Leprechauns are up to all their old tricks now that St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner. They love to pop in for an unexpected visit, leaving their mark wherever they go.
I love how American teachers and parents embrace our favorite Irish holiday, welcoming these little Irish pranksters into their classrooms and homes for some Paddy’s Day fun.
When my little girl was in kindergarten she arrived home just before St. Patrick’s Day exuding pure leprechaun glee. She couldn’t wait to tell me about the shenanigans of their very own classroom leprechaun.
“He hid all the green markers,” she exclaimed.
“Then he left a shamrock on our tables after lunch.”
“Our leprechaun left footprints all over our desks,” added her equally enthusiastic brother, in a tone saying “our leprechaun is better than yours”.
Then all four of my kids looked at me questioningly:
“Do you think leprechauns will visit our house this year?”
Let me confess – my heart sank. My ever practical Irish side thought of all the “work” involved in teaming up with leprechauns.
I grew up in Ireland at a time when St. Patrick’s Day meant going to Mass, wearing a rosette on my coat, saying a few prayers, singing Hail Glorious Saint Patrick, and gorging on sweets.
I just wanted to tell my kids, there wasn’t a chance of leprechauns setting foot in our house.
But I saw the longing looks in my kids’ fun-loving eyes, and I knew I needed to welcome the leprechauns into our home, even if this meant facing a little inevitable havoc.
After a quick internet search to find out more about these St. Patrick’s Day leprechaun high jinks I soon discovered my fellow Americans really embrace magical capers and tomfoolery. I decided I’m game to join in some leprechaun malarkey, spoofs and escapades.
And so this year, I thought I might share the leprechaun antics witnessed in our house over the years in the run-up to St. Patrick’s Day.
1.Footprints, Footprints Everywhere
Leprechauns leave footprints or shamrocks all over our house.
Try as I might to hide those green markers every year, he finds them and leaves his mark in the craziest of places.
Flour has been spilled on my counter top with little footprints running through the white field of “snow”.
Chalk footprints are sometimes seen on the side walk outside our front door.
And sometimes, our little mischievous fellow leaves a trail of gold foil rolos on our stairs, or around our coffee table.
2.Leprechaun Toilet Fun
Leprechauns have turned our toilet water green. He must start messing with green food coloring, adding a few drops to the toilet water.
And the toilet paper is a whole other story. You can find shamrocks drawn on it, or it can be sealed closed with a leprechaun sticker.
Green soap and hand washes have appeared overnight. He even put up a fresh set of green towels one year, with a note – “Only green towels on St. Patrick’s Day.”
3. Leprechaun Kitchen Tricks
One St. Patrick’s Day we woke up to find our kitchen cabinets wide open with little notes pinned on the doors.
I have heard tell of leprechauns spilling silverware out of drawers. Some of these crazy guys turn cups and saucepans upside down, and leave half-empty glasses of green milk on counter tops.
And be careful if you are partial to Lucky Charms. They’re not past stealing all the charms out of your favorite cereal box.
They only like green Apple Jacks, and have even been known to thread them into a lucky green bracelet.
I think I’d like a jelly bean bracelet in green, white and orange this year.
4. Furniture Shenanigans
The little pranksters who show up at our house often turn our chairs and other furniture upside down.
Luckily our little rascal has only wreaked his havoc with small chairs and things that are easy to turn right way round.
I have him warned not to touch a big piece of furniture. My kids laugh when I start shouting out to unseen leprechauns. But who knows what that little trickster could get up to this year, if I don’t give him a good warning.
5. Fun With Shoes On St. Patrick’s Day
Leprechauns love to leave chocolate coins in shoes around our house.
Gold foil covered chocolate kisses also work great for shoe surprises.
We have found the laces in our sneakers have been changed to none other than green shoe laces.
6. A Little Doggy Fun For St. Pat’s:
Leprechauns have been known to put green bandanas on family dogs, or any pet that stands still long enough to be adorned in green.
The loony leprechaun who visits our house has even tied a shamrock scarf around our sheepdog.
7. Leprechaun Blockades
Leprechauns use crepe paper to block the way out of bedroom doors.
What a surprise my little one’s got when they woke up one Paddy’s Day morning to find there was a paper ribbon barricading their path.
8. Balloon Tricks for St. Patrick’s Day
Our little Irish man leaves green balloons on our living room floor.
Sometimes he gets very careless and puts dimes inside the balloons. He needs to be more careful with his treasure.
9. Notes and Jokes From Little Irish Leprechauns
Our little fellow loves to leave little pieces of paper lying around the house with leprechaun jokes or taunting notes printed on them.
Here are three of my favorite kid-friendly leprechaun jokes. Some jokes are way over my kids heats, but I’m happy to say my kids got these jokes even when they were pretty young.
Q: Why do people wear shamrocks on St. Patrick’s Day?
A: Regular rocks are too heavy.
Q: What type of bow cannot be tied?
A: A rain-bow!
Q: Where can you always find gold?
A: In the dictionary!
Leprechauns leave “You Can’t Catch Me Notes” all over our house.
Our leprechaun has some favorite places for leaving his calling card.
He has scribbled his message on the inside of the shower curtain.
The dry erase board on the side of the fridge is another spot he likes – that’s my favorite one. Sometimes he uses a WASHABLE marker and writes on shower curtains and other plastic surfaces. Other times he just leaves his “You Can’t Catch Me” message on little shamrock shaped notes.
