St. Patrick’s Day fun isn’t for adults only! Let your little one’s use their imagination and work their engineering skills to create a leprechaun trap for those pesky little green visitors.

This fun tradition is rooted in the story that a child creates a trap for the leprechaun and he falls for it – but then escapes! He leaves behind some treats for your child’s good effort in trap making. Need a good visual? Check out what Martha Stewart puts together to catch an illusive leprechaun.

What You’ll Need

Building a trap can be as easy or as complicated as you like. A quick internet search will give you hundreds of visuals to get inspired. Or work with what you have around the house; a box, stick and some string. Or a waste basket and some “bait”. Obviously the trap doesn’t really have to work, so let your kiddo lead the way. Just make sure there’s something in the trap that the leprechaun would want – some gold coins, a drawing of a four leaf clover, or even a few spare pennies. Because this is such a new tradition, there’s no one right way to do it so have fun!

How to Do It

Once your trap is made, set it up the night before St. Patrick’s Day (March 17th). Just like when Santa comes, the leprechauns come in the middle of the night.

Fun Ideas

The one thing that makes this super fun are some simple treats. Gold chocolate coins, a little light up necklace, some clovers, any little treat will do. Or even a green hat that might have gotten trapped when the leprechaun escaped. This fun and silly tradition is an easy way to bring some whimsical fun to spring.