A St. Patirick’s Day Tradition

Our family has a fun tradition we do every St Patrick’s Day. **I am so sorry to all the mothers out there that may hate me for doing it.  I have had a few people say they hate people who do stuff like this because then their kids ask why the Leprechaun doesn’t  come to their house.  You can all blame my mom haha, Love you Mom!!

Many years ago when my 17 year old was small we were at my mom’s house and my son found my little brother’s leprechaun statue ( My little brother is only about 8 years older than my son).  My son asked him what it was.  He explained to him that if you catch a leprechaun on St. Patrick’s Day, it turns to stone.  My mom and brother also told him if you put your shoes out (my children place them outside their bedroom door) then a leprechaun will fill it with goodies.  So of course that got my son very excited and from then on we have done this in our home, starting about 12 years ago.

So every year my children set a trap and try to catch a leprechaun. The traps are usually very simple.  A stick and a box.  One year my oldest even borrowed an animal trap from my father-in-law.  I could only find  a couple of pictures.  I think we video taped a lot of them with the kids talking about how they planned to catch one and some were before I had a digital camera so I’m sure I have pictures somewhere in a box waiting to be scrapbooked. Here are a couple of pictures I did find.

That first year we started doing it, my son didn’t have any luck catching a leprechaun.  It was too close to St Patrick’s Day and for the life of me I could not find a leprechaun anywhere.  I started early the next year (February) and found the cute guy in the long orange beard, to the left of the LUCK sign.  He is my favorite and I have never been able to find one like him again.

We had to change the rule a little and say they don’t just turn to stone but can turn to anything depending on what kind of leprechaun they are.

As you can see we’ve found them stuffed, stone, wood and one is even a rubber ducky (not shown).

As for the shoes full of goodies,

I like to fill the shoes with green and gold items.  Here is a list of ideas that can be used to fill the shoes with:

• Andes mints

• Chocolate gold coins (I’ve found them at Harmons and Winco)

• Rolos or Hershey’s gold nuggets

• Green water bottle

• Ninja turtle stuff

• Green bubbles

• Green bouncy ball

• Chapstick

• Mike & Ikes

• Sour skittles

• Hair accessories

• Lifesavor mints

• Gum

• Tic Tacs

• Sprite or other drink with green packaging

• Nature Valley granola bars

• Hand sanitizer

• Pen/pencil

• Lotion

• Nail polish

• Toy car

• Flashlight

• Sour cream and onion pringles

• Grapes

• Pickles

• socks

Sometimes I will take the time to make it look like the leprechaun has left things behind like footprints, glitter trails, green milk etc.  My children always look forward to St.Patrick’s Day.  Having something to look forward to makes life exciting, don’t you think?

What St Patrick’s Day traditions do you have?

SEE THE HAPPY!!

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