Leprechaun Traps - Forgotten Experiences

St. Patrick's Day 2026

It's been a few weeks since I shared anything from here. Today, a tradition from my kids childhood floated up, it seemed to be the perfect nudge to post again.

In my journaling classes, I teach the power of recording memories and legacies. Citing if you don't write them or tell them, no one but you will know them. Tonight, my own soapbox came to find me.

While sharing dinner together, my adult progeny began discussing Leprechaun Traps. For years, their childhood was filled with the annual competition to build a successful leprechaun trap. The minute Valentine's Day passed. The planning, scheming, and preparation to catch the little green magic guys commenced. In the days before March 16, there were frantic finalizations of plans.

The earliest traps were made from laundry baskets, and were easily escapable by the rascal leprechauns. Soon building blocks were tried. The next day they lay in a collapsed heap from which the wily green guys fled. Pretty soon, advanced contraptions were created. Shoe boxes, toilet paper rolls, mirrors, tin foil, miles of twine, coins, and little toy decoys were brought to the creation center.

What began as a couple of traps, had grown to one trap per potential captor. A grand total of 4. Each one was carefully planted in a special spot in the downstairs. All the various doors, pulleys, lights, enticements and trails of interest were arranged for each snare. Year after year, we all went to bed as soon as the final trap was set.

The energy in the house riveled Christmas Eve. The next morning, much like Christmas, three sets of hopeful, pajama clad young kids raced downstairs to see what they caught. Darn it all, if those miniature magic men, hadn't disappeared by dawn.

Tonight, as they relived their memories, I quietly pondered what I had forgotten in life. I hoped, as I listened to them, that I have written it down somewhere in the myriads of journals and notes that I have kept. If not, a version of it is here now.

For me, and my family, the leprechauns left a lifetime of magic in our lives. We wish all of you plenty of magic, too.

#journalkeeping #stpatricksday #familymemories