March 17th inevitably lands on a weekday and so each year parents in Los Angeles spend at least a few days beforehand scrambling about in anticipation of the impending celebration. It's not exactly Christmas with all the attendant lists and excitement in the air but there is still a sense of it; the green, the shamrocks, even the mirth and the inevitable antics that children feel are due on this day. And, (perhaps more than with other celebrations), there is an unspoken expectation, a feeling that something will actually take place on this day. Something enjoyable.
St. Patrick's Day Activities for Kids: Do We Really Need to Do Much? The good news is that St. Patrick's Day activities for kids don't really need much: a little green paint, a cardboard box, a playground with plenty of open space to run around. This is a look at what actually works, what tends to be a waste of time and what LA families are actually doing on March 17 when they want to do more than just dye a pancake or two with some green food coloring.
St Patrick's Day Activities for Kids That Start Before Breakfast
The morning sets the tone for the day. Waking up to a surprise — like a bottle of green milk in the fridge, a path of gold-foil chocolate coins leading to the kitchen or tiny footprints made with a damp finger that look like they were left by tiny muddy fairies — gets them in the right mood for whatever the day brings. It takes about 4 minutes of prep time and is very budget friendly but it makes for those lovely memories that kids remember for years to come.
While most kid-friendly St. Patrick's Day activities seem to focus more on green than on St. Patrick and the mythology of the Emerald Isle, we've found that ones that capture some of that magic are way more fun. Leprechaun traps are a great example. Here's how we do it: Kids get a shoebox, some tape, maybe a little bit of glittery string to hang, and we tell them that last night, a mischievous leprechaun will come and try and steal their gold. By the time we're all in bed, they've crafted the most elaborate thing. In the morning, the trap is triggered, the gold is stolen and, in its place is a tiny note, scrawled in the tiniest handwriting you've ever seen. Voila! Magic, achieved without even breaking a sweat.
Green food is another low-key option. The eggs don't have to be fancy and the smoothie could be just a generic green, not a particularly appetizing shade of green. Stamping out a shamrock on top of the avocado toast is probably the best option though. The sillier the green food the better.
Fun St Patrick's Day Activities for Kids Who Need to Move
After morning crafts and leprechaun chaos, basically all 3- to 10-year-olds need to be somewhere. A simple activity like making shamrock stamps at a table is about a 15-minute activity before they are moved to do something else, most of the time not in a calm or organized fashion.
While fun St. Patrick's Day activities for kids in LA have always been relatively easy to come by, the fact that LA is a large city with plenty of things to do in under a 20 minute drive, and the fact that the weather in mid-March is usually fairly decent means that you've got plenty of options. One of our favorites is doing a scavenger hunt either in the backyard or at the park. We hide items that are green. I write clues that lead them to find the items. The kid with the most items wins, and to make it even more exciting, the winner gets a pot of gold (we use a painted terra cotta pot filled with Rolos for this part). While my kids are normally very argumentative and petty, they seem to have no issues whatsoever cooperating with each other when there is a treasure at the end.
While we want to spend as much time as possible playing, being outside is not a permanent solution. We all know too well that in LA we are lucky if we have about 10 days of decent outdoor weather in March and sometimes that doesn't even come. Parents that have driven their 5 year old to the local park only to get soaked while standing for what feels like an eternity with their unenthused kiddo know what I'm talking about. This is where a decent dedicated indoor play space really comes in handy.
Activities for Kids St Patrick's Day at an Indoor Playground
We visited Fun Play World at 10672 West Pico Blvd in Los Angeles and 828 Pico Blvd in Santa Monica at the end of our St. Patrick's Day week in mid-March. While they have the occasional special event, it's not really needed in order to enjoy this facility. Open play hours here are until 8 PM on weekdays. Thus dropping by late in the afternoon after school has concluded or even after a morning of chasing leprechauns and making St. Patrick's Day crafts works great in terms of schedules.
What's interesting is the space itself. First you're struck by the size of the play structures. We're talking about real wooden climbing frames, not just foam blocks and a slide. Lots of tunnels that are not always linear. A trampoline area that brings in kids aged between 5 and 9 almost instantly. The young children go to the soft play and ball pit near the door, a safe zone of padded surfaces and low-level play, where a toddler can explore pretty much independently while a parent sits nearby, no more than three feet away. Further back in the space the more demanding pieces of equipment start to take over – rope climbs, elevated platforms and a maze structure that properly tests the cognitive powers of any who choose to enter.
Cleanliness is mentioned more than a few times in the reviews, and surprisingly it's actually more important than you might think. One reviewer said that Fun Play World was "by far the cleanest, well-kept indoor playground we've ever been to" which is quite a claim, but seems to reflect a genuine observation. Several reviews of indoor playgrounds reveal that a trade-off is made in terms of cleanliness after a short number of visits. Fun Play World does not seem to do this.
Since I already had some fun ideas for St Patrick's Day activities for kids, I thought I'd share them with you, along with the physical highlight of our day, an outing to the indoor playground. First of all, yes, we have a leprechaun trap. We set it up the night before. You know, the usual: a trap made out of a shoe, some glitter and a gold coin to lure in the luck. The potential for kid excitement is enormous. And now finally, it is the perfect opportunity to bust some energy (we're talking about two hours of bouncing at the playground). Physical exhaustion, the holy grail of parenting, is usually the guaranteed outcome of an indoor playground visit after a long day of pent up energy. We'll see if we actually manage to get to sleep tonight.
Kids St Patrick's Day Activities That Work at Home Too
Not all families want to leave the house and that is just fine. There are so many amazing table top St Patrick's Day Activities for kids that can last for a good chunk of the day.
