Every holiday has a special character, animal or person that represents what it stands for. Christmas has Santa Claus; Easter has the Easter bunny; Valentine’s Day has Cupid. Each symbol has a unique role to separate the traditions that come with its respective holiday. St. Patrick’s Day is no exception with its iconic mascot: the leprechaun. Leprechauns are popularly known for planting pots of gold at the end of rainbows; however, they also enjoy playing tricks on people, using their cleverness to escape capture.
On St. Patrick’s Day, many households have a tradition where children wake up to signs that the leprechaun has visited overnight. Typically, the leprechaun sneakily plays harmful but funny tricks around the house that hint their presence. Here are a few tricks that the leprechaun is known for:
Green milk or toilet water
Adding green food coloring to the toilet water or the milk in the fridge, changing from its normal color to leprechaun green.
Turn food green
You can complete this trick by adding green food coloring to a variety of meals like eggs, pancake mix and homemade bagels.
Tiny footprints or handprints
By using paint and a template, this is a creative way to create a track of footprints. To make it even more fun, add a pot of gold or a treat at the end of the trail.
Gold coin trail
Scatter gold chocolate coins around the house that lead up to a special gift!
Furniture or items moved
Hiding shoes, flipping couch cushions and rotating furniture are all simple and easy tricks the leprechaun plays.
Toilet-papered room
To make it seem like the leprechaun got carried away, wrapping streamers around a room and throwing toilet paper over a ceiling fan.
Rainbow leading to treasure
For a fun trail that ends in a surprise, take colored printer paper and make a rainbow.
Glitter or “magic dust”
Since the leprechaun is known for always getting away, the magic dust represents his secret way of never getting caught; it shows how he escaped the household.
Fridge chaos
A hilarious and harmless trick the leprechaun loves to play is putting googly eyes on milk cartons, containers or anything else in the house.
Bedroom trap escape
If a trap was set up to catch the leprechaun during the night, leaving it messed up in the morning gives hope that the leprechaun was there.
