In honor of our daughter’s birthday, who was born on St. Patrick’s Day, here are our favorite fun and easy St. Patrick’s Day crafts and snacks for kids. Every year on March. 17th we have a big celebration with lots of shamrocks, leprechauns, rainbows, and festive foods. This tradition began on the day she was born. Yes, I made my husband, parents, and in-laws all wear St. Patrick’s Day shirts in the delivery room.
On St. Patrick’s Day, a leprechaun visits our house and causes mischief. We have named him Lucky. He leaves green footprints all over the kitchen, scatters Lucky Charms and glitter on our kitchen table, and even pees green in our toilet (my boys and younger kids think that is hysterical). Below are our favorite easy and fun St. Patrick’s Day crafts and snacks for kids. Check out other healthy St. Patrick’s Day snacks on our site!
1. Bell Pepper Shamrock Stamping
This is a festive and easy kid craft that involves minimal supplies. The kids thought it was super fun that we were painting with peppers. For smaller hands try to use smaller/thinner peppers.
Supplies
- Bell peppers – I used 3 peppers – some had 3 humps and others had 4 humps.
- Paper – construction or a thicker paper like cardstock is better, you could also use a roll of paper and make it into a St. Patrick’s Day banner, or wrap your table in craft paper and have the kids make a shamrock table covering
- Green Paint – I used Tempura because it is washable, but any craft paint will work
- Plastic plates
- Paint brush
Directions
- Cut off tops of peppers, remove any seeds that are left.
- Pour some paint onto several plates, I used paper plates to make clean up easier.
- Have paper ready to go
- Put pepper cut side down into paint and begin stamping on paper. Once your shamrocks are stamped you can use the paint brush to add stems.
If you have a mixed age group of kids doing this project it can easily be adapted for older kids. They can use the pepper to stamp then fill it in using the paint brush. It would also be beautiful to use different color greens or even gold paint on the shamrocks.
2. Contact Paper Window Art – Tissue Paper Rainbow
I can remember doing lot of contact paper projects when I was in elementary school. I rediscovered it a few years back when I was looking for some winter projects to do with my kids. It is easy to adapt this craft to all different seasons and themes. For this one we did a rainbow with clouds and even a pot of gold.
Supplies
- Clear Contact Paper – which can be found at craft stores, Walmart, Home Depot, even some Dollar Stores
- Tissue Paper – all the colors of the rainbow
- Cotton balls
- Scissors
- Clear Tape
- Pencil
Directions
- Cut your contact paper to the desired shape. I did ours as a square but it could also be cut into a semicircle (rainbow shaped). I drew a rough outline of the rainbow in pencil so that the kids would have a guide on where to put the colors.
- Cut tissue paper into small squares. We did this the day before and I had my older kids do this. We separated the tissue paper by colors into separate bags.
- Attach your contact paper to your window, leaving the sticky side facing you. I used scotch tape and did a piece at each corner
- Assemble your rainbow by putting the tissue paper on the contact paper.
- Once you are done you can add any extras you want, we added cotton balls for clouds and a pot of gold.
I learned to place the rainbow a little higher up on my window so that my toddlers did not pull off all the designs.
3. Lucky Charms Marshmallow Treat Squares
We have been making these treats the past few years for my daughter to take into school to celebrate with classmates. I used a Rice Krispie treat recipe and switched the cereals. This is a fun, easy, no bake dessert your family will love.
Supplies
- 1 stick of unsalted butter
- ½ teaspoon of salt
- 1 (16 oz) bag Mini Marshmallows
- 1 (11.5 oz) box Lucky Charms Cereal (pick out 15-20 colorful marshmallows and set aside to use for the top of the squares)
Directions
- Grease a 9 X 13 pan (I used an aluminum disposable tray and coated it with cooking spray)
- Melt Butter either in a large stockpot over medium heat, or in a large microwavable safe bowl. Recently I have been using the microwave, it is a little quicker and my daughter who is 9 can do most of it herself with supervision.
- Once butter is melted, stir in salt and marshmallows.
- Once marshmallows have melted remove from heat.
- Stir in cereal gently, be careful not to crush the cereal.
- Once combined, pour mixture into greased pan, and press down gently. Add the additional marshmallows on top so each square will have a fun decoration on top.
- Allow to cool completely before cutting.
4. Rainbow Fruit Tray with Marshmallows
Another one of our St. Patrick’s Day party favorites is to make a Rainbow Fruit Tray with Marshmallow clouds. It looks beautiful and is easy to assemble. You could also do this as fruit kabobs.
Supplies
- Large Tray – if you don’t already have a large tray you can use a baking sheet or get a plastic reusable tray from the dollar store
- Fruit (You can use your families’ favorites, below is what we typically use)
- Red fruit – strawberries or raspberries
- Orange fruit – Clementine or orange segments
- Yellow Fruit – pineapple chucks – canned or fresh
- Green Fruit – grapes or kiwi
- Blue/Purple – I do either blue or purple not both – blueberries or red/purple grapes
- 1 (16 oz) bag of Mini Marshmallows
Directions
- Wash and cut fruit.
- Begin to assemble fruit color by color in a semi circle shape. I start with the largest ring and make that red then work my way in Rainbow color order.
- Once all your rainbow rings are arranged add mini marshmallows to each end to make clouds.
All of these crafts and snacks I did with my kids and they were all kid driven, so nothing is perfect and I love that.
I will leave you with two of my favorite Irish sayings:
“May your home always be too small to hold all your friends.”
“May the saddest day of your future be no worse than the happiest day of your past.”
Does your family celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? If so, do you have any favorite foods or easy St. Patrick’s Day crafts?
