Fun Ideas to Celebrate
St. Patrick’s Day
Let’s Have a St. Patrick’s Day Party!
St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner. We have all been limited by challenging circumstances this past year. But you do not have limit family fun, making memories and celebrations! If you want a party, I have fun ideas for you!
Plan a St. Patrick’s Day celebration for your family this year! It does not have to cost a lot or take a lot of time and effort planning. You can create inexpensive decorations and crafts for St. Patrick’s Day with items you have around the house or in your craft closet. Toss in a few fun games, themed foods, and unexpected surprises and you have a party!
Best of all, you will get a much-needed distraction from the winter blues that often comes in the months between the excitement of the holidays and the arrival of spring! It will give your family something to look forward to and help you all get over the boredom of winter!
Now that our children are grown and have children of their own, this tradition has passed down to our grandchildren. It brings us so much joy! You can begin a new tradition with your family by using some or all of the 15 fun ideas for your St. Patrick’s Day celebration with your family.
Fun St. Patrick’s Day Activities & Surprises for Kids
When my daughters were young, we would sing a song before they went to bed the night before St. Patrick’s Day to entice a visit from Harrigan, the Leprechaun. If they sang it loud enough, he might come and do some mischief!
We would sing the chorus from Harrigan, a song I learned as a young girl. I could not remember the original words, so I made them fit the occasion. We would sing each verse louder and louder to make sure Harrigan could hear us! You can look it up on YouTube if you want. It is a song written by George M. Cohen in 1908.
H – A – double R – I – G – A – N spells Harrigan
Proud of all the Irish blood that’s in me; never a man can say a word against me.
H – A – double R – I – G – A – N, you see, is a name for Harrigan, that’s me!
In the morning, the girls would wake up and find our house turned upside down! They would be so excited running from place to place to see what kind of mischief Harrigan got into!
Some of the Harrigan’s Shenanigans are:
- Tie their clothes or coats in knots
- Tie the laces of their shoes together
- Dump out some of their toys
- Turn the chairs upside down and put some chairs on top of the table
- Turn lighter pieces of furniture upside down like chairs, small tables, or stools.
- Put their stuffed animals up high so the kids could not reach them.
- Turn the milk green
- Mess up all the newspapers or magazines
Harrigan would also leave little green footprints throughout the house leading to some of the places he messed up. The footprints would even lead outside the patio doors if there was not too much snow!
Harrigan also left little green & gold plastic coins and chocolate foil coins in different places for the girls to find.
TIP – The girls were a little worried about a Leprechaun coming into their bedrooms at night when they were sleeping. They would make a little sign that said he was not allowed past the hallway to the bedrooms. We would tape it on the wall leading to the bedrooms. Harrigan always respected their request!
You can download a template with little footprints. Just print them on green card stock & cut them out. TIP – You can collect them at the end of the celebration, put them in a little plastic bag and use them year after year. Be sure to hide them in a place where the kids will not find them.
You can get four free gifts to make St. Patrick’s Day extra special by signing up below. Included are the Leprechaun Footprint Templates, Pot o’ Gold Scavenger Hunt, Loaded Potato Soup, and Rainbow Ribbon Jell-O recipes. You will receive all four in one email. You can download one, or all four!
Craft Lucky Shamrocks
I wanted to make something for St. Patrick’s Day with materials I had around the house. I remembered a beautiful Christmas ornament I designed one day when experimenting with toilet paper rolls, and decided to see if I could make a shamrock decoration.
The shamrock is easy enough for the kids to join in and get their creativity flowing. You can also use materials you have around the house. I made three sizes of shamrocks using various papers.
Use the shamrocks to decorate a wreath like I did below. I had a plain white berry wreath I purchased last winter. I decided to spruce it up this year. I attached the three shamrocks by using a long, white twist tie. I just hung each one by putting the twist tie through the ribbon attached to the top leaf. Pull it around to the back and twist it a few times. If you do not have long enough twist ties, use wire or ribbon.
You can easily remove the shamrocks and decorate the wreath for another season. I will add a fun spring decoration after St. Patrick’s Day.
Wreath on white door 
Wreath on brown door
Materials
Below are the materials I used to make the three shamrocks featured in this post. Do not limit yourself. Use your creativity and whatever you have available.
- Toilet paper or paper towel rolls
- Brown craft paper – I used the rolled brown paper from wrapping paper rolls
- Green Print 12’ X 12” scrapbook paper (you can also use 8 ½” X 11” paper) or colored card stock
- Mod Podge or white glue like Aleene’s
- Green acrylic paint
- Glitter – I recommend green or gold
- Hot glue gun
- Paintbrush
- Optional:
- Wax paper
- Paper plates
- Transparent tape
- Ribbon for hangers
- Paper clips or binder clips
The finished size of your shamrock will be determined by the size of the materials you use. The sizes and directions reflect the materials I used.
Approximate finished sizes:
Small – Toilet Paper Roll Shamrock – 4 ¼” High X 3 ¼” Wide X 3/4” Deep
Medium – Colored Card Stock Shamrock – 8 ½” High X 7” Wide X 1 ½” Deep
Large – Brown Paper Shamrock – 10” High X 7” Wide X 1 ½” Deep
Small Shamrock
- Cut four ¾” slices from the toilet paper roll for each shamrock.
- Fold the four circles in half and crease both folded ends.
- Invert the top fold of three of the circles towards the bottom crease to form a heart.
