St. Patrick’s Day is not just about partying and drinking. For some, it’s an opportunity to spend some fun quality time with the family. The feast day of the patron saint of Ireland is celebrated every 17th of March. Traditionally, this day is marked with parades, parties, and lots of booze. With the coronavirus pandemic, however, it would be wiser to skip the festivities this year. However, you can still celebrate it at home with these fun yet safe St. Patrick’s Day activities for the whole family.
Decorate the Place
Brighten up the atmosphere by turning your home into a place where leprechauns will love to stay. Decorating your home is a fun St. Patrick’s Day activity in itself. Seeing the smiles on everyone’s faces as you decorate your home is like finally finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Speaking of pots of gold, they are some of the most popular St. Patrick’s Day decorations you can find in stores. You’ll also find lots of shamrocks, four-leaf clovers, leprechauns, rainbows, horseshoes, and beer on ornaments such as buntings, garlands, and wreaths. Also, anything green would pass for a St. Paddy’s Day décor.
Dust off those old St. Patrick’s Day decorations you’ve kept in storage for the past year. If you prefer something new, you could probably still head out or order online. Maybe you prefer making your own St. Patrick’s Day decorations. That’s actually a lot more fun if you do it with the whole family.
Prepare A St. Patrick’s Day Feast
A St. Patrick’s Day party without food and drinks? That’s unacceptable. Get the whole gang to help out in the kitchen and make this year’s feast a lot more memorable.
Start the St. Patrick’s Day activities by making a full Irish breakfast. You’ll need all the energy to get through all the fun activities waiting for you so everyone should have a hearty breakfast. A traditional full Irish breakfast consists of bacon, sausages, eggs, baked beans, black pudding, mushrooms, tomato, and toast along with Irish coffee or tea.
If you’re looking for a fun alternative to the Irish breakfast, you can thank Dr. Seuss and his popular book Green Eggs and Ham. To make a St. Paddy’s Day version of this delectable meal, you can simply use green food coloring. A healthier option is to mix in spinach sauce while making scrambled eggs.
For lunch or dinner, you can go with another traditional dish — the classic Irish stew. The traditional Irish stew is made with mutton or lamb but you can use beef or even pork if you wish. The stew also requires potatoes and carrots along with any combination of other vegetables and herbs. You can add cabbage, yellow onion, celery, leeks, rosemary, or thyme to make your St. Paddy’s Day dish healthier and more delectable. You can also do the Guinness Stew, which is basically an Irish stew with Guinness Draught Stout (of course!).
Have a cup of Irish coffee after your meal. You know it’s no ordinary cup of coffee when you see the word “Irish” in it. This beverage is made with brewed coffee and Irish whiskey with heavy cream and chocolate shavings for toppings. You’ll want freshly ground coffee to fully enjoy this St. Patrick’s Day drink. Of course, this is an adult-only beverage. Prepare something for the young ones that have no coffee or whiskey in it.
Play Games and Other St. Patrick’s Day Activities
Normally, you’d probably spend the holiday partying with the gang. Or you could be out on a date with your spouse while the babysitter looks after your kids. If that’s not your cup of tea, you two could just hang out at home and enjoy a bottle or ten after putting the kids to bed.
These probably won’t do right now. Because of the pandemic, everyone’s at home or should be at home where it’s safe. That means you need to think of St. Patrick’s Day activities to keep everyone happy and entertained.
Games
Cookie Decorating Game
You’ll need desserts to go with your traditional Irish dishes. Hit two birds with one stone by doing a cookie decorating contest. The kids will definitely have fun with this St. Patrick’s Day activity while everyone can enjoy the cookies for desserts afterward.
You’ll need cookie mix, shamrock-shaped cookie cutters, and cookie decorations along with other baking needs. Don’t forget the aprons and mini chef hats!
Make the cookie dough beforehand. You can prepare the dough the day before since you’ll be pretty busy come St. Patrick’s Day. The game is pretty simple. Just give each kid some dough, a cookie cutter, and the decorations then let their imagination run wild. For younger children, you may need an adult to assist them with the cookie cutting.
Scavenger Hunt
Let’s see if your kids can beat the leprechaun to the pot of gold. Hide gold coins all around the house or even in the backyard and let them go on a treasure hunt. You can give the participants a pot each or divide everyone into two teams. The person or team with the most gold coins collected wins the game.
Leprechaun Trap Game
This St. Patrick’s Day game will work if there are more than two participants so level up your convincing power and have everyone play Leprechaun Trap. This game is pretty easy. All you need is a cardboard box big enough for everyone to crawl through. You need music, too.
