Shenanigans: A St. Patrick’s Day Left-Right Story

Rival leprechauns face off in this wee left-right story for St. Paddy’s Day.

St. Patrick’s Day isn’t exactly known for gift exchanges. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t use it as an excuse to host a Left-Right Game. The popular gift-passing game, long associated with Christmas, is a real blast at any time of year.

Besides, as anyone who’s been part of a Left-Right Game knows, it’s the story that really gives this activity its holiday theme. If you want to host a Left-Right Game for St. Patrick’s Day, all you really need is a story with plenty of Irish flavor… and that’s exactly what I’ve got for you in this article. The story is called Shenanigans, and it it comes with a printable you can read from.

The Rules

Before getting to the aforementioned story, let’s go over the rules for anyone who may not be familiar.

At the start of the Left-Right Game, players sit in a circle holding a present or some other sort of prize. Someone (probably you) reads a special story with lots of mentions of the words “left” and “right.” Every time one of those words is read, players pass the prizes they’re holding in the corresponding direction.

While I have the story for your St. Patrick’s Day Left-Right Game, it’s up to you to decide what to do about the prizes. For a Christmas Left-Right Game, the players typically bring them, but in this case, it might be more realistic for you to supply small gifts of some sort. The important thing is that the gifts be different, so that it matters where they end up.

Speaking of which, depending on how many players you have, it’s always possible that the prizes could end up back where they started. That’s not a big deal if you’re supplying all the prizes yourself. However, if you prefer to avoid this, I’ve added an extra (optional) line to the story to nudge the gifts along if needed.

The Story

With all that rigamarole out of the way, here’s the full text of my St. Patrick’s Day left-right story. You can find the printable below.

Shenanigans

Leprechauns are solitary creatures who prefer to be LEFT to their own devices. Some say these mischievous money grubbers spread out because they don’t want their gold LEFT where another of their kind might find it. In any case, the following story tells of what happened when a couple of these cranky wee folk butted RIGHT up against each other.

In the days of old, there were two leprechauns who lived RIGHT next to each other, on either side of a grand waterfall. Leon the leprechaun lived in a cottage on the RIGHT side of the waterfall, Louie the leprechaun in a cottage on the LEFT.

The relationship between these two small fellows LEFT a lot to be desired. They didn’t like or trust each other, and truth be told, neither one was quite RIGHT in the head. They expressed their hostility toward their neighbor in the usual leprechaun way – through all manner of pranks and tomfoolery. These shenanigans would never cease until one or the other LEFT the area.

It all started when Leon filled Louie’s hat with dust, which LEFT him sneezing and scratching his head. Then Louie plucked leaves off of Leon’s four-leaf clover until there was only one LEFT. Leon retaliated RIGHT away by dyeing Louie’s bonny green jacket purple. Then Louie got Leon RIGHT back by stealing all of his LEFT shoes, which LEFT him walking around half-barefooted.

On and on these shenanigans went RIGHT up until the day Leon marched over to the LEFT side of the waterfall to confront Louie. “Now you’ve gone too far, you finagling fool! What gave you the RIGHT to steal me gold?”

“I’ve not taken your gold, you insufferable eejit,” said Louie. “You probably forgot where you LEFT it!”

“I know where I LEFT it,” Leon said, “RIGHT behind the waterfall.”

This LEFT Louie stunned, for he too, kept his gold behind the waterfall. He hurried to the spot where he LEFT his pot of gold and found it emptied out! RIGHT away he suspected his rival had falsely accused him to cover his own mischief.

Now the feud had taken a LEFT turn. Each leprechaun believed the other had stolen his gold and LEFT him penniless. There were no more merry hijinks – the only thing LEFT between them were bitter accusations. Finding themselves at an impasse, each one decided there was only one thing LEFT to do – leave their beloved cottages and seek to rebuild their fortunes elsewhere. And so they did.

But prime real estate like theirs would not be LEFT uninhabited for long. RIGHT after Leon and Louie LEFT, a new leprechaun took up residence near the waterfall. His name was Lucky the Leprechaun. And he was lucky indeed, for it was rumored that, for reasons best LEFT to the imagination, he had three times the gold of the average leprechaun.

(Optional) As for Leon and Louie, some might feel pity for these two miserable wee folk who were forced to roam the Irish countryside without a home. But others believe that for all their shenanigans, it served them RIGHT.