You might be able to tell that I’m a big fan of seasons and holidays. I think it’s significant that God gave His people holidays and celebrations to remember important events and the ways that He loved and cared for them.
In addition to the meaning and significance behind each holiday, I think they are a great opportunity—to teach our kids new things, to bring beauty to the mundane of the day to day and to simply have fun and make memories with our children—further developing our relationships with them and showing them God’s love.
St. Patrick’s Day seems like a minor holiday and unless you’re Irish, it’s one that feels minimally (or perhaps trivially) observed. But if you know about Saint Patrick, you might know that he was enslaved and taken to Ireland, and after escaping to freedom, God told him to go back and preach the Gospel to his captors. He obeyed, and Ireland was transformed.
Saint Patrick’s journey to share the Gospel has actually been super impactful for my husband and I and our ministry on campus, particularly through a book called The Celtic Way of Evangelism. If you’re looking to go deeper with your kids as you talk about Saint Patrick’s Day and it’s implications for loving our neighbors well and being witnesses, I highly recommend this book.
My husband is Scotts-Irish and has fond memories of the silly ways his family used to observe Saint Patrick’s Day—one of which included a time when “leprechauns” stole him and his siblings’ underwear, dyed it all green, and hung them up in the tree in front of their house. In order to get their underwear back, the kids had to spend the day climbing the tree to retrieve them!
While our kids are still a little young to be tree-hunting for their underwear (especially considering only 1 out of 3 of them actually wear underwear), we definitely hope to make some memories with them by celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day together.
8 fun ideas for celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with your kids:
Make a 4 leaf clover craft using a bell pepper
Try making a Leprechaun craft. A couple of cute ideas can be found here and here.
Do a green scavenger hunt and make sure to wear green, too!
Make “Leprechaun houses” using graham crackers (similar to a gingerbread house)
Have a sensory activity with this very simple two-ingredient dish soap silly putty. Extra points if its green!
Create a treasure hunt by hiding a few chocolate gold coins “that the leprechaun left” around the house
Pick up some St. Patrick’s Day books from the library
Make a St. Patrick’s Day treat for you and your littles to share
I hope these ideas get your green creative juices flowing. 😉 I know we won’t be trying all of these, but I’m excited for some of them in hopes that we get to make some memories and have fun with our kids along the way! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
