Saint Patrick’s Day Leprechaun Trap Tradition

Leprechaun Trap Tradition: How to Make a Traditional Box and Stick Trap

Are you familiar with the Saint Patrick’s Day Leprechaun Trap Tradition? Me neither (at the time we made this one). I had to Google it! All I knew was that my best friend Jenny from Simply Creative Ways did it every year with her daughter’s, and now that Mia is three and a half, I thought it’d be the perfect age to start (kind of like the Elf on the Shelf).

Here is another one we made a few years ago: Leprechaun Trap with Straw Ladder

The Leprechaun Trap Tradition

According to Irish folklore, a leprechaun is a little shoemaker that stores their gold in little pots hidden at the end of a rainbow. They are often mischievous and like to play tricks like turning your milk green or rearranging items around your house. If they are ever captured by a human, it is said that they must grant you three wishes in exchange for release, hence the Leprechaun trap.

Making the Trap

Time: 30 Minutes

Materials:

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Cardboard Box
Sturdy Stick from your Yard
Wrapping Paper
Scrapbook Paper
Construction Paper
Scissors
Glue
Craft Punches
Plastic Gold Coins
Yarn or String

Here is how we made ours.

I covered an old shipping box in green wrapping paper that I had left over from Christmas. Mia and I dug through our bin of paper scraps and pulled out the green and yellow scraps. We punched out different sized circles with various circle craft punches.

She glued them on, along with some butterflies, plastic gold coins, and glitter shamrocks.

We also added a paper rainbow and fluffy clouds on top to entice any unsuspecting Leprechauns. To make the rainbow, cut equal width strips at different lengths. Red will be the longest and purple will be the shortest. Flush the ends and staple them together to form the rainbow. Cut out white clouds to glue at the ends.

Mia also added the toilet paper roll four leaf clover we made for good luck. This project is very easy. Simply cut four rings of cardboard tube and shape them into a heart. Glue the points of the hearts together to form a four leaf clover.

Another option is to make these paper shamrocks using a heart craft punch. This is one of my favorite St. Patrick’s Day crafts of all time.

We went to outside and searched for the perfect stick in our backyard.

Mia (with my help) tied some green yarn to the one end of the stick.

Mia set it all up.

We will set up come chocolate gold coins underneath our trap the night before St. Patrick’s Day. Hopefully we’ll catch one and get three wishes! {Fingers Crossed}