Party Ideas For St Patrick’s Day

Throwing a St Patrick’s Day party can be a lot of fun for kids and adults. It may be something new to you, too, depending on your background and where you grew up. Here are some fun ideas for a St Patrick’s Day party, from decorations to food and drink.

Decorations

Think green! Decorations can revolve around the color green, shamrocks, pots of gold, rainbows, and leprechauns. Try some of these decorations for your party.

1. Green Hats

You can use these little green hats for place markers at the table, or just leave them around as decorations. To make them, you’ll need:

* Green paper cups
* Green card stock, craft foam, or construction paper
* Yellow card stock, craft foam, or construction paper
* Scissors
* Glue
* Green marker or pen

Cut circles from the card stock/foam/paper that are slightly bigger than the open top of the paper cups. You’ll want about 1 inch all the way around for the hat’s brim. Glue the paper cup upside-down onto the circle of card stock. Next, cut out a yellow hat band from the card stock/foam/paper. Glue this in a ring around the middle of the cup. Then cut a square out of the yellow card stock and write the person’s name on it. Glue it in the middle of the yellow ring. If you aren’t writing names, draw a square on it to look like a buckle.

2. Shamrocks

Cut shamrock shapes out of green card stock or construction paper, and place them on tables and hang them around the room. You can also tuck them into flower pots and set them around the room.

Games

Fun games make any party better. Here are some to try at your St Patrick’s Day party.

1. Find the Pot of Gold

Searching for that elusive pot of gold is part of the fun. Do a scavenger hunt with clues written on paper shamrocks hidden around the room or yard. Have them culminate in a pot of gold chocolate coins (or some actual money if you like!).

2. Fool the Leprechaun

For this game, you’ll need a group of at least five and a coin. (It can be a pretend coin or real money, but a chocolate one won’t work for this game.)

To play, everyone but one player sits in a circle. The one who is standing is the leprechaun. He stands in the middle of the circle while the players pass or pretend to pass the coin from one to another. The leprechaun says “Stop!” when he thinks he knows who has the coin. If he’s right, he wins and the person who was holding the coin stands in the middle. If he’s wrong, play again.

Food and Drink

Traditional foods from Ireland include potatoes, cabbage, soda bread, and shepherd’s pie. Children would enjoy green Jell-O shamrocks, yellow Jell-O circles and rainbow cupcakes (grown-ups might like these sweet treats, too!). You can serve this tasty green punch to wash it all down.

1. Green Punch

* 1 2-liter of lemon-lime soda
* 1 can limeade concentrate
* 1 can lemonade concentrate
* 1 quart of lime sherbet

Mix everything but the sherbet in a large bowl. Top with scoops of lime sherbet. As an alternative, rainbow sherbet would also work with the theme.