DIY A Leprechaun Box

Making leprechaun box is a fun simple DIY you can do with a little one (as in child, not leprechaun).

What is a leprechaun box? A leprechaun box is a green decorated wooden box that a child leaves out the night before St. Patrick's Day in hours that a leprechaun will stop by in the middle of the night fill it with goodies and then hide it somewhere in you home. It is something my mother did with my sister and I while we were little (I'm pretty sure she got the idea out of an early 90s parenting magazine).

Supplies

The Box: a wooden shaker box, green paint, paint brush, glue, things to decorate the box: stickers, glitter, sequins, wood cutouts, pompoms (use what you have on hand)

Other stuff: goodies to full the box, gold sequins or confetti, a super shiny penny

Now that you've gathered the supplies it's time to put together your leprechaun box -

 

Step 1 - Paint the box green - with younger kids (or impatient kids) you may want to do this step ahead of time. I used two coats of a nice kelly green and even with those two coats it was dry enough to decorate within 20s or so.

 

 

Step 2 - Time to decorate! This is the fun part, give the kids a pile of  whatever craft supplies you have on hand and let them go at it.  Of course if there is a glue gun involved make sure that an adult does the actual handling of the glue gun.  Again, depending on the age of the kids you may have to be a bit more hands on (Lily didn't write her own name in gold glitter paint)

 

Once everything is dry you have yourself a leprechaun box. . .

 

 

Now what to do with it -

 

The night before St. Patricks Day you have your little one (again - child, not leprechaun) leave the box out before they go to bed, with the box they should leave the shiniest penny they can find.  Leprechauns are attracted to shiny money.

 

Once the little one is tucked in, it is time for the leprechaun to get to work.  Take the penny and fill the box with little treats.  I picked up a bunch of small green candies and prizes from the party store (don't go crazy, you have to do this again next year).

 

 

Then you hide the box somewhere in the house, not anywhere too hard to find.  Lastly you leave a leprechaun trail of gold from where the box was to where it is hidden. Cause, leprechauns always leave golden trails, duh.

 

When the little one wakes up in the morning and goes to check on their box they can follow the trail to where the leprechaun hid it and find their prizes.

 

I remember the first time my sister saw the leprechaun trail, she looked at my mom in complete shock,  yelled "IT WORKED!" and then off she was to find her box.