St. Patrick’s Day, March 17 every year, is always a fun holiday to celebrate with the kids. One of the most (in)famous traditions, of course, is to pinch anyone who’s not wearing green, but there are other fun and friendlier things you can do with the kids to have fun for the day.
Here are some ideas for St. Patrick’s Day activities with the kiddos:
1. Make a St. Patrick’s Day shamrock hunt around the house, then decorate with the findings
Hide some shamrocks made out of construction paper or post-it notes (and bonus points, maybe even have the kids help you make them to begin with!), then hide them all around the house like an Easter egg hunt. Whoever finds the most shamrocks wins a special St. Patrick’s Day gift like a book or a magazine. Runners-up can get other St. Patrick’s Day goodies so that everyone has a good time. Then spend some time together with some fun Irish songs playing in the background, and decorate the house with all the shamrocks!
2. Play creative games
Make any game a fun St. Patrick’s Day-themed game and have a great time playing with your kids. You could play St. Patrick’s Day Hangman (use words like Leprechaun, Pot of Gold, Lucky, Green, Shamrock, etc.), or maybe find, make, or have them create a word search or a crossword puzzle with St. Patrick’s Day-related clues and words. You could make bingo cards and play a round of St. Patrick’s Day bingo, or do a word scramble where they have to figure out what the words are.
3. Color in some St. Patrick’s Day coloring pages
Everyone likes to color! Print up some fun coloring pages on a St. Patrick’s Day or Irish theme – leprechauns, shamrocks, pots of gold at the end of a rainbow, etc. are always popular themes – and then bust out the crayons, markers, watercolors, and colored pencils, and let the kids have at it! Join in with them and have a coloring contest to see who can do the most creative color schemes or designs.
4. Do Arts and Crafts: Make leprechauns, rainbows and pots of gold, shamrocks, and more!
Kids always love making holiday-themed arts and crafts with you to learn about the different holidays. You could take a coffee can and do a few fun things with it – make a life-size leprechaun hat and cut a hole in the lid to make it into a bank for saving their coins. Or for another fun coin-collecting option, make the coffee can into a pot of gold and cut and tape or glue a rainbow out of construction paper leading into it.
5. Make puppets and put on an improv play
It’s always fun to make puppets – use an old sock or a paper bag and create a leprechaun puppet and have a fun St. Patrick’s themed puppet play. Get creative making props and backdrops too for a really fancy play that you can put on for the whole family!
6. Drink green milk
Introduce your kids to the fun of food coloring. Let them play with putting the drops of food dye into the milk and seeing the fun patterns they make, and they’ll love the novelty of drinking green milk!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
