Celebrate Saint Patrick's Day with the
GREEN of the Irish!

The Irish have a very special day, March 17th - St. Patrick's Day.  St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, even though he was not born there. St. Patrick came to Ireland in the fifth century.  He brought religion to the island, and is said to have worked many miracles.  The most famous story of St. Patrick is that he drove all the snakes out of Ireland.  It is said that St. Patrick held up a shamrock and all the snakes fled for their lives.

St. Patrick's Day is celebrated with parades and parties,  The biggest parade is held in Dublin, but parties are held everywhere. 

St. Patrick's Day Party

SAINT PATRICK'S DAY PARTY IDEAS

Leprechaun Scene Setter
St. Patrick's Day Decorating Kit

Shamrocks, harps, and tall hats cut out of green construction paper help to carry out your theme for St. Patrick's Day party.   For invitations, you might paste a paper shamrock on a card.  for table decorations, you could scatter paper shamrocks over a white crepe paper cover.  Use green candles and make a gumdrop tree for a centerpiece.  A gumdrop tree is easy to make. Take a small branch of any tree that has many stiff twigs.  Wild crabapple or hawthorn trees are especially good for this purpose. Place the branch in a small flower-pot covered with green crepe paper.  You may have to use soil or crushed rock in the flowerpot to hold the branch up and keep the pot form tipping. Stick a green gumdrop on the end of each twig.  Or, if you wish, your gumdrop tree can be of all the gumdrop colors. As favors you could have tiny clay pipes tied with green ribbon, or tiny pots of growing shamrock.

Lucky Clover Invitations
Everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day and everyone loves a party! Put on some green and choose this theme inspired four leaf clover invitation.

Celtic Design Invitations
We're Tying the Knot Invitations

Interlocking Heart Flutes
Love Flutes

For an active game, you might try a relay race in which potatoes are picked up in a tablespoon.  Or the potatoes can be placed in four ling rows, for the players to pick up one at a time, and tossed into boxes behind the starting line.

Leprechauns, or "little people," were common in old Irish stories. A leprechaun was supposed to give you a bag of gold if you asked him for it.

One of your guests, to be known as Paddy or Kathleen, stands in a circle formed by the others. Those in the circle pass a bag of sawdust "gold" from one to another, behind their backs.  If Paddy or Kathleen points to the one who has the bag and demands to gold, the leprechaun must hand it over, and the two change places.

For a quiet game before supper, ask your guests to see how many words of three or more letters they can make from SAINT PATRICK. They should not use one letter more times in a single work than it appears in Saint Patrick. For example, tin, sat, pick.

AN IRISH  BLESSING

May the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at  your back; May the sun shine warm upon your face, and the rains fall soft  upon your
fields; And until we meet again, May GOD hold you in the palm of HIS hand.

AN IRISH FRIENDSHIP WISH

May there always be  work for your hands to do;
May your purse always hold a coin or two;
May  the sun always shine on your windowpane;
May a rainbow be certain to follow  each rain;
May the hand of a friend always be near you;
May God fill  your heart with gladness to cheer you.

St. Patrick's Day Menu Ideas

Mint jelly sandwiches, a cake with green decorations, and mint ice cream may be served for food.

Cake Idea
A fun and simple cake that will make all you Leprechauns want more than just a bite would be our Pot O' Gold Cake. Here are the instructions:

Bake a 9" round cake and let cool. Cut the cake in half and place each CUT SIDE down next to each other on a platter. Frost the entire cake and make it a rainbow by either adding stripes of colored frosting or Skittles candy to the sides. At the base of one side of the "rainbow" place our Mini Black Kettle filled with Four Leaf Clover Coins.

Of course, green beer is very popular for a St. Paddy's Day celebration, but you can also serve green ginger ale or green Sprite. A fun punch to serve out of your shamrock-filled punch bowl is lime sherbet and 7-Up.

Irish coffee is another favorite for the hot beverage lovers in your group. To make your own, simply combine some Irish Whiskey, hot coffee, whipped cream, and brown sugar for some unusually fabulous flavor!

Irish Holidays