Thursday, March 12, 2009

Leprechaun Traps

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
When my daughter was in elementary school, she learned about making leprechaun traps and was determined to create one for herself so she could catch her very own miniature man. Each year, she would set busily to work a few days before St. Patrick’s Day to devise and build her trap.

She made the traps out of the odd assortment of things one finds around the house, plus scraps of this and that from our well-stocked craft room. Usually, a discarded shoebox, saved for just such a project, was involved, along with lots of glue, glitter (to lure him), scraps of soft and pretty fabric, dishes from her Barbie stuff, and anything shiny and gold.

Once completed, she would set out the contraption near the front door, just before her bedtime routine on the night before St. Patrick’s Day.

And, each year, she’d go down first thing the next morning to check on the trap to see if there was a leprechaun inside. Each year, she’d find that the little treats she’d set out to lure him in were gone and in their place were gold covered chocolate coins and a tiny note with tiny lettering, that read something like this:

Ha! You thought you could catch me but you didn’t. Don’t you know that you can’t catch a leprechaun and you won’t get my gold? Nice try, though. Better luck next year, and thanks for the treats.
She was always sadly disappointed and just couldn’t figure why this year’s incredible design had failed. And, the following year she would be even more determined to improve upon her entrapment devices and lures. She stopped setting out the traps once she got into middle school and she never did catch one.

I miss those traps.

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2 comments:

Skebba said...

That is very cute. Was that your idea to set the trap? V. inventive. Will have to try it with my kidlets.

LoveANewIdea said...

Kelly-
Interestingly enough, she always did this completely on her own. I was so surprised by the first one she made, which she showed to me and explained how it would work, and needed help deciding on the most strategic location to put it. Then she did every year, all by her adorable little self.

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