St. Patrick's Day Games for the Family

The entire family can join in on St. Patrick's Day fun.

Whether your family is celebrating the luck of the Irish as a part of your own Irish tradition or you're simply participating in St. Patrick's Day-themed fun, there are a host of activities and games that a family can do together. Families with children of all ages can adapt several of the game ideas to fit younger or older kids and can easily join in on the fun with them.

Leprechaun's Pot of Gold Scavenger Hunt

Use green beads as prizes leading up to each clue.

Use green construction paper to cut out large shamrocks to be used as the clue cards. Write clues on each clue card with a large black marker. Make clues simple and fun for young players and more witty and challenging for older kids. Hide the cards around the backyard or in an outdoor park. Leave small prizes and trinkets, such as gold-foiled wrapped candy or gum, for the players to collect after each successful clue. At the end of the hunt, have players return back to the home base to a "pot of gold" containing a grab bag for each player.

Green Clover Hide-and-Seek

Use three-leaf clovers to trick players.

Cut out several items that can be used for a hide-and-seek game, such as three-leaf clovers, coins, rainbows and Irish hats. Include only one green four-leaf clover. Stencils for cut-outs can be found online, or parents can trace cookie cutters onto paper as well. Send the kids on a mission to hide from each other while looking out for the St. Patty's Day-themed items around the house and backyard. The winner is the player who finds the only four-leaf clover, which you have hidden in a secret location.

Gold Coin Hopscotch

The whole family can join in on a fun game of hopscotch.

Get the family involved in a classic game of hopscotch with a St. Patrick's Day twist. Decorate the driveway or cul-de-sac with a jumping board shaped as a four-leaf clover. Mark each space one to 10 in the same design as a traditional hopscotch game. Use gold coins to mark the "skip" piece, which is the space that each player does not jump on. Roll the coins over the hopscotch board and compete to see how quickly the family members can make it through the board. For a longer game and more of a challenge, add more numbers to the board and make the spaces larger.