How To Set A Leprechaun Trap

six DIY Leprechaun Traps to Make for St. Patrick's Day

Leprechaun traps are like Elf on the Shelf for St. Patrick'south Day—but they're way less work.

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Thanks to an adorable holiday children's book, we have a new favorite St. Patrick's Day tradition—and it makes the perfect socially-distant at-home activity for kids. If you're non already making leprechaun traps for the vacation, you're going to want to start after yous see these clever creations.

The tradition is similar to Christmas' Elf on the Shelf, but with manner less work for mom and dad: Rather than moving an elf to a new location each night, yous fix up the trap in one case and leave it upwards all season. The idea is simple: Make a trap and gear up it up the night before St. Patrick'southward Twenty-four hours; if you wake up to discover gold coins or treasure in the trap, you'll know you lot've caught a leprechaun.

The best part about this tradition is that it tin be easily made and executed past the kids—all you have to do is add the coins once the kids are asleep (unless a leprechaun beats you lot to information technology). To start this tradition with your family, grab a copy of the book How to Catch a Leprechaun($10, Barnes & Noble) to learn a scrap nigh St. Patrick's Mean solar day and to get the kids excited to catch a leprechaun. And so, set them loose with craft supplies! These are a few of our favorite leprechaun traps to inspire your own creations.

Rainbow Road

Every leprechaun knows that at the cease of a rainbow, there'south certain to be a pot of gold. To recreate this look from Harli of Ms. Marli's Honeys, lay down a canvas of rainbow-striped newspaper ($13 for a 12-pack, Walmart) for leprechauns to follow, then prop up a green paper-thin box with a wooden skewer cutting in half, and let the kids decorate the sides of the box. When a leprechaun comes to steal your pot of gold, the box will fall and he'll be trapped inside.

Leprechaun Garden

A secret trap door is a sneaky fashion to catch a leprechaun. Build a ladder of painted light-green crafts sticks, and so mount it against a small-scale box (similar the wooden 1 pictured here). Cover the top of the box with newspaper in hopes that an unsuspecting leprechaun volition climb the ladder and autumn in. Tonya Staab decorated the scene with gratis printable signs from book publisher Harper Collins to make the trap even more enticing.

Abode Sweet Domicile

Kids will love decorating this adorable leprechaun trap, made by Jess from Everyday Political party Mag. Accept them pigment a small-scale wooden birdhouse ($10, Target) in a rainbow of colors and permit it to dry. Then, place the firm on a decorative platter, surrounded by chocolate coins and sparkly cream dots found at your local crafts store. Impress out or make your own colorful rainbow on carte du jour stock and attach it to the roof of your trap to attract leprechauns by the dozen.

Green top hat made from dark-green paper and

Credit: Courtesy of The Suburban Discourse

Greenish Top Hat Leprechaun Trap

There's nothing like the promise of costless gold to lure a leprechaun to your trap. Kellie from The Suburban Discourse made the top hat out of green poster lath and topped information technology with a pipe cleaner rainbow (complete with cotton ball clouds!) and a blackness pot filled with gold processed—aka individually-wrapped Rolos ($vi, Target). We're loving the add-on of the ladder made from green newspaper straws, too!

Gold Inside Leprechaun Trap

This DIY leprechaun trap, from Mrs. Henry in First, uses recycled materials to attract the leprechaun. Repurpose an old cardboard shipping box and paper towel tube into a seriously adorable leprechaun trap. This box is balanced on a cardboard tube covered in rainbow stripes, which is fastened to a string. When the leprechaun goes inside the box, a uncomplicated tug on the string will trap him. If your kids awake to find the box completely face-down on the ground with gold coins inside, they'll know the trap worked!

Leprechaun trap made from dark-brown paper-thin box

Credit: Courtesy of Modern Parents Messy Kids

DIY Leprechaun Trap Box

This homemade leprechaun trap is so piece of cake to make. Steph from Modernistic Parents Messy Kids transformed a plain brown box with a stripe of green paint, sparkly shamrock shapes, and a pipe cleaner rainbow. Since chipboard boxes are cheap and can be found at most crafts stores, turn this into a fun St. Patrick'due south Twenty-four hour period activeness by letting each child decorate their own trap.