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Whether the kids love to craft, snack or be surprised, these ideas will have them feeling lucky on St. Patrick’s Day. Give one, some or all of these leprechaun tricks a try—they’ll be so excited to get a visit from one of these mythical and mischievous creatures.

Make a Leprechaun Trap

This is perhaps the most quintessential of all leprechaun tricks. The night before, set up lures using Lucky Charms cereal, a pot of gold chocolate coins, play money and four-leaf clovers made of green construction paper. The kids can write letters for him to read when he visits. Leave out green milk (use food coloring) and cookies. Build a tiny house with green LEGOs, a shoebox or popsicle sticks, and make a ladder and hole at the top for the leprechaun to climb up and fall into.

Leave tiny green footprints (add glitter for extra magic!) in washable paint around the setup. If they’re deep sleepers, draw green kiss marks and clovers on their faces. Wedge a piece of green fabric in the hinge of the front door: It’ll look like he tore his jacket while making a run for it.

Get Messy

Leave cabinets and drawers open with stuff all over the counters and floors. Rearrange furniture and flip over chairs, lampshades and wastepaper baskets. Hit the bathroom to substitute regular soap for green soap and unravel toilet paper. Write playful messages in washable green marker on the mirror.

Snack Attack

Take to the kitchen and turn your water, milk, eggs and whatever else you can green with food dye (check to see if your local bagel shop will have green bagels for St. Patrick’s Day). Swap regular Oreos for green mint ones. Send them to school with an all-green lunch; think lettuce wraps, Granny Smith apples and Jello. If you’re feeling really ambitious, remove all the marshmallows from their morning bowl of Lucky Charms and say the leprechaun had a midnight snack.

Get Your Kicks

These pint-sized pranksters are historically cobblers, so arrange their shoes into neat rows, replace ordinary shoelaces with green ones or transform them into mini pots of gold by filling them with gold coins.

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