St. Patrick's Day for kids can be as much fun as a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Celebrate the day the whole world is Irish with some family activities.

St. Patrick's Day can be a fun holiday for kids. With a little leprechaun imagination, a tint of green throughout the day, and the luck of the Irish, you can make March 17 a fun-filled day for the whole family.

A Visit From the Leprechaun

Leprechauns are known to be mischievous little sprites. If the children are gone for a time during the day on March 17, they might come home to find that the leprechauns have paid a visit. Bedspreads may be switched on the beds, pictures might be upside down, perhaps there’s a note on the bedroom mirror in green glass marker. Some leprechauns even leave green tinted water in the toilet bowl!

Parents can help the leprechaun by making footprints leading up the front walk and steps, by dipping a small – leprechaun sized-pair of shoes into a tray of talcum powder and “walking” them up the walkway. You can add some green glitter to the prints for an added St. Patrick’s Day touch.

Sometimes the leprechauns will leave a small bag of gold foil-covered chocolate coins for the children.

Learn the Unicorn Song

The Unicorn Song has no roots in Ireland, but became associated with St. Patrick’s Day when the folk band The Irish Rovers recorded it in the 1960s.

Parents can sing the verses and teach the kids to sing the chorus, along with motions:

There were green alligators (stretch arms out in front and snap open and shut like an alligator mouth)

And long necked geese (dip and stretch your arm to mimic a long neck)

Some humpy back camels (point to the “hump” on your back)

And some chimpanzees (scratch your underarms like a chimp)

Some cats and rats and elephants (crooked fingers on the head for cat and rats, and arms dangling down like a trunk for elephants)

but sure as you're born

The loveliest of all was the unicorn (index finger extending from the forehead for the unicorn horn)

Make Everything Green

Just this one day, use the green dishes, drop a little green food coloring into the apple juice, put the green pillow cases on the pillows, and let your little ones paint their nails with bright green nail polish.

For dinner, mix a variety of green vegetables into a salad, and serve pasta with pesto. For dessert, try lime sherbet or pistachio ice cream.

Some Green Craft Ideas

• Make homemade play dough in bright green using lime gelatin. Mix a 3-ounce package of sugar-free fruit-flavored lime gelatin, 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt and 4 tablespoons cream of tartar in a pan. Add 2 cups boiling water and 2 tablespoons cooking oil. Stir over medium-high heat until the mixture forms a ball. Place the ball on waxed paper to cool. Store in an airtight container.
• Make green goop. Kids love this goop, because it goes from being a solid to a liquid and back to a solid again. Mix together 1 heaping cup of cornstarch with ½ cup water in a plastic container or bowl. Add a few drops of green food coloring and stir. Pick the goop up in your hands. While you’re working with it and it’s moving, it’s a solid. Stop moving your hands and it turns back into a liquid. (Mixture will keep in the refrigerator, but only a couple of days. It gets moldy.)

Here are some more fun St. Patrick's Day activities for kids.