Cheap and Free St. Patrick's Day Activities, Food, and Fun!

Catch a Leprechaun

According to Celtic folklore, Leprechauns are little men who mend the shoes of other fairies. They also are known as tricksters, often using their wit to protect their treasures from others. This St. Patrick's Day, help your children outwit the Leprechauns by making a "magical trap" out of recycled materials or a shoe! It'a great activity to do the day before St Patrick's Day as most Leprechauns visit homes on the 17th!

Materials:

• Recycled boxes, paper towel rolls, yarn, tape, and any other "precious junk" you might have in your recycling bin, or a shoe
• Shiny objects

Directions:

1. Encourage your children to paint, glue, color and tie the pieces together in order to assemble an efficient and tricky trap.
2. OR, you can also do what we did and use a shoe! 
3. We know Leprechauns are tempted by shiny objects (such as rubies and gold) so we placed a gold nugget (painted rock) at the top of the shoe—accessed with a painted ladder made of chopsticks.  
4. To make the trap MORE tempting, we wrote a DO NOT ENTER sign!
5. When the Leprechaun reaches for the gold, he will slide down the shoe and be trapped (we placed double stick tape inside the shoe ~ brillant yes??)
6. Parents, while the children are asleep, “mess up the trap” so it looks like someone was there.  You might also consider leaving a surprise treat or leprechaun written-note. I recommend signing each note, “Better luck next time,” as a way of keeping the tradition alive for years to come. 

Hunt for Gold

Materials

• Flower Pot
• Black paint, gold metallic marker or stickers
• Chocolate gold-foiled coins and/or stuffed animals

Directions:

1. Paint a Flower Pot black and write Pot of Gold on the front with metallic marker (or use stickers). Fill the pot with gold-foiled chocolate coins (available at any crafts store) or in our case a favorite stuffed animal!
2. Next, hide the pot in a secret location. Send your kids on a scavenger hunt around the house looking for gold…Here’s how:

• Decide on 5 places you want your kids to search, for example: the bathroom mirror, under the bed, on top of the washing machine, etc. The 6th clue should be where the pot of gold is hidden.
• Write each clue backwards on a note card and number each card, 1-6.
• Give your kids clue #1 along with a hand mirror, or tell them to put the clue up in front of the mirror in order to decode the secret message.  Clue #1 will tell the children where to look for clue #2. For example, if the second clue is hidden on top of the dishwasher, the first clue should say (in backwards writing)…Look on top of the dishwasher.  The clue that is sitting on top of the dishwasher should lead the children to the next clue until all the clues are found and the pot of “gold” is located. Writing the clues backwards adds a magical element as well as a little bit of learning which is always a plus.

Yummy Green Shamrocks

Materials:

• Green chocolate candy disks (available at most craft stores)
• Mini pretzels

Directions:

1. Melt chocolate in microwave or double boiler
2. Dip pretzels in chocolate and arrange on wax paper in groups of three, to resemble a shamrock.

Magic Shamrock Shake

 
Materials

• 2 cups vanilla ice cream
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1/4 teaspoon mint extract
• A few melted green chocolate disks

Directions

1. Blend ingredients (except the chocolate).
2. Pour shake into a large glass
3. Pour melted chocolate on top of shake ~ you’ll notice the chocolate immediately freezes JUST LIKE magic! Top with whipped cream if desired!

Green Crispy Treats

Make a batch of Rice Crispy Treats and cut them into clover shapes using a cookie cutter.  Drizzle them with green icing (confectioners sugar, butter, green food coloring – or buy store bought white icing and add food coloring).  Serve as a treat or place in clear plastic bags and tie with a green ribbon. These make great gifts for teachers and friends.

Rainbow Parfaits

End your meal with this colorful and healthy dessert! 

Materials
A variety of fruits that represent the colors of the rainbow:

Purple:  Purple Grapes and Plums
Blue: Blueberries
Green:  Honeydew Melon, Kiwi, Green Grapes and Green Apples
Yellow:  Mango, Bananas and Yellow Apples
Orange: Cantaloupe, Oranges, Peaches and Apricots
Red: Raspberries, Strawberries, Cherries and Red Apples

Directions:

1. In each parfait glass, layer fruit in the order of a rainbow.
2. Top with fluffy clouds of whipped cream.