This year for St. Patrick’s Day, I thought it would be fun to have a little luncheon for my girls and their little buddy and let them explore some Irish legends. If you’re like me, you want to celebrate the holidays, but the holidays also sneak up on you, so you wind up without much time to plan. That’s okay, because I’ve planned the party for you! Here’s how to plan a St. Patrick’s Day lunch PLUS I’ve also got free printables for you!

St. Patrick’s Day Decor

Our colors were green, white and brown with pops of orange – like the Irish flag. Stephanie of Madeline Lewis Designs created our St. Patrick’s Day printables. You can download them for free here. (For a tutorial about “framed art,” go here.)

I love the brown because it lets me introduce natural elements that make me think of Ireland.

• The stones remind me of the Blarney Stone and of course, we had to add rubber snakes to honor St. Patrick.
• Our flowers also included Bells of Ireland.
• The fruits and vegetables were displayed on a natural wood platter.
• For a holiday party, I don’t want to go overboard with my spending. So, the green pottery is all from my collection and our “table runner” is just series of green placemats that I already owned.

Style your dining table

For little kids, I like to use a table and chairs that actually fit them. Beg, borrow and (don’t) steal the number of table sets you need for your party. (Or, invest a little in set of child-sized table and chairs from Ikea that you can use over and over.) All these ideas are super-duper easy, and no crafting skills required.

• At the children’s table, I used a $3.50 white throw from Ikea as a tablecloth.
• I dressed up the chairs with my chair cover pockets and an embroidered felt shamrock icon.
• I tied the napkins with green grosgrain ribbon and topped them with a felt shamrock sticker. (I also used the shamrock stickers to accent the Good Luck banner and the orange tub on the dessert table.)
• The plates were a Home Goods find (luck me!) and I pull them out every St. Patrick’s Day.
• The orange mustache straws (which crack me up) are from the Target dollar aisle.
• The “centerpiece” is made up of the tin pails the kids used for their scavenger hunt, plus another rubber snake.

St. Patrick’s Day Party Food

Having lunch and not just desserts let me offer a more balanced menu. Since this was a lunch-time party, we had kid-friendly food, but kept it simple:

• Shamrock shaped PB&Js (just cut them out with an oversized cookie cutter)
• Green grapes, green apples, green bell peppers
• Green apple soda.

Our sweets included:

• Mint M&Ms
• Green and orange rock candy (remind your guests to lick and not bite the rock candy),
• Chocolate cupcakes topped with Andes Mint crumbles
• Martha Stewart Chocolate Chip Cookie Icebox Cake and
• Rainbow lollipops.

All our food signs included the very Irish “O’____” in their name. So, we had Rock O’Candy, Cookie O’Cake … you get the idea. I’m corny. The kids don’t get my “jokes” but they make me happy!

St. Patrick’s Day Party Activities

Even for a small party, I like to plan several activities. You never know when the kids are going to blow right through one game and all of a sudden you need to pull out the back-up game or activity.

• We started the party games before lunch because the kids were too excited to sit still – ha! The kids searched for the leprechaun’s “spilled gold” that I’d hidden before the party.
• After lunch and dessert, they colored wood leprechaun masks that I found at Michael’s. (They tend to have seasonal versions of these masks.)
• We also made leprechaun houses (instead of traps) in the hopes of catching a leprechaun. (More on these tomorrow.)
• Finally, we broke out our green recorders and whistled the snakes out of the room, sort of like St. Patrick driving the snakes into the sea. (What we lack in historical accuracy, we make up for in fun!)

How do you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with your kids? Let me know in the comments below!

Vendor Credits

• Party styling: The Party Teacher
• Photography: Viridian Images Photography
• Printables: Madeline Lewis Designs
• Chair covers: Double the Fun Parties
• Circle garland: Etsy > A Felt Affair
• Shamrock plates and platters: Home Goods
• Floral arrangement: Marie at my Kroger – love her!