Shamrock painting (not stamping, in my opinion!) shows quite a difference in art skills across the ages. Two year old makes green swipes. Seven year old makes an effort to paint more defined shamrocks. Both feel just as satisfied with their end results. I recommend using watercolor paint with young children. It is a lot cleaner to deal with and far less permanent than acrylic paint.
Rainbow crafts are always a pretty reliable option for me too – cotton balls, tissue paper in the right colours and a paper plate. The actual building of it is where the real learning happens. The finished product isn't as important. Children who are able to cut with scissors safely can do most of the work on their own. Those who can't be responsible for tearing tissue paper into pieces for about the same length of time that it would take you to do it, which is a lot longer than you might think.
Green slime. And yes, slime is one of the most common St. Patrick's Day activities for kids that everyone complains about, and for good reason: it is very hands on, it takes up a ton of time to make and the only real beneficiaries are typically children in the 4-9 age range. Though there are plenty of options, you can usually get away with using a "recipe" that uses some variation of this core set of ingredients. Most "borax free" recipes will use contact lens solution instead of Borax, which many parents prefer to use on kids.
Easy St Patrick's Day Activities for Kids on a Budget
As it turns out St Patrick's Day activities for kids don't have to break the bank. In fact the best ones tend to be either very affordable or even free. We've already talked about our St. Patrick's Day green nature walk which encourages kids to count green items they find along the way, and to collect their own leaves while also having the opportunity to draw some of what they see. But let me tell you the key to getting even the most reluctant child to participate. Telling a five year old that we're going for a walk doesn't really cut it. I mean, they'll might complain and protest as they plod along side of you. But if you call it a leprechaun activity and tell them you need their help to find the little guy they'll be on 'scout duty' for every single minute of it.
My friend (like, really friend) commented that we need more ideas for St Patrick's Day, and then reminded me that I could stretch dollar store supplies into a couple of days at least. An easy St Patrick's Day activity for kids, with a ton of excitement for very little effort, is to set up a finish line with the green streamers and have the kids run inside. I tied two chairs together (you could just lean them against a wall if that's easier and would hold weight) and tugged the streamers up between them. We put some gold chocolate coins at the finish line. Suddenly every kid is eager to be the champion and run their course twenty times.
Library story hours offer themed sessions on St Patrick's Day, (aka March 17th) so it's a good idea to look at the schedule for your library in advance - say 1-2 weeks. At least for now, the Los Angeles Public Library locations have moved a very long way from the traditional stories, young child's reading of books and interactive storytelling that their programs long used to offer, in favor of the facilitation of crafts and other more play-oriented or informal hands-on activities.
Kid Friendly St Patrick's Day Activities That Don't Require a Full Day of Planning
The pressure to celebrate even the most minor of holidays is very real. Parents feel it. We are made to feel like it is necessary to honor these days with some sort of celebration or activity, yet planning a whole day around a holiday and then continuing on with our regular schedules can be overwhelming. If you are looking for some kid friendly St. Patrick's Day activities you'll want to keep in mind that the best ones are those that can be thrown together in under twenty minutes and then enjoyed in equal measure by children of vastly different energy levels. Like a child who is exhausted from a long day at preschool and a child who is still wide awake from a nap, or a toddler and an 8 year old, or even a working mom who wakes up at 7 AM.
Interior play is where it's at. I mean, where else do you show up and your kids play, while you just plop yourself down and drink your own coffee/tea/juice? I paid $35 for my first kid, $25 for the second sibling, $20 for the third (2 adults are included with a family). It's one of the few really reasonably priced options for 2 hours of unstructured free play in a safe, clean, friendly facility where staff is on hand should an incident arise — something that is ridiculously expensive in LA.
St patricks day for kids activities can be stacked across the day too. Morning craft at home, afternoon at the playground, green dinner when you get back. No single element needs to carry the whole day.
Why Fun Play World for St Patrick's Day
When you finally decide it's a good idea to take kids out to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and have no idea where in the LA area to go, the deciding factor is really just a juggle of a few variables, namely: proximity to you and your schedule, convenience of parking, and whether the space is suitable for the ages and needs of the children you have. Fun Play World is conveniently located in two places. First, West Pico Blvd. in Los Angeles and second, Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica with street parking available on each side of the street as well as a parking structure right behind the Santa Monica location.
What makes this space helpful for our holiday visit is that it really doesn't need to be "spruced up" for the occasion. It doesn't need to be decorated, or have a themed atmosphere, in order to entertain. The play structures here are quite engaging, so our 18-month-old who has already had her fill of green pancakes and leprechauns this morning can find plenty of fun here without us tacking up a shamrock to the walls.
We get lots of feedback from parents that they really love that the staff engages with the kids, and it's not uncommon for us to hear from parents that they come with a group of kids for a birthday party and this is a comment that is frequently written about our staff. One parent even mentioned "They really tailored it to what we wanted" so they really incorporated the theme of the party in the way they set up and carried out activities. What's consistent between coming to our birthday parties as well as coming to our open play is that the facility is always staffed, it's always clean and someone is actually interacting with families (rather than just standing in the corner observing). A play place is going to be by nature a little bit of a mess, even when everything is tidy. But for all the extra work and chaos a play place can bring into the lives of families, I do feel that the environment we provide at Fun Play World makes the experience at least a little bit worthwhile.
Where can you celebrate St. Patrick's Day with your kids in Santa Monica? Honestly, activities feel a bit ad hoc here - the beach is nearby but not exactly warm in March and St. Pat's fun on the main strip can be hard to come by and feel very chaotic. Thankfully there are some indoor options to celebrate in both Santa Monica and LA so you don't have to worry about weather or having to take a chance on parking.
