St. Patrick's Day Traditions

These are my three favorite traditions for St. Patricks' Day, they are easy to do and are inexpensive.


First let me start with the kiddos favorite St. Patrick's Day books, if you remember my post about our Christmas library, I mentioned that we read books specific for each holiday.

We start reading them a couple of weeks before the holiday. The kiddos really like reading the books and having them only out for certain amount of time of the year, makes them all the more special.


Our first tradition is "You've been Rocked." It is a simple activity, for your neighbors; you could also do it for your own kids as a surprise for when they come home from school. We hang a note on their door, decorate their yard, or porch with shamrocks and leave them a little gift, usually Hershey's Kisses. We sneak early in the morning (sometimes, I will let my neighbor know we are leaving them something, sometimes not, depends on the neighbor and if they have dogs) and leave them a surprise. The kiddos love being "spies" as we leave them a surprise. We have done them for Easter (you can check out the post here), Valentine's Day, Halloween and Christmas. If you want your own poster for any of these holidays, check out my Etsy store.


Here is our neighbors door (the best part is my neighbor knows, how I try to save and reuse everything; so after a day, she left all of my decorations minus the sign back in my mailbox!)

The entire door

close up of the You've Been Rocked Sign

their Shamrock day present

close up of the garland

Our second favorite tradition is the coin hunt, we hold it on a different day each year, that way it isn't too "planned." Sometimes, they kiddos wake up to the coin hunt and sometimes while they are having dinner I sneak around and set it up. Each child started with their green buckets and I have it colored coded, Pumpkin goes for the gold coins and Peanut goes for the green. This way, Pumpkin actually has a chance of getting coins. They follow the coins all around the house (outside as well, depending on the weather) and collect them. Depending on the time of the day, we do the hunt, I have it end at the meal table with their St. Patty's meal food,  or in the bathtub where they take a "green" bath.  They know that they are getting close because of the rainbow they eventually come too and the pot of gold. The best part, is the coins, and rainbows can be reused each year. 

on the keyboard

on the drive way

on the back of the car

stepping stones leading to the back yard

in the fridge

Sometimes, I give them clues as to where to look for the coins, other times I just let them run around and try to just hunt for them, it really all just depends on the places that I hide them. In addition, to the above pictures, I have hid them in their beds, my bed, the closet, on the back of the toilet, in the silverware trays, in the dryer, in their toy bins and even in ice cubes in their St. Patrick's Day Meal!

This particular hunt ended with the kiddos taking a "green bath" when finding the pot of gold. It was a fun way to end the night.

Here is the recipe for the bubble bath that I used: It smells amazing, just like apples!

Distilled water

Large measuring cup with pour spout

Liquid castile soap (unscented)

Liquid glycerin

Green apple essential oil

Green food coloring

plastic container with a tight lid

~Measure 4 cups of distilled water in a large measuring cup with a pour spout. Add 1 cup of unscented liquid castile soap to the measuring cup.

~ Place 1 1/2 oz. of liquid glycerin to the measuring cup.

~ Add five drops of green apple essential oil and five drops of green food coloring

~ Stir the ingredients well and pour the apple bubble bath carefully into a clean plastic bottle with a tight fitting lid. To use, gently shake the bottle and pour approximately one quarter of the contents under hot running water. Soak and enjoy.

This is a great bath time treat and really fits with the St. Patty's Day theme.

We started a clover shaped dish and ended up with clover.

our clover dish

our clover!

May you have a St. Patrick's Day that is filled with fun and luck!