March is by far one of my favorite months of the year! I don’t even remember when my love for March and all it holds first began, but it’s definitely a month I look forward to for so many reasons.
March has also become a month my family really looks forward to together. We have some traditions we hold tightly to for this month that makes it special for us. I’m going to share those family traditions with you today and maybe they’ll spark some inspiration for new traditions for your family.
March Madness
My family enjoys a lot of different sports, and one of our favorites is college basketball. One of the biggest tournaments of the year happens every March, March Madness! Every year we all eagerly await Selection Sunday (March 15th this year) to find out which teams will be in the tournament. We print our brackets the next day and start filling them out in preparation for when games begin a couple days later.
Sometimes we give the competition some stakes like whoever wins gets out of chores for a week. Something simple and fun. Other years we don’t put stakes on it, and the winner just takes their bragging rights. Either way, there is always a LOT of trash talking that happens!
We’ve even gone to see some March Madness games in person. We were fortunate to have games here in Columbia in 2019, so we played hooky from work and school and went to watch in person. Such a fantastic experience!
St. Patrick’s Day
We love St. Patrick’s Day in our house and will find any way to celebrate it that we can! One of the most fun things we’ve done as a family over the years is to build a leprechaun trap. Every year we gather up a variety of materials, create a trap, add the bait (Lucky Charms), set the trap, and wait to see if we caught the leprechaun the next day.
Our leprechaun is pretty crafty though and usually manages to escape. I say “usually” because we did manage to catch him one year. My boys put him in a Lego jail cell, where he stayed for the night but managed to escape the next morning. He also may or may not have taken one of the Lego female minifigures with him for companionship. But that’s another story…
Whether he’s caught or not, the leprechaun always leaves quite a mess! Green streamers all over the house, green footprints, green “droppings” in the toilet, green milk. He even dyed a green streak in my hair one year! To make up for his mess though, he normally leaves some gold coins and treats for the kids, along with a funny note.
Another way we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day is by having traditional Irish foods for dinner. There are a lot of great options here! Corned beef and cabbage are always a good option. Our favorite though is Shepard’s pie with Irish Soda bread. Delicious!
Shamrock Shakes
March wouldn’t be complete without a trip to McDonald’s for Shamrock Shakes! They are sooooooooo good! Minty goodness in the form of a milkshake. Yum! I’ve been told that Arby’s makes their own version of a Shamrock Shake and uses Andes Mints for theirs. I haven’t tried it yet, but my goal is to get one this year.
Events Around Town
I haven’t met a city yet that doesn’t have some sort of St. Patrick’s Day event. There are always parades, festivals, and more! When we lived in Chicago my favorite tradition was watching the river get dyed green. So fun! Did you know Columbia has its own version of this tradition? Every year the main fountain in Five Points gets dyed green! My kids have always loved going to see the green water. I bet yours will too!
Columbia offers many St. Patrick’s Day events throughout the month. Many cities around the Midlands have parades. There is the St. Pat’s in Five Points event, which is fun for the whole family, and the library often has Irish/St. Patrick’s Day themed events and crafts.
March ushers in Spring, warmer weather, the famous yellow “rain” (pollen!), Irish shenanigans, and so much more! Why not start some new traditions with your family this month?
