Friday, April 25, 2014

Celebrating St. Patrick's Day

By Lizbeth Nathaniel


While it's true that St. Patrick is the Patron Saint of Ireland, Americans enjoy celebrating his special day every year on March 17. In the United States, it is a day to celebrate Irish culture and many cities and towns host parades and St. Patrick's Day events. In Chicago, the Chicago River is even dyed green to celebrate the day. If you wish to plan your own exciting St. Patrick's event, here are a few fun suggestions.

Decorations are most likely to be in green but no worries as making some for your home comes really easy. Your hurricane candle holders are great for holding green lentils or dried peas which you can then top with a white candle. Green candies can be decorative when placed in pretty clear mason jars. Of course rainbow themed decors are also great where you can start off with having rainbow streamers.

Fresh flowers - these are definitely great for parties. Since it is St. Patrick's Day, consider a bouquet of white and light green hydrangeas or white gerberas, tiny green hydrangeas and some more greenery in a green vase make great choices. One more option would be shamrock plants and you are likely to find several great options freshly delivered to your party by your local Dana Point florist, Irvine florist or Carlsbad florist.

As food and drink is most likely to draw attention of guests, a good St. Patrick's party comes with plenty of Irish beer including the likes of Guinness, Kilkenny and Smithwick's. Irish whiskey and green cocktails like an appletini and or perhaps a key lime martini are great options when serving cocktails. For the kids, serve up minty green ice cream shakes topped with whipped cream and green sprinkles.

Your dinner should include plenty of Irish favorites, and one easy idea would be to cook up a hearty beef stew in a crock pot and serve it with some Irish soda bread. Set out platters with the best quality corned beef as well as rye bread and other sandwich fixings as well. You could also serve a side of the traditional Irish dish of Colcannon. For dessert serve beautiful green cupcakes with a candy shamrock on top and some green sugar cookies in the shape of shamrocks.

And for a fun night, prepare some fun games as if you are in some sort of Irish pub. A dart board or corn hole game are great things to have in your party just like the ones you usually find in a bar. For parties with children and adults alike, prepare games fit for all ages. Make sure you have Irish tunes playing in the background throughout the party for that more realistic feel for the St. Patrick's feast.




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