Activities to Enjoy With Your Kids this St Patrick’s Day
This St Patrick’s Day, get your kids involved in all the festivities with these enthralling activities. You can engage with them on Irish culture and bring joy into your home for this very special day. You can eat food, watch programs, and create crafts that will help kids recognize the influence of the Irish in their own lives. There’s so much fun to be had this time of year, and we’ve compiled an excellent list of how you can optimize your family’s experience. No matter how you like to celebrate the day, you’ll find suggestions here to make this holiday more fun and inviting than ever.
If you’re looking for more things to do this upcoming season, check out our spring bucket list!
Courtesy of Simple Mills
Bake Some Irish and Green Classics
Baking is an easy and fun way to get kids involved with some St Patrick’s Day traditions. You can make classic Irish soda bread or there are lots of green food recipes you can make to bring in the classic color associated with St Patrick’s Day. Simple Mills provides tons of different recipes for Irish classics and green food you can make with your kids for the holiday. Check out their delicious recipes for Irish soda bread or mint matcha brownies that you can make yourself to celebrate this year.
Courtesy of Baked by Melissa
Pick Up Some St Patrick’s Day Cupcakes
Bring something fun and green into your home for the whole family to enjoy! If you’re not much of a home chef, pick up some sweets to enjoy while you celebrate this Irish holiday. Baked by Melissa is offering a selection of mini St Patrick’s Day themed cupcakes that are sure to make kids excited for the day. They’re a fun and easy way to celebrate all together, and can be used in tandem with some of our other suggested activities to make for an excellent holiday celebration. They are available for pick up or delivery from several locations in Manhattan. Order yours here.
Watch the Parade
The New York City St Patrick’s Day Parade is a staple each and every year. Due to Covid, things are running a little different than in past years, but there is still lots to get involved with. There will be a virtual mass from St Patrick’s Cathedral and a virtual parade composed of videos from groups in parades from past years. The event will still be a celebration of Irish heritage and will be a spectacle for you to watch from the safety of your own home. Here is more information on the parade’s events and times.
Watch the Rhythm of Dance Performance
Show your kids some traditional Irish dancing from your own living room. The National Dance Company of Ireland is releasing their filmed live performance for everyone to enjoy. With their combination of traditional dance and music with modern technology, your kids will be enthralled by these incredibly talented performers. The show will be available from March 15th to March 21st, so you can watch it as many times as you want within the time frame. The performance is “pay what you can” meaning you can enjoy the incredible dancers no matter what your budget is. You can check out tickets and see more information here.
Go to the Irish Arts Center Open Day
If you’re looking for an opportunity to get out and share Irish culture with your kids, check out St Patrick’s Open Day at the Irish Arts Center. On March 14th, they are offering several experiences to introduce kids to staples of Irish heritage. You can take them to participate in sampler intro classes like step dance, fiddle, Irish language, and more to get kids interested in this rich culture. Everything on this day will be free of charge and an easy way to get kids into the holiday spirit a few days before St Patrick’s Day. You can find more information about events and tickets here.
Take a Virtual Tour of Ireland
Having lived almost a whole year in quarantine, travel has been nearly impossible for most people, but there are other ways to explore the country that brought us this holiday. There are several virtual tours of Ireland on YouTube where you and your kids can experience the landscape and beauty of the country. These virtual experiences allow you to feel as if you’re a part of the culture and take you to a beautiful countryside across the world without ever leaving your living room. You can check out these two virtual tours: Dublin Ireland Virtual Tour and Tour Ireland Immersive Virtual Reality 360° to get started.
Squigly’s Playhouse St. Patrick’s Activities
Squigly’s Playhouse has come up with tons of fun activities your kids can enjoy for St Patrick’s Day this year. They have word searches, mad libs, trivia, word scrambles, coloring pages, and other exciting games your kids can check out. Whatever activity excites kids, they’ll find a holiday version here. Everything is available here and is easy for you to choose from. Your kids will be busy the whole day with so many options to get them into the holiday spirit. You can see everything they have to offer here.
Build a Leprechaun Trap
An enthralling craft, making a leprechaun trap is a great way to get kids in the spirit of the holiday. Your kids can let out their creativity by thinking through the best possible trap and bait to successfully capture their target. These traps can be whatever your kids can imagine, and they’ll have loads of fun just creating them. Maybe if they’re lucky, they’ll find some spoils their prey left behind as a reward. See some tips for building a leprechaun trap here.
Create a St Patrick’s Day Treasure Hunt
Get your whole family involved in this interactive adventure through clues. One member of the family can create a scavenger hunt that takes you through the house or even through the neighborhood gathering clues that lead to a very special pot of gold. The clues can be personal to your kids and make the holiday exciting for them. It’s the perfect way to get your kids up and moving for the holiday, and they’ll have loads of fun solving your intricate puzzles to get to the end of the rainbow. For some ideas on creating your treasure hunt, check out this website.
Make Some Festive Slime
Another fun and easy craft you can make with your kids for St Patrick’s Day is some shiny shamrock slime. They can combine the classic elements of green and shiny gold in this exciting craft that any leprechaun would love to get their hands on. Making slime is a fun activity for any time of year, and it’s easy to make it work for any holiday with the right colors and glitter inserts. Your kids can play with this soothing slime for weeks after the holiday is over. Check out this simple recipe for shamrock slime.
