St. Patrick’s Day is March 17 – how does your family celebrate? Many people just consider St. Patrick’s Day to be an excuse to get together with colleagues and get drunk on green beer! But parents can make St. Patty’s Day fun for kids and you might just create all new traditions in the process!
Fun Traditions:
Does your family practice the tradition of pinching anyone who doesn’t wear green? This tradition was actually started by school children and is still a popular one amongst children. Make sure to (gently) catch your kids on their way out of their rooms in the morning before they have a chance to change into their annual green garb!
Reserve some books from your library about St. Patrick’s Day. One of my favorites is: St. Patrick’s Day in the Morning by Eve Bunting and Illustrated by Jan Brett. This is a great book to read before sending kids off to school on St. Patty’s Day morning.
In our family we have tiny trees left over from the Christmas holidays. We decorate them for each holiday that passes, as long as they stay alive (and with my brown thumb, some years that isn’t long). For St. Patty’s Day we like to string rainbow or green yarn, tiny shamrocks, bits of gold, etc. It helps us all get in the mood!
Some families make a tradition of renting a Riverdance or Lord of the Dance video to watch together as a family. If you have a chance to go see either in person, it is well worth it.
Festive Food:
Green is the theme of the day! You might want to make some green pancakes and green milk for cereal! You can surprise your kids with green sandwiches in their lunchboxes by lightly spraying their bread with melted butter mixed with food coloring. You can prepare a green-themed dinner of spinach pasta and green veggies. Kids will enjoy their own green “beer” – sparkling white grape juice mixed with food coloring! And don’t forget the green milkshakes or cupcakes for dessert!
Another fun thing to do on St. Patty’s day is to make cups of rainbow layered Jell-O. Kids love to make and eat this fun concoction but be prepared to offer a “pot of gold” at the end of this rainbow!
Even toddlers will enjoy assisting in the making of some (green, of course) Irish Soda Bread
Fun Crafts & Activities
A rainbow scavenger hunt can be a lot of fun for the whole family! Print clues onto small pieces of paper and attach to construction paper – one clue for every color of the rainbow! When the child follows each clue and gets to the end, you can hide a “pot of gold” – a bag of chocolate foil-covered coins!
In preparation for St. Patrick’s Day, children love to learn how to make and cut out shamrocks from green construction paper. Another really neat shamrock-related activity is to cut shamrock shapes from coffee filters and let your little ones “paint” the shamrocks with green food-colored water using a dropper or a small brush. The colors will spread and fan and look beautiful when hung in the window!
Don’t forget to locate Ireland on a map and research the history of St. Patty’s Day with your kids including the meaning of the shamrock, the Blarney Stone and where that leprechaun came from after all! Kids enjoy cutting out and collecing information and creating their own little “book of facts” about this special day when everyone gets to be Irish!