10. Leprechaun Dress-Up
And finally, leprechauns love to dress anything and everything up in Irish green. Dolls and teddy bears are fair game.
And how about these garden statues – I love these Irish geese I found on Flickr. They give a whole knew meaning to the term ‘The Wild Geese.’
Silly McGilly
And finally if anyone is interested in exploring more leprechaun prank ideas, why not check out the Silly McGilly website.
Silly is a plush leprechaun toy you can place in your window to let the leprechauns know you are game for some Irish fun. Here’s a review of Silly McGilly and all of his shenanigans.
They have a wonderful list of tricks for the home, and pranks for the classroom.
And so, there you have it, a little round up of leprechaun fun.
I hope you all have a little leprechaun craic this weekend. But be warned! The leprechauns are in the mood for pinching.
Slán agus beannacht,
(Goodbye and blessings)
Irish American Mom
Ah, the magic of children’s eyes touching the heart of the “practical Irish side” of mom was cast out the window with the hypnotic Irish eyes of children reaching in to also tug at mom’s soul.
You really made me laugh Mareid when you mentioned our practical side. At the stores, when the candy was by the cash register, I, as a child, could always touch my mom’s practical Irish side and get some. I think Irish dad’s are always too practical because I couldn’t touch my dad’s heart, although once in a blue moon, when my mom sent him to the store, with a list, he always bought too much more on the budgeted income of sending twi kids to Catholic schools. So the jury is out on the practicality of myd dad…
I loved your story about all the wonderful things you did and can do for St. Pat’s day. Your children our so much more sophisticated than I was in my day. I did not think out of the box. I only thought Santa was the only one that visited us. I would love to have gotten the idea, from your children, when I was a child, about the possibility of a little green man coming to visit us from Ireland. You had great ideas.
Dear Ray – I love your story about how you could tug at your mom’s heart strings to get her to give in to your imploring looks, and how your Dad’s practical Irish side, usually made him stick to his guns, and not give in. In our house my husband is a little bit of a softie. My little girl, especially, knows how to wrap him around her little finger.
It has amazed me over the years how imaginative and creative American school teachers tend to be, and they don’t shy away from extra work to bring a little fun into the classroom.
Some of these ideas I gleaned from other parents, and the internet is an incredible. I love how the girls who created Silly McGilly have also put together a whole ray of resources to help parents and teachers embrace some Paddy’s Day fun.
Thanks again for checking out my ramblings.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Mairéad
Dear Mairead,
I still can’t get over all your creative ideas for Saint Patrick’s Day and the wonderful ideas you have to make your children so happy like just some of the following: 1.Green towels 2.Green food 3. Three leaf shamrocks on the cute dog. These our all great ideas. I laughed at your young boy’s one-upmanship on his younger sister. I was the oldest boy and I too had this competition with my younger brother. I loved the green footprints in the house that looked a little more like Cuchulain the Braves footprints than a green leprechaun, but it was great!
I know you have had lots of work responding to all the many wonderful shawl comments, but next year, if you run out of time, I have an idea. You can keep the giant footprints and you can always tell your children that this time the leprechaun was too busy to come , but he sent Cuchulain in his place and he brought you the wonderful movie, “Darbie O’Gill and the Little People.” Right now, I saw it advertised for 9.05 at Wal-Mart. I loved this movie as a child when my mother brought me to see it. The great actors Albert Sharpe, from Belfast, Janet Munro, Jimmy O’Dea, from Dublin, and Sean Connery was in the movie. After watching the movie, I use to ride my bike, and if I saw a rainbow, I always tried to find it, to get us the pot of gold. I never found the end of the rainbow, but I sure tried. After watching that movie , I even loved Ireland more, and I often said, “Mom, why can’t we go back to Ireland to live?” (And I was born in California! ) My Irish mom always said, we can’t go back now, because your dad’s job is over here. The movie will keep your children busy for 93 minutes and you might get more time to yourself, if they want to watch it again and again. I saw it again, when I was an adult, and I still loved it. The magic of that movie will always remain! Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to you and your entire wonderful family. P.S. You can always introduce them to the wonderful story of Cuchulain, the child’s version, and if they already know about it, they would love it again. When I was a teacher I always read this story to my students and they loved it so much that they wanted me to read it again during St. Patrick’s Day. When I was in Belfast and Derry, my brother drove to The Giant Causeways and the legend goes that Cuchulain made those steps with his feet as I remember. This story could introduce them to the geology of Mother Ireland too, in the mystical and fun way! God Bless!
Ray – My children love the story of Cuchulain. There are so many wonderful old Irish legends, but many of them are very sad, and some are a little violent. However, I still share these old tales with my little ones. Sometimes I think we protect them too much by only sharing “harmless” stories. Years ago, children in Ireland were raised on stories of ghosts and leprechauns, death and dying, and things that go bump in the night.
I must make a confession – I didn’t make the giant foot prints, but I’ve helped the leprechauns with some smaller versions around our house. I mainly used photos which are free to use with a Creative Commons License on this post. I just wasn’t organized enough to set up all these tricks to photograph them. I wish I had been more organized in years past and taken more photos as we played along with the leprechauns.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you too.
All the best,
Mairéad