New Traditions for St. Patrick’s Day {Free Printable}

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I love holidays. I love celebrating with my family. I love making memories. I love starting new fun traditions with my little ones. 

You get it. I LOVE all things holidays!

That includes St. Patrick’s Day. I didn’t realize how much fun and how meaningful of a holiday it could be until I had my own children. St. Patrick’s Day is tomorrow and I want to share some simple, doable, and meaningful activities you can enjoy with your young children this year.

 St. Patrick’s Day 2016 

The Story of Saint Patrick 

On Pinterest you will find hundreds of green, rainbow, leprechaun, and lucky-themed crafts and activities. Those are all wonderful and I have many of them pinned too, but the teacher and mom in me also likes to have some meaningful and fun learning activities to go with each holiday. I like to start by learning about the life of St. Patrick. 

Did you know St. Patrick was not from Ireland? He was actually taken as a slave to Ireland when he was a young boy. During those hard years he remembered the faith his parents had taught him and he clung to it. He eventually escaped slavery and afterward, he received a full education and went back to Ireland as a missionary. 

WOW! What an amazing story! His life is such a wonderful example of how to love and forgive those that treat us wrongly. I don’t want to skip over this opportune teaching moment with my kids. {And to think all those years I thought this day was about pinching people who didn’t wear green! JK…but seriously.} 

One way I introduce my kids to this story is through the animated VeggieTales movie. This version is appropriate for little kids and is told in a lighthearted flannel-graph animation that I even enjoyed, too. 

 

You can find the movie here on YouTube. 

Craft

I love doing crafts with my little ones and they love it too! With two active little boys, I’m looking for crafts that we can handle and that don’t end up ruining everyone’s day (You know, you know what I mean!). Here are two simple crafts you can do to make some fun memories this St. Patrick’s Day that continue with the story of St. Patrick’s life. 

When St. Patrick went back to Ireland and taught the people of Ireland about God, he used the shamrock. Just like one shamrock has three parts, so does God. God is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; one God, but three persons. 

We did this simple hand print craft to remind us of this example of the Trinity and to keep a little memory of how tiny and cute their little hands are! 

They never turn out “Pinterest Perfect” but I love that you can tell a 3-year-old made it.

Here’s how:

  1. Print the free printable here: Saint Patricks Day Handprint Printable
  2. Use green paint or ink to paint your child’s hand.
  3. Stamp the hand prints in the shape of a shamrock. 
  4. After paint has dried, write the persons of God on each hand print as you review them with your child. 

Easy, fun, and educational!

We also continued this lesson by stringing beads on a pipe cleaner and forming them into shamrocks.
Perfect activity for a toddler to work on those fine motor skills. And let’s be real, it keeps them occupied for a couple minutes and gives us a chance to feed the baby or cut up fruit for the next project. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easy Shamrock Snack 

Fruit Shamrock

What would a holiday be without a special snack, right? I cut up grapes and kiwi and I let my two year old help form them into three and four leaf clovers. 

As you can see on my two year old’s plate he wanted more fruit, so he chose to make both of his four-leaf clovers, naturally. 🙂 

Songs

I’m always searching for songs to go with our holidays and lessons. Firstly, because it’s fun and they love it! Secondly, because little kids learn so well through music and singing! I’m always amazed at how well they can remember something when it is put to song! It’s incredible so I always try to use every opportunity to sing with my kids. 

We discuss that even though St. Patrick was taken as a slave and treated unkindly, he forgave the people of Ireland and loved them enough to go live with them again and teach them about God.

We sing Overcome Evil with Good by Steve Green to memorize what the Bible says in Romans 12:21, Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good. 

Most likely, our child’s first response is not to do good to the sibling that just did wrong to them. It’s not a natural response. What a great teaching moment! Don’t miss it! 

You can find this song on Amazon or iTunes. 

Another simple song to add is a song about the Trinity call God is Three in One by The Donut Man. You can listen to the song here.

Missionary Prayer Time

St. Patrick’s Day comes right after our Global Missions conference at our church. It’s a week filled with hearing the stories of real missionaries who are in the world and doing God’s work today! I love that I can pull out our missions book again and remember those missionaries with my children and pray for them. We found the names and pictures of the missionaries our church supports in Ireland and set aside time to pray for them this month. 

Maybe your church has some missionaries in Ireland. Find where they are on the map, learn the country’s flag, a couple facts about the country, etc. The possibilities are endless! 

Remembering Our Role as Parents

You know the part of the story that pulls at this momma’s heart the most? The part where he is taken as a slave as a young boy and remembers the teachings of faith his parents taught him.

Wow! Does that just hit you right in the gut like it does to me? 

It’s sobering to remember we never know how long we have with our children. We should take each opportunity to teach them what we believe is most important as we prepare them to one day live on their own.

What are your ideas this St. Patrick’s Day?

There are so many great ideas out there for St. Patrick’s Day and so many ways you can add to this lesson and make it special for your children.

Do you have some great ideas or fun traditions to add to this list? Simple or ornate, I’d love to hear them! Comment below so we can all read them!

We will be doing these activities and more this week! Come on over to my Instagram account at rebekahm927 and follow along! 

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Rebekah M
Rebekah McKee is a Florida girl who married an Alabama boy and set up a home in Calera. She has been wife to Landon for 5 years and spends her days as a stay-at-home mom to her two little, adventurous boys, Graham (3) and Caleb (1). She aspires to be a super-mom and is finding that much harder than originally planned; secretly, she feels like keeping two toddler boys alive, and relatively happy, makes her one. Rebekah was once an elementary school teacher and hopes to continue teaching by homeschooling her children. Her favorite days are the simple ones spent at home with her tribe of toddlers; reading books, singing songs, playing outside, and doing simple preschool activities. She loves all holidays and desires to make them all memorable. Most importantly, she strives to share her love for God's Word and teach it to her children in all that they do together.