How to Make a Leprechaun Trap

By Charlene DeLoach, Chief Play Officer, Playroom Chronicles

st patricks day kid crafts — This post was originally published in February 2021 and updated in February 2025 with new images, content, and links.

 A quick note: This content was created in partnership with one or more of the brands featured. I may have been paid, received products, or both. Paid or not, I’m still going to tell you what I think because none of us needs another toy our kids won’t play with.

Here is how to make a Leprechaun Trap so the kids can see if they can trap a Leprechaun on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day. Here are a couple of ideas, but anything they can think up and imagine is always a great thing, too.

Buy All The Supplies From This Amazon List

Leprechaun Trap Items

Just find empty coffee containers, cereal boxes, oatmeal jars, shoe boxes, construction paper, tape or glue, scissors, markers or crayons, stickers, etc. Then, use items like fake gold (chocolate gold coins are good), Skittles, Lucky Charms cereal, or anything that would ‘lure the Leprechaun’ to the trap.

Leprechaun Lure

Set up the traps before the kids go to bed. Just prop it up with a stick or, my personal preference, an empty paper towel roll. Then, place something yummy underneath – like Lucky Charms cereal.

Staging the Trap

First, remove some of the Leprechaun Lure. If you had Lucky Charms, eat some, spread it around on the floor (Leprechauns are messy eaters), and remove the paper towel or whatever you used to prop up the trap. (Just set it nearby.) Then, I like to make a hole in the side of the trap to make it look like the Leprechaun ‘escaped’ by chewing a hole through!

Then, leave Leprechaun evidence behind, such as green confetti or footprints. Have it go toward the door you think the Leprechaun would have used to escape the house! Maybe muss up the house a bit (or more so than usual!) Open some kitchen drawers, and leave green napkins hanging out. Turn over a chair. Anything naughty the Leprechaun would have done before getting lured to the trap!

How to Make Leprechaun Footprints

The easiest way is to buy washable green paint (Crayola makes a good one.) Then, take a little shoe you can probably find in your kids’ toy box – like a Barbie shoe or even the foot of an action figure. Then, place the shoe in the green paint and stamp the foot in a walking pattern towards the door or wherever you think the Leprechaun would have walked. Our story is that the Leprechaun created destruction before getting caught in the trap.

Other Leprechaun Ideas

Color the toilet water green (using food coloring), pretending it must be Leprechaun pee-pee. (Kids love that!) Then, hide chocolate gold coins around the house. When the kids wake up, they will see the empty trap but the fun ‘destruction’ (and chocolate) the Leprechauns left behind in their hasty escape! If your kids don’t like chocolate, rainbow-colored Skittles would be Leprechaun-approved!

Then, have more fun on St. Patrick’s Day with green food and decor. Check out my post here for other St. Patrick’s Day Activities! Sláinte!

Buy All The Supplies From This Amazon List