5 Fun and Faith-Filled St. Patrick’s Day Activities for Families, by Emily Chaffins

By Emily Chaffins, Catholic Exchagne, March 17, 2026

Emily Chaffins is a fiction writer who has won multiple awards, including a Silver Key Award in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards (Humor Category) and First Place for Undergraduate Fiction in the Florida International University Student Literary Awards. She is also a freelancer for the Florida Catholic newspaper and OSV News,  ….

Everyone loves St. Patrick’s Day: on March 17^th, the Chicago River flows green, the Great Wall of China follows suit, and even astronauts floating in space find ways to celebrate! As Catholics, we know that St. Patrick’s Day commemorates the feast day of the bishop who lived in Ireland during the fifth century A.D. The question for parents is, how can this year’s festivities not only be fun, but also get kids engaged in the Catholic roots of the celebration?

Along with some cool history on how St. Patrick’s Day came about, here are five ways that families with kids can get more excited about St. Patrick’s Day.

Part One: Getting to know St. Patrick

Did you know St. Patrick didn’t start out as Patrick at all? His original name was Maewyn Succat—isn’t that a mouthful!

Maewyn grew up in ancient Roman Britain. When he was a teenager, he fell into the clutches of raiders, who sold him into slavery in Ireland. He was cut off from family and friends, living on this island until he successfully carried out an escape seven years later. …

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