Fun Ideas for St. Patrick's Day

There's a huge parade in Dallas that's loads of fun. My daughter takes he train with friends to see it yearly.

When daughter was younger, we decorated with shamrocks and temporary tattoos, dressed in green and enjoyed the day.

This year... I'll be on a plane with my daughter headed to Miami beach!!!!

Depending on the age of your children, leprechaun traps are really fun.

We made them in Kindergarten, but each year, my son would add to his to make it more elaborate. You can use shoeboxes, oatmeal containers, or just make one of your own from cardboard pieces and then decorate it. Don't forget to add pieces of gold to attract the leprechauns! Hope my son will still want to do it this year, but he just turned 10, and of course, doesn't believe any longer that the leprechaun makes all that mess around the trap trying to get the gold. I bet if you searched on Pinterest, there would be leprechaun trap ideas and photos for you to view.

Irish Soda Bread is easy to make. Google search will yield many variations on this, so you can choose the one you think you'd like best. I like it plain, but some people add raisins and nuts.

I like to decorate for various holidays, even though we're Jewish. To me, St. Patrick's Day is just fun. We have glittery shamrocks I put around the kitchen, and my son likes to be creative with gel cling window decorations.

Sometimes, I'll buy a shamrock plant from Trader Joe's. I like the little delicate, white flowers that grow on the plant.

I also love Irish music, so we play traditional and some of the newer music as well. If you have Pandora you can find Irish music there.

I've always been fascinated by Ireland and Irish history and visited there years ago. It's a really beautiful place, and I'm looking forward to going back soon.

Hope you find some fun new things to add to your celebration!

J. F.

Nothing here, other than make sure my kids have on green.

Family Fun magazine.

wear something green to school
shamrock shaped cookie or donut
corned beef and cabbage for dinner

thats it. we do not decorate at all. St. Patricks day is actually a feast day for st. patrick. if you celebrate anything at all it should be that. other than that the green beer and drinking etc are like hallmark holidays. worthless

I always did green pancakes in the morning with green milk and green mashed potatoes for dinner along with the traditional corn beef, cabbage, and carrots. Plus the kids wore something green and usually had a shamrock painted on their cheek and a few green parts in their hair. We're not Irish but it was fun.

A couple of years ago I made green pancakes. I accidentally dribbled some batter on the pan that looked like footprints. My kids still talk about the leprechaun that walked through the batter when we were sitting right there!

I pinch the kids!
Just kidding - no one get their panties in a wad.

I always dreaded this day as a kid because green was the most dreadful color but getting pinched is equally dreadful.

Love the pot of gold idea!

Wear green!

Make Corned Beef and Cabbage. We eat it once a year and I make this amazing honey mustard sauce for the meat.

Make Beer Bread, which is like Irish Soda Bread.

My grandmother was super proud Irish. Every year we brought her a shamrock plant.
We always wear green (I didn't learn about the pinching thing till high school). My grandma liked to use Irish knee socks as Christmas stocking so I still buy them and with the funky/mismatched sock trends my kids love em. I also used to buy my grandma green carnations (her favorite flower).

I always make corned beef in the crock pot. I don't add the veggies. I boil them separate and mash them (actually ninja blender them) and mix in butter and cheese. It's called colcannon. We also made Irish soda bread as a family and the kids really enjoyed that.
I don't mind that it's a "made up" holiday. We just have a little casual fun. I would pull little tricks and blame I on the leprechan-but I don't think I could top my April fools hijinks.