I have always loved to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. I don’t make the traditional Irish foods that my mom made when I was growing up, like corned beef and cabbage, but I have brought a bunch of fun traditions into our house. St. Patrick’s Day is a FUN holiday and whether you have Irish heritage or not, everyone is a little bit Irish-ish on this day!
There’s no shortage of ways to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Austin, especially because it falls during SXSW. But it can be tricky to find family-friendly options around town. Here are a couple fun activities, don’t forget to wear your green!
- March 17, 11:00am: St. Patrick’s Day story time and themed activities are being offered for free at lots of Barnes and Noble stores throughout Austin. Check your local store to see if they are offering this special storytime near you.
- March 17, 12:00-7:00pm: The most family-friendly way to celebrate is at St. Patrick’s Day Austin, located at Pioneer Farms in North Austin. It is THE place for Irish fun and culture for the whole family. There is music, dancing and entertainment on St. Patrick’s Day on both an indoor and outdoor stages along with tons of food, drinks and lots of authentic Irish fun.
Create Your Own Leprechaun Traps
As St. Patricks Day is approaching, my kids and I love to make leprechaun traps. Every year they are hoping to catch a leprechaun and his pot of gold. Sometimes we use the same trap year to year, but this year, they wanted to set out a fresh trap. There are a ton of ideas on Pinterest, but one way we have found that is really easy and cheap is to paint or decorate a plain wooden birdhouse. They happen to be just the right size to try to catch one of these lucky fellows. Good luck!
End of the Rainbow Tie-Dye Shoes
We made some fun and festive rainbow shoes to wear on St. Patrick’s Day (and beyond). We found the shoes at Wal-Mart and colored them with Sharpies. This was a really easy and fun craft that even my little one could do. We colored designs on plain canvas shoes with Sharpie markers. Then we took spray bottles filled with rubbing alcohol and sprayed the shoes. We found that the more we saturated the shoe, the more the color would “run.” I think a medicine dropper would also work for this part, I just used what we had on hand. We let the shoes dry completely before wearing them. And because you might find gold at the end of the rainbow, we added some gold designs to finish them off.
Leprechaun Mischief and Surprises
Our house believes in a lot of magic and make believe. We’ve got the Elf on the Shelf, the Easter Bunny, year-round fairies and at St. Patrick’s Day, the leprechaun. My kids love to wake up on St. Patrick’s Day and see what kind of mischief the leprechaun has gotten into. One quick search on Pinterest will leave you with enough ideas to last you a lifetime, but here are three quick and fun ideas that won’t require too much set up:
- Tint the milk green with a few drops of food coloring.
- Lucky Charms! This is a special treat that we (ahem, I mean the Leprechaun) serve for breakfast.
- Use Expo markers to make designs or leave messages on their bathroom mirrors
Check out the Austin Moms Blog Pinterest Boards for some additional St. Patrick’s Day crafts and recipes!
