St. Patrick’s Day is a great time to have a bit of fun while celebrating Irish heritage. Although the holiday is mostly filled with non-traditional elements from Irish culture and largely appeals to adults, you will be surprised by how much fun a child can have on the special occasion. These ten tips should help you keep your child busy on St. Patrick’s Day without forcing you to work around the community in order to meet the needs of the whole family. Not to mention, several of these ideas will cost you nothing at all to create, so you can keep your holiday frugal and fun without spending hours looking on the internet for ideas to keep the family busy and festive.
1. Pot of Gold
Leprechauns tend to play a major role in the holiday and it wouldn’t be a true leprechaun celebration without a pot of gold. You can make your pot of gold out of recyclables, old pales or even purchase a simple one from the dollar store for next to nothing. Once you get the pot ready, fill it with fun items like golden candies, your child’s favorite candy, small toys, coupons to get out of chores and much more. Then, find a hiding place for the pot and wait for your child or children to wake up. You can make individualized pots or have the whole family work together to find one pot. You can even add rainbows to the wall and floor to help direct the child to find the pot. This makes a fun game for St. Patrick’s Day morning, that will make your child feel lucky all day long.
2. Garden
There’s no better time to go green by gardening than St. Patrick’s Day. Not only will the Spring weather be rolling in, but you’ll also be able to have a lot of fun with the green concept when it comes to the kids. Try picking out items like clovers to plant in the garden, just to make it more festive. You can also do a little research and find out some of the plants that are common in Ireland and plant those. Of course, you don’t have to keep it themed as you will know what you want in your garden as well as which items will grow in your climate. The act of planting is what is important though and will leave you feeling accomplished and like you’ve done Mother Nature a bit of good. You don’t have to stop with planting though, if you’re still in the holiday spirit. You can make or buy little leprechauns to put in your yard to show off your holiday spirit.
3. Dress in Green
Dressing up in all green is probably one of the most common ways to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. This is a great way to let the kids take the reins when it comes to the holiday. If they have plenty of green clothing, then have them pick out an outfit that shows off as much green as possible. This will allow them to feel like they are taking a bigger role in the holiday. Of course, if there aren’t a lot of green clothes in their wardrobe then you might want to consider making an outfit. If you use simple washable markers, kids can draw on denim to create pants that will stand out, but can still be washed clean later. A little food coloring on a white shirt will also transform it into a bright green that won’t leave your child getting pinched. You can also make ties, hats, bowties and other accessories to suit the occasion with paper, duct tape or scrap cloth. Your imagination is the limit here.
4. Themed Games
If you have a lot of free time on St. Patrick’s Day, then it might be time to pull out some games to help keep the kids entertained. You can transform many of your favorite household games into a holiday theme just by changing around the names a bit. Of course, there’s also a lot of fun things on the internet too. You can download themed Bingo cards, mazes, crossword puzzles and a whole lot more that will work with kids in a wide age bracket. You may also be able to find a whole lot of active games to help keep the kids entertained. There’s even fun online games that older kids will get a kick out of as they learn more about the holiday or simply have a laugh at the game design.
5. Green Food
You might count yourself lucky that the holiday has a green theme, because it may be one of the few times you can get your kids to eat green foods. Of course, if you’re not ready to present kids with a plate full of veggies, you can always transform some of your favorite foods into green works of art. Mashed potatoes are a great common dish that only takes a little food coloring to transform. Not to mention, this food is great for celebrating Irish culture. You can also go a little literary on the holiday and serve green eggs and ham for breakfast. The little ones may love this if they are learning to read and are curious about the food. Apart from that, you can always stick with the classics, like green Jell-o and sherbet. You may even consider having the kids pitch in with kitchen prep so they will be more likely to actually eat the green foods on the menu.
6. Crafts
Like most holidays, St. Patrick’s Day is the perfect time to break out the craft supplies to have a little fun. There’s lots of free coloring sheets available online, but you can always take your crafting to the next level. Many people especially love making items like clovers to place on the wall or to hang from the ceiling. You can also make your own pot of gold out of paper plates and markers. This is perfect for small games that you may play throughout the day too. You can also make leprechaun puppets out of paper bags or popsicle sticks. Your imagination will keep you busy all day long if you let it. If you’re shy on ideas, then browse around online as there’s so many fun things to make that the whole family will adore.
7. Leprechaun Trap
Everyone knows that catching a leprechaun is a great way to get close to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. So, you may want to have the kids set out a leprechaun trap the night before the big holiday. There’s so many amazing trap ideas online that your whole family should be able to make something that suits their personality. These traps can easily be made with recyclables and other items found around the house too, so you won’t have to worry about spending too much money on them. Once the traps are finished and dried, you can have the kids place them around the home. When they go to bed disable the trap as if something or someone entered and escaped the trap. You may want to leave clovers, a form of gold dust and some treats, like chocolate coins, in the trap for a lovely morning surprise.
8. Leave Out Shoes
Another great way to add to the magic of the holiday is to have your children leave their shoes out before they go to bed. Since leprechauns are often considered shoe makers or shoe repairmen, you can play on this to make your kids anticipate the holiday. With the shoes left out, you can fill them with treats or pranks to help the kids enjoy the special occasion. Try hiding a few pieces of candy in the toe of the shoe and then tie the laces together to make it feel like a trickster came to visit. Kids will love anticipating what will happen to their shoes while they sleep, which will make this holiday more fun than ever expected. For older kids, you may even consider putting money in the shoe, but try to keep it in coin form to make it feel more realistic.
9. See a Parade
Although St. Patrick’s Day isn’t exactly considered a major holiday, there are still many parades around the country and world that are a lot of fun for the whole family to watch. You might want to check to see if there is going to be a parade in your community. If not, you may want to organize your own if you can find enough people willing to contribute to the fun. This should only take some signatures to receive approval from your city board. Of course, if you don’t want to do this you can always take to the internet to find a parade. One of the most famous takes place in Boston where they dye the water green just for the special occasion. The whole family will love watching all of the fun Irish décor as it passes along the famous boardwalk.
10. Teach
There’s lots of fun to be had on St. Patrick’s Day, but we shouldn’t forget the holiday is a celebration of Irish culture and Saint Patrick. You may want to take this time to teach your children about your Irish roots if you have any. You can also create lessons about Irish culture and history. You may even want to incorporate food into your lessons, especially if you have a family recipe that has been passed down for generations. It may be wise to do some research on Saint Patrick, so you can explain the true meaning of the holiday to your children. After these lessons, your child will have a greater grasp of what is being celebrated as well as heritage. Even if you don’t have Irish roots, this is a great time to embrace Irish history and how it affected the country that you live in. Older children may get more out of the holiday if you assign an Irish book to read for the month of March. There’s lots of great options available that you can base on their skill level.
Although it may seem tough to find things for children to do on St. Patrick’s Day, there’s more options than you think. These ten ideas will help keep everyone busy, so you won’t have to spend an arm and a leg on entertainment just to celebrate the special day. With any luck, your kids will come out of the holiday feeling a little closer to the history and fun behind the celebration.
