St. Patrick’s Day is arguably the best day of the year to be Irish. All over the world people are embracing Irish culture and celebrating their own connections to Ireland. Doing special activities to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with your kids can give them a great feeling of community and nurture their feeling of belonging in Ireland. Also, who doesn’t love an excuse to celebrate!
Eat green foods
You can turn any food bright green by adding some blended spinach leaves. This is great for making green pancakes, smoothies, mashed potatoes, muffins, anything you make can be turned green. You can also turn pasta green with some green food colouring. Even your pickiest eater could be convinced to eat some green foods while celebrating Paddy’s Day.
Bake some green treats
Few things are more fun for kids than baking with their families. Pick an easy recipe, or use a boxed cake mix to make the activity more fun than stressful. Decorate with delicious green icing and Irish symbolism.
Irish arts and crafts
Get out your green crayons and create some Irish artwork. Cut out the shape of a beard or hat to dress up like St. Patrick. Or create lots of paper snakes that will need to be banished from the house!
Put out traps for a leprechaun
Similar to leaving cookies and milk out for Santa, your kids will love setting up a trap to try to catch a sneaky leprechaun. Leave treats under an upside-down washing basket before going to bed and wait until the morning to see if you’ve caught one. The elusive leprechaun might devour the treats and leave a gift or a note for your little ones.
Attend some fun events
Going to the St. Patrick’s Day parade is a great way to celebrate the day. If you don’t fancy a trip into the city centre, attend local events. Look for local parades or festivals.
Wear green
Show off your love of St. Patrick’s Day by wearing your favourite green clothes. No need to buy specific Paddy’s Day t-shirts, get creative with what’s already in your kids’ wardrobes. You can even create your own festive t-shirts by painting an old t-shirt. Your kids will love designing their own clothes.
Learn some Irish dancing
YouTube is full of great tutorials for Irish dancing. Get the family together and try to learn a dance together. You could even film the final result and star in your own St. Patrick’s Day family video.
Learn about St. Patrick
Tell your kids the story of St. Patrick and how he became the patron saint of Ireland. Or ask them to tell you the story, if they’ve already learned about it in school.
Listen to Irish music
Introduce your kids to your favourite Irish songs by making a playlist for the day. Play your playlist throughout the day to set the atmosphere.
Learn Irish phrases
Many of us don’t speak Irish as fluently as we would like to. Use St. Patrick’s Day as an opportunity to embrace the Irish language. If your kids learn Irish in school ask them to teach you some words that they’ve learned recently. Use Google Translate or an Irish dictionary to form your Irish sentences. Challenge your family to speak as much Irish as they can throughout the day.
Plant Shamrocks
Looking after plants is a great way to teach children responsibility and appreciation for nature. Whether you plant some in a jar in the kitchen or you line your garden with them, the sight of the bright green shamrocks will leave you all feeling festive.