A Little Planning Can Make St. Patrick’s Day Special for All the Family

As our national holiday is coming up in March, this month on the Emma Slowe Children’s Entertainer Bernie’s blog, we wanted to provide some inspiration for St. Patrick’s Day which will ensure fun for all the family.
Our national holiday is a day that can sometimes feel like a bit of an anti-climax. The children prepare all their St. Patrick’s Day crafts in school and get all geared up for it but on the day, often the weather isn’t the best and the holiday ends up feeling just like any other day. Sound familiar? Well, that needn’t be the case this year. Once you’ve read our post you should have plenty of ideas for fun ways to spend the day with the whole family for fun and entertainment.

Dressing Up
Dressing up creates a sense of occasion no matter what day it is. On St. Patrick’s Day help your children get into the spirit of the day by choosing something festive for them to wear. You don’t need to splash a lot of cash to do this. A simple green top, a sprig of shamrock and a fun ribbon or hairband will make your child feel ready to take on the day and relish in their Irishness.
Get Involved
The most important thing about any holiday is the willingness to get involved. Ok, so it might be drizzly out, or it might be down-right bucketing! But, once you’re well-wrapped up, a visit to the parade is guaranteed to be fun. While once upon a time parades were held for many occasions, St. Patrick’s Day is really the only parade day left in modern Ireland. So, wrap up, grab your brollies and join the crowds to see the different community groups in your local area participating in the fun.
Local parades are easier for young families to attend as you don’t need to worry about taking public transport, fighting for a place to see the parade and your children will enjoy waving to people they know who are taking part.
At Home
The festivities don’t need to stop after the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Once you get home (and warm up) enjoy some traditional fun by inviting some friends or family over to play some games, tell folk stories and eat some tasty treats.
Games
For games time, why not try an Irish take on musical statues or musical chairs. The music you choose for this game can be all Irish artists or traditional music.
Create a leprechaun coin toss, by turning some containers into pots for gold. Create two teams, with equal numbers of adults and children on each team and divide up a selection of chocolate coins evenly. The judge should run a timer and see which team gets the most coins into their crock of gold. If you choose chocolate coins, the teams can enjoy munching on them afterwards.
Hold a snake hunt, just to make sure St. Patrick got every single last one! Secret some toy snakes around the house and or the garden, we particularly like the jointed variety that wiggle around! You can either just let the children search for them or prepare some hints which will get them thinking as they figure out where to go next. By using the hints, children have to use their brains and the pay-off is that much rewarding for them. You can, of course, use jelly snakes for this game – but remember, party time doesn’t always have to involve loads of sugar.
Storytime
After the children have burned off some energy playing games, gather everyone around in a circle to enjoy a bit of story time. Ireland has such a rich heritage built on a foundation of stories and St. Patrick’s Day is the ideal time to share these. Whether you include old favourites or stories that your children have never heard before, this is a lovely way to spend some quality time together while helping your children to form a full picture of what it means to be Irish, or ‘adopted Irish’, on St. Patrick’s Day.
Invite Others
On that note, why not consider involving some of your ‘new-Irish’ friends to join in your festivities on St. Patrick’s Day? As a fully multicultural society, it is great fun to share your traditions with friends from other countries. When their national holiday comes around, you might get to share in the fun with them, too. This is a great way to model tolerance, acceptance and an eagerness to engage with other cultures.

​Our Plans
What are our plans for St. Patrick’s Day? Well, on Friday, the 15th of March at 6pm, we’ll kick off the celebrations with a children’s St. Patrick’s Disco at The Step at Salmo.
On the day itself, Emma Slowe Children’s Entertainer will be busy partaking in the Stepaside St. Patrick’s Day Parade and we will also have face painting and balloon modelling on offer in Stepaside village. We love taking part in the festivities at Stepaside on St. Patrick’s Day. This will be our fourth year in a row taking part and even when the weather is a bit disappointing, the atmosphere and cheer of the crowd keeps your spirits high. It’s such a fun event and we encourage anyone who will be in the area to come along to watch the parade and get involved in the festivities.
If you’re planning a children’s party over the next couple of months, why not consider a Fortnite themed party? These are proving particularly popular with children from 7 years of age up and include dance challenges that the kids love. Check out this video of a party we did recently at the Charlesland Golf Club, in Greystones.
As always, if you have any queries about party planning or entertainment in general, give us at Emma Slowe Children’s Entertainer a shout on 086 1739627 – we love hearing from you. Or you can send us a message via our website.