St. Paddy's Day Activities You Can Do on a Budget

You don’t have to be Irish to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day! From food to decorations, there are many ways for you to have a fun celebration with family and friends even if you aren’t from an Irish background. And you don’t need a pot of gold to participate in St. Paddy’s Day activities.

Budget-Friendly St. Paddy’s Day Activities

Parades

One of the most popular St. Paddy’s Day traditions is also free! Many cities and towns have St. Patrick’s Day parades that are open to the public. Some parades are held on St. Paddy’s Day while others are held the weekend before or weekend after. Two of the most famous parades are in New York City (March 17) and Boston (March 19). Scan your local news or do a simple Internet search to see if there will be a parade in your area.

Treasure Hunt

Find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Set up a treasure hunt similar to an Easter egg hunt. Scatter trinkets and candies throughout your house or yard with clues attached to them. If you want to skip the candy, just use paper shamrocks with the clue printed on them. Each clue will lead to the next treasure. The final treasure can be the grand prize—a bucket of goodies as the pot of gold!

Costumes

Create your own leprechaun costume cheaply. Green is the theme so use green pants and a green shirt, vest, or jacket. If you don’t have these green items, you can dye khaki or light-colored clothing green. What really makes the outfit is a green hat. Buy some green felt and cut out a rectangle for the body of the hat, a circle for the top, and ring to affix as the brim. Glue or sew these items together. And don’t forget to add a shamrock. You can buy shamrock cutouts or make your own using a simple pattern and green heavy stock paper.

An even easier way to dress up is to decorate a white shirt. For this kid-friendly project, use fabric paint and foam stamps to create shamrocks, rainbows, and more.

Food

Start the day off right with a healthy green smoothie. Add spinach or kale to your favorite smoothie combination and watch it turn green.

Soda bread, cabbage, and corned beef are the traditional foods associated with St. Paddy’s Day. And for good reason: the ingredients are usually inexpensive and can be found in most area supermarkets and grocery stores.

It does not get any simpler than Ina Garten’s sautéed cabbage recipe. If you want to try something a little different, make these corned beef sandwiches. They’re very easy and don’t take long to make. For an effortless dessert sure to please the kids, bake these shamrock cookies. They only require three ingredients! These satisfying potato cakes are a breeze to make even if you don’t have leftover mashed potatoes.

Drinks

Guinness is often the go-to drink on St. Patrick’s Day, but you should try out a few other festive libations too.

Irish coffee is easy to make and it won’t break the bank. This simple recipe requires strong coffee, your favorite Irish whiskey, sugar to taste, and cream.

Think peppermint is just for the holidays? Peppermint hot cocoa is perfect for when you’re standing at a chilly St. Paddy’s Day parade. Make hot chocolate as you normally would but add in a drop of peppermint extract per mug. You can also try melting in peppermint candies if you don’t have the extract. For decadent hot cocoa with peppermint, try this recipe.

Crafts You Can Do with Your Kids

Want to get your kids involved in the festivities? Try our free printable St. Patrick’s Day bingo cards. They’re free and easy to print as long as you have quality ink or tonerand paper.

Play-Doh is another fun way to play with your children on St. Patrick’s Day. Use black Play-Doh to make a pot; it will probably more resemble a bowl. Then, take yellow Play-Doh and create “coins” to place inside the bowl. You can also use a paper cup as the mold for the pot.

What would the holiday be without shamrocks? For this DIY project, you can either use white paper and green crayons/paint or green paper and a dark-colored pen or pencil. Have your kids draw three hearts connected by a stem like soand then cut out the clover pattern. Voilà, shamrocks!

How are you celebrating St. Patrick’s Day? Let us know below or on Facebook and Twitter.