family holidays

St. Patrick’s Day has gained a reputation of being a day to overindulge in green beer and wear a badge proclaiming “Kiss me, I’m Irish.” But at its heart, St. Patrick’s Day is a cultural celebration perfectly suited to family. No matter your national heritage, celebrating St. Patrick’s Day is an opportunity to teach your children a bit about the world while having fun. And that’s no Blarney!

Host a Party

Send out some rainbow-inspired invitations to a few of the kids’ closest friends. Have everyone help make green popcorn (put food coloring in the butter before tossing it over the popped corn) and watch a movie or play games. For favors, give the kids gold-covered chocolate coins, fun holiday bracelets and homemade shamrock pins.

St. Patrick’s Day Crafts

There are dozens of easy St. Patrick’s Day-themed craft ideas to do with the kids that won’t cost you much green but will provide plenty of fun, such as making shamrocks out of green construction paper or baking green cookies. Other examples include:

• Shamrock Potato Prints
  Slice a potato in half and carve a shamrock shape into the pulpy side. Use the relief method of carving so the result is a shamrock stamp that’s approximately half an inch high. Press the stamp into green paint and decorate fabric, posters or sheets of brown paper to use as wrapping paper.
• Leprechaun Hats
  Green top hats are an essential part of any St. Patrick’s Day outfit and they’re fun to make. Cut the center from a paper plate to create a hat rim and paint it green. Roll a sheet of green cardstock into a cylinder and glue to secure the shape. Attach the rim to the cylinder with glue. Add a buckle made from black paper and a glittered shamrock for the perfect holiday accessory.

Outdoor Activities

Even with tons of fun crafts to do you probably don’t want to keep the kids indoors all day long. Here’s a list of outdoor activities to burn off some energy while keeping with the theme of the day:

• Search for four-leaf clovers.
  If your lawn is too pristine for clovers, head to the nearest open field or park. The first person to find one wins a pot of gold—or maybe a handful of gold-covered chocolate coins.
• Attend a St. Patrick’s Day parade.
  If there isn’t one in your neighborhood, help the kids put on their own parade and march down the street displaying their green top hats.
• Play Kiss the Blarney Stone.
  It’s just like tag but a large rock or other structure gets selected as “base,” and players have to kiss it to be safe.
• Do an Irish jig.
  Play some great Irish music and let everyone do their best version of a jig or Irish step dance.

No matter which activities you choose, end the day with a big meal of corned beef and cabbage and shamrock milkshakes for dessert. Just put a little green food coloring in a vanilla shake and everyone will be thrilled. There’s no reason St. Patrick’s Day can’t be a holiday the whole family enjoys together. Celebrate the rich heritage of the Irish culture with crafts, games, food and a lot of fun.