Open the flaps and place the box on the ground in a way that you can pass through the openings. Everyone will fall in line in front of one opening. Once the music starts, the participants will crawl through the hole one after the other circling back. When the music stops, the two persons in front and at the back of the box will close the flaps to trap the one inside. The trapped leprechaun is out of the game. The last one not to be trapped wins the game.
It’s a good idea for the person in charge of the music to close their eyes when they’re about to pause the music. You want to be fair with everyone, right?
Bingo Game Cards
This kid-friendly bingo game allows up to 24 players. That means everyone can join the fun. Store it well when you’re done playing so you can still use it when you can finally celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with friends and family outside your home. The set comes with 24 different 5 x 5 bingo boards with 840 drawing chips, 50 caller chips, and 11 marker sheets.
Arts and Crafts Projects
You can never go wrong with arts and crafts projects. These St. Patrick’s Day activities will surely keep the children busy while you take care of other things. Of course, it would be better if there was someone to watch over the kids, especially if there will be some cutting involved.
Shamrock Toilet Paper Roll Stamp
One DIY project young kids will love is the Shamrock Toilet Paper Roll Stamp. The good thing about this St. Patrick’s Day activity is that you already have everything you need. If you forgot to prepare for the holiday, this is one activity you can pull out of the hat.
You only need recycled toilet paper rolls, tape, paint, and paper. Make sure to keep the used toilet paper rolls for these kinds of activities. To start off, simply shape the round toilet paper roll into a heart by pushing one side inwards. Use tape to keep the heart shape intact. Make one for each child.
The kids will dip the heart onto a paint or stamp pad and use it to make a shamrock. They can paint the rest of the paper with anything they like. Simple yet fun for the kids.
Green Kid Crafts Rainbow Science Box
One quick way to entertain the young ones is to get them an activity set. This will depend on what they are actually into. However, you can introduce them to something new to help expand their horizon.
Take the Rainbow Science Box by Green Kid Crafts, for example. I‘m pretty sure your child loves painting with bright colors. It’s fine to get them watercolor painting books but the Rainbow Science Box is more than just developing painting skills. It also teaches your kid a little something about science, technology, engineering, art, and math (S.T.E.A.M.).
Green Kid Crafts Amphibians Box
Another Green Kid Crafts product, the Amphibians Box will teach your kids about frogs, toads, and other amphibians. It comes with a lotus kit that allows your child to grow one on their own. The activity set also includes a frog life cycle experiment, a lily pad art project, a clay model life cycle craft, and a letter jump frogs game. There are plenty of Green Kid Crafts subscription boxes you can choose from. Check out their website to find the right ones for your kids.
Celebrate Online with Family and Friends
The kids may be getting sad and restless not being able to physically see their friends or even go outside. The grandparents are likely anxious to see their grandkids again. While it’s not wise to go out right now, you can still spend some quality time with family and friends by virtual means. You may not be physically there but getting to see and chat with other people online will help uplift everybody’s spirits. That said, a virtual St. Patrick’s Day party seems like a good idea.
Watch Irish Movies
Don’t fill your schedule with tiring St. Patrick’s Day activities. You and the children will need a little downtime so you can catch your breath. Besides, your goal is to relax and have fun while forgetting about what’s happening around the world even for a day.
Spend a few hours sitting on the couch and munching on some snacks while watching a nice family movie. Since it’s St. Paddy’s Day, choose something related to the holiday like the animated film Song of the Sea and The Secret of Kells. Song of the Sea is based on an Irish myth featuring a boy and his mute sister. These Irish protagonists are set on an adventure to save the spirit world encountering fairies, witches, and selkies. The Secret of Kells is about a tiny monk and his journey through a magical forest. You and the kids will learn a thing or two about Celtic culture with these Oscar-nominated films.
After a day of St. Patrick’s Day activities with the children, you deserve a relaxing nightcap watching an Irish movie while sipping a Guinness or wine. There’s a wide selection of films for mature audiences that are related to the holiday in one way or another.
If you want drama or romance, watch Once starring musicians Glen Hansard, an Irish, and Marketa Irglova. The film, set in Dublin, is about a couple of struggling musicians who developed a friendship after a chance encounter.
Other films you can enjoy on St. Patrick’s Day include Far and Away with Tom Hanks and Nicole Kidman, Hillary Swank’s P.S. I Love You, and the coming-of-age musical Sing Street. The Wind That Shakes the Barley starring Cillian Murphy is a wartime film set in Ireland during the 1920s while 71 is set in 1971 Belfast. You can pick up a lot of survival tips from these two films.
These St. Patrick’s Day activities we have listed here are by no means the only ones you can enjoy during the popular holiday. You can read books about the Irish and their traditions, watch the online St. Patrick’s Day parade, and have an online drinking session with your buddies. Go to Gentleman Pirate Club if you wish to know more tips on how to enjoy holidays without compromising your safety.
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