- For the stem, make a second fold about ½” from one of the creases. That will make the bottom part of the stem. Glue or tape the top part of your stem together so it keeps its stem shape. See pictures below for references.
- Paint the four pieces with green acrylic paint. Set on wax paper to dry.
- Spread Mod Podge or white glue on a paper plate. Sprinkle glitter on another paper plate.
- Dip the edge of each piece of shamrock into the glue then into the glitter. Place on wax paper to dry.
- Using the hot glue gun, glue the pieces together, being careful not to burn yourself.
Medium Shamrock
- Cut four 12” X 1 ½” strips from the scrapbook paper for each shamrock. (Cut strips 11” long X 1 ½” wide if using 8½” X 11″ paper.)
- Overlap the ends about 1” and use white glue to form four circles. Place a paper clip or binder clip over the glued part until it is secure.
- Fold the four circles in half so the seam of the glued overlap edge is on one folded edge. The seamed edge will be the top.
- Crease both folded ends.
- Invert the top fold of three of the circles towards the bottom crease to form a heart.
- Using a small piece of tape, tape the top of the heart crease together on each side so it keeps its heart shape. Between ¼” & ½” is good.
- For the stem, make a second fold about ½” from the bottom crease. That will make the bottom part of the stem. The top crease will have the seam. Glue the top part of your stem together so it keeps its stem shape. Place a paper clip or binder clip on glued edge until secure. See pictures for references.
- Spread Mod Podge or white glue on a paper plate. Sprinkle glitter on another paper plate.
- Dip the edge of each piece of shamrock into the glue then into the glitter. Place on wax paper to dry.
- Using the hot glue gun, glue the pieces together, being careful not to burn yourself.
Large Shamrock
- Cut brown craft paper into four 15” X 1 1/2” strips for each shamrock.
- Follow steps 2-10 for directions for medium shamrock. Paint the pieces before you dip them in the glue and glitter.
To attach a hanger, put a small strip of white glue in the center of the top heart crease. Using a toothpick or other small tool, gently push the ribbon into the crease. Secure with paper clip or binder clip until dry if needed.
Leaves and stems drying on wax paper 
Strip of glue on top leaf for hanger 
Ribbon tucked in top of shamrock
TIP – You can scrape up any leftover glue and put it back in the container. To save the leftover glitter, just fold the paper plate in half and pour it back in its container.
If you want to make a four leaf clover, make four leaves instead of 4!
Another fun paper project would be to make Pretty Paper Globes with St. Patrick’s Day themed colored paper. You can get all of the instructions by clicking the button below!
Fun & Easy Games to Play for St. Patrick’s Day
Play fun games with the kids!
Kids love to go on scavenger hunts. To make it easier for you, I have included a fun Pot o’ Gold Scavenger Hunt.
Pin the shamrock on the Leprechaun Hat – Make a leprechaun hat out of green or black paper. Cut out shamrocks out of green paper. Or, play pin the pot of gold on the rainbow. Color a rainbow on a large sheet of white paper. Cut out a pot out of black paper. Put double stick tape or roll a piece of tape on the back and let the kids “pin” the shamrock on the hat.
Coin Race. Use the gold coins the leprechaun brought. Place one gold coin on a spoon. Have them race to drop them into the “pot for gold” they found on the scavenger hunt. If they drop a coin, they must go back to the start and begin again.
Coin Toss. Use the gold coins and the “pot for gold”. Give everyone the same amount of coins. Have them take turns to see who can toss the most coins into the pot.
Play some Irish music and everyone dance an Irish Jig!
Just download the Pot o’ Gold Scavenger Hunt below! Then just print as many as you need!
St. Patrick’s Day Themed Food
Make green pancakes for dinner for St. Patrick’s Day dinner! Who doesn’t love breakfast for dinner? Just add a little green food coloring to your favorite pancake batter. If you are really creative, make the pancakes into shamrock shapes, or make them little into little Leprechaun coins!
If pancakes are not your thing, make “Irish” Loaded Baked Potato Soup. Even the kids love it! The recipe is included in the free gifts. Just sign up if you haven’t already!
Make a rainbow out of fruit! I used marshmallows for the cloud, but you can use vanilla yogurt too! Whatever your family prefers. Gold foil candies make a cute little pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!
Make Rainbow Ribbon Jell-O for a colorful, delicious part of your meal. Or make an Irish flag-inspired Ribbon Jell-O. This recipe can be made the day before. Kids love it and it is so pretty. The recipe is also included in the free gifts.
Use green & gold sugar sprinkles to make melt-in-your-mouth butter cookies that everyone will love! They are super easy to make with only 4 ingredients plus the sprinkles! You can prepare the dough several days in advance and then just slice and bake! Kids love helping to make these too! You can get the recipe by clicking the orange button below!
Make shamrock or rainbow cupcakes. Super easy and delicious! What could be better than that! My daughter and granddaughter made the cupcakes pictured here. The rainbows were made by using rainbow ribbon candy! Find it at your local stores. The shamrocks were piped using white frosting that was colored green.
I hope you have a fun-filled St. Patrick’s Day! You do not have to be Irish to add some extra fun into your day as we all wait for the arrival of spring!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day from our family to yours!
The luck of the Irish be with you!
Heartfully,
Sue
Receive all four free St. Patrick’s Day gifts to make your celebration extra-special!
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P.S. As always, I would love to hear about your celebration and how you made it extra-special! Let me know if you have any questions or comments!