many different craft ideas on Pinterest, or just on google. For some ideas, check out the crafts below!
Shamrock Suncatcher by Kids Activity Zone
Magic Fizzing Shamrocks by Gift of Curiosity
Craft Sticks Leprechaun Hat by The Resourceful Mama
DIY Rainbow Wands by Icing Designs Online
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Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions in the comments below!
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Those crafts are super cute. I’ve never done much with St. Patrick’s Day, but I went to Ireland last year for the first time and fell in love, so the Irish food is calling my name.
Visiting from Happy Hearts & Homes.
Lots of fun ways to make St. Patrick’s day fun. We do have corned beef and cabbage too but only my husband and I eat it! The boys will not touch it.
[…] 10 Exciting Ideas for St. Patrick’s Day With Kids […]
Such great ideas…………..I have some Irish roots so I almost always make Corn beef hash or Irish Colcannon which is very much like the hash it just has cabbage in it which makes it even better. I like the idea about the coin search, gotta see what day it falls on and if I will have our granddaughter that day. lol
Have a lovely day.
Blessings of the Irish to ya!! Nellie
Those dishes sound delicious! We will be doing the coin search this year, and building a leprechaun trap. I am really excited!
St. Patrick’s day is one of my favorite holidays, especially for children! These are such fun ideas. Your ideas will look stunning with my new cabinet painting. Thanks for the inspiration!
Thank you! I hope you enjoy these ideas and get to use some for your kids.