A Chill Mom's Guide to Being the Leprechaun

Can we talk about this new leprechaun tradition? Where a small, imaginary green man comes to your house and plays pranks or leaves gifts for your toddler, like it’s second Christmas or something?!

A quick Pinterest search will flood your feed full of ideas like “10 easy leprechaun traps,” most of which require too many trips to the craft store (aka one). There’s a recipe for St. Patty’s Day Popcorn, in which step one is to spend two hours picking all of the shamrock hats out of a box of Lucky Charms. 

The absolute cutest, and also who has the time?

We’re all about being fun moms, meaning moms who are having fun. But as soon as something becomes all fun for kids and all stress for mom, count us out.

Out of curiosity, we took to our Instagram polls last week to ask whether y’all are into this leprechaun thing, and were happy to find most of you were like “yeah, no.” 

Shop the snapback in Green Room

But the truth is, sometimes holidays can bring a much-needed break to the rhythm of daily mom life. We just wanna make them work for us instead of the other way around. 

So, we bring you The Official Chill Mom’s Guide to Leprechauning, aka 3 simple St. Patrick's Day ideas we saw on Pinterest and simplified wayyyy down. We’re also throwing in some of our fav green gear because a little bro in new swag is always something to celebrate.

Tradition 1: Dyeing Food Green

Green pancakes. Green mac & cheese. Green potato soup. These are just a few of the internet’s suggestions for ways to stress out your March 17th. They’re also assuming we all have food coloring stocked in our pantry, or that we know where it is. We do not.

The Chill Mom way? Serve food that’s ALREADY GREEN. Here’s the menu: 

Breakfast: Spinach smoothie

Typically they’re like ew Mom what are you drinking? But today you get to tell them it’s leprechaun juice, and YES they can have as much as they want. 

We like this recipe because it calls for just 4 ingredients you most likely have on hand. 

Snack: All green fruit or veggie board

Include foods you know your kid already likes, then throw in a new one or two you’ve been wanting them to try. Maybe the leprechaun’s favorite food is broccoli, and maybe today is the day it becomes your toddler’s too?

Dinner: Swap spaghetti sauce for pesto.

Pick your go-to pasta shape (bowtie at our house) and swap your usual red for green. Grab the good stuff at Costco, the cheap stuff at any grocery store, or go all out and make your own.

Or just shop the Tahoe beanie in Olive Green

Tradition 2: The Leprechaun Mess

So the idea here is you make a huge mess somewhere in the house and say the leprechaun did it. Then the next morning you tell your kids to clean it up, and it’s…fun for them? 

While intentionally making a mess is not something we get, it’s not hard to see what the Chill Mom would do instead: just don’t clean up. 

Yes, starting now we declare March 16th Embrace The Mess Day. That pile of laundry? Leave it unfolded. The mountain of toys? Who cares! Tomorrow when your kids wake up, you can point out how messy that mysterious “leprechaun” is, turn on this Leprechaun Playlist, and see what happens. 

Best case scenario: you get more cleaning help than usual. Worst case: you got a day long break from cleaning! Win, win.

Or, just shop the Crew Neck Sweater in Sage

Tradition 3: Leprechaun Santa

According to Instagram, some Moms have turned this random day in March into another day your kid expects to be left gifts by a mythical creature. 

Again, we love the idea of adding something special to an otherwise long month, but we’re only barely recovered from December over here.

So what’s a Chill Mom to do? Identify a need your kid already has and present it as a gift from the leprechaun. 

Rainbow Gift Idea

-Art supplies like these washable bath crayons, or a refresh on school supplies for an older kid. 

-Their very own bag of rainbow goldfish.

Green Gift Idea

-Something your kid needs, but may not necessarily put on a wish list, i.e. pajamas, socks, or the best snack gadget ever.

Grab it in green and voila - it’s a gift worthy of the leprechaun. 

Gold Gift Idea

- A big old pile of Rolos may not technically qualify as a need, but it’s sure easy to grab from any gas station or grocery store, and looks just like treasure.

Feeling Chill? 

We hope so! While any of these ideas will require more effort than the average Thursday, hopefully they’re simple enough to deliver maximum fun for minimum stress. 

And in case you’re feeling extra lucky…

Shop the Snapback in Tourmaline or the The Cangu Swimmie.

Our swimmie collection is a great way to retail-therapy your way through the last cold weeks of winter. Here are a few green faves to get you excited for sunshine. 

Shop The Padang: light green with a classic coconut pattern

Shop The Islands: a pale peach/pink covered in tropical palms

Shop Anchors Point: seafoamy green meets anchors away