From Shamrocks to Shenanigans: The Wildest St. Patrick's Day Home Displays of the Decade

From entire homes glowing shamrock-green to friendly neighborhood competitions, these over-the-top displays have made headlines and delighted communities. (In fact, the share of Americans decorating their homes for St. Paddy’s grew from 23% in 2017 to about 26% by the mid-2020s.) Below, we recap some of the most outrageous and newsworthy St. Patrick’s Day home decoration moments of the past decade – including viral trends, record-breaking stunts, and traditions that bring Irish cheer to the home front.

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Shining Shamrocks in Brooklyn: The Bay Ridge “Holiday House”

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Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge neighborhood is home to perhaps the most famous year-round “holiday house,” owned by retiree Roy Jensen. Each March, Jensen’s two-story brick home is ablaze with emerald lights and dozens of neon shamrocks covering the windows and facade​. A huge “Happy St. Patrick’s Day” sign greets visitors, and if you look closely, there’s even a pot of gold nestled in the yard. Jensen has been decking out his home for every holiday since 1989, but his St. Paddy’s display has gained viral fame in recent years – drawing crowds of selfie-takers and even segments on local news.

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What makes this display truly outrageous is the scale and tech behind it. Jensen’s daughter Julianna, a lighting specialist, helps program an array of LEDs with “16 million possible light combinations,” ensuring the show gets bigger and brighter each year​. The result is a Leprechaun’s dream come true – from glowing shamrock garlands to illuminated leprechaun figures enhancing the porch. “People are just blown away. It just brightens their day,” Jensen told Time Out New York of the joyful reactions his ever-evolving decor inspires. And it’s all for the community: “This is not for me, it’s for everybody,” he says, noting that anyone can swing by 635 79th Street in Bay Ridge to snap a photo and share in the holiday cheer.

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From Parades to Porches: The “Shamrock Our Blocks” Trend

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When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many traditional St. Patrick’s Day parades were canceled in 2020 and 2021. But the Irish spirit found a way home. In March 2020 – just as lockdowns began – Chicago neighbors in Bucktown came up with a no-contact shamrock hunt: families taped shamrock drawings in their windows for kids to spot on a scavenger walk​. Soon, communities from Lincoln Square in Chicago to suburbs in California were joining this simple but heartwarming window-decoration trend​, proving that a little creativity (and construction paper) could keep the holiday magic alive even in isolation.

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By 2021, this grassroots idea had evolved into full-fledged home decorating contests. In Chicago’s South Side, parade organizers launched “Shamrock Our Blocks” as an alternative celebration when their big parade was nixed for a second year​. For a $20 registration, residents got an official yard sign and were encouraged to dress their houses to the max in green, gold, and Irish motifs. The sky was the limit – think giant inflatable leprechauns on the lawn, windows filled with twinkling shamrock lights, and yards turned into mini-Ireland scenes. Participants uploaded photos of their decked-out homes to compete for virtual “best decor” honors, with winners announced on the parade’s Facebook page. Importantly, the contest doubled as a fundraiser: proceeds from those yard sign kits were used to buy gift cards from local pubs and shops, pumping money back into small businesses hurt by the parade’s cancellation.

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The house-decoration-as-parade concept caught on elsewhere, too. Inspired by Chicago and by New Orleans’ successful Mardi Gras “house floats,” residents of NOLA’s Irish Channel embraced “Shamrock Our Blocks” in 2021 as well. Dozens of homeowners turned their porches into stationary parade floats – some even hiring professional float artists to out-do the neighbors. One New Orleans homeowner (a professional set designer) went all-out with a vivid rainbow arching from his porch to a pot of gold in the yard, plus leprechauns, clovers and twinkling lights galore. “We needed to revive this tradition now to pick up our spirits and continue to create magic,” he said of the DIY parade atmosphere. Organizers in Chicago and New Orleans teamed up to publish an online map of all the decorated houses, allowing families to drive or bike around on self-guided “shamrock tours” in lieu of a normal parade route. The result: city streets came alive with a decentralized St. Patrick’s celebration, as block after block glowed with green lights, banners, and Irish flags. What started as a pandemic workaround may well stick around – it’s that much fun.

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Neighborhood Showdowns: Competitive Irish Spirit at Home

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St. Patrick’s Day decorating has also turned into friendly competition in some communities. A great example is St. Louis’s Dogtown neighborhood – an Irish-American enclave famous for its annual parade. In recent years, Dogtown has hosted a House Decorating Contest to get everyone in the shamrock spirit. Neighbors try to outshine each other with leprechaun inflatables, tricolor (green-white-orange) bunting, Celtic flags, and creative yard displays, all vying for the title of most over-the-top Irish house on the block.

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One St. Louis home, for instance, went all-in with everything Irish – from shamrock cutouts lining the fence to an inflatable leprechaun greeting visitors on the porch, plus Irish flags draped from the roofline​. This eye-popping green spectacle earned 1st Place in Dogtown’s 2022 contest, beating dozens of other festooned homes. The winners didn’t just get bragging rights; they received prizes (delivered by members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians color guard, no less – talk about on-theme!). The entire neighborhood gets involved – residents drive around to admire entries, and people vote for their favorites by “liking” photos on Facebook. It’s a wholesome rivalry that has become a new tradition. As Dogtown United (the organizers) put it when congratulating the 2022 winners: “We can’t wait to see the decorations you come up with next year.”

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And it’s not just St. Louis. Across the country, communities have embraced similar contests and tours. From Savannah to Buffalo, local civic groups and Irish heritage organizations have started encouraging homeowners to showcase their Irish pride with lights and lawn displays. In some towns, mayors have even issued challenges for the “greenest house,” and charity raffles or prizes are offered to sweeten the deal. It all underscores a big trend: St. Patrick’s Day has joined Halloween and Christmas as a holiday where home decorating fever can take hold of entire neighborhoods.

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Viral Moments and Record-Breakers in St. Pat’s Décor

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No look at outrageous St. Patrick’s decorations would be complete without the truly viral one-offs and record attempts that have popped up in the past decade. Here are a few standout moments that had everyone talking (and clicking “Share”):

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• The Human Shamrock World Record (2019): In Elmira, New York, a crowd of 1,200 people gathered on St. Patrick’s Day 2019 to form the world’s largest human shamrock. Dressed in identical green ponchos, participants stood in a shamrock shape (complete with three leaves and a stem) and held the formation for a full 5 minutes to clinch a Guinness World Record. A news helicopter’s aerial shot of the giant human clover went viral on social media – a perfect blend of community spirit and eye-catching “decoration.” It smashed the previous record (815 people) and “put Elmira on the map again,” one excited participant said. While not a home decoration per se, this stunt showed how far people will go to celebrate St. Paddy’s in record-setting style.

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• The 12-Foot Skeleton Turned Leprechaun: Remember the viral 12-foot Halloween skeleton that took the internet by storm a few years back? In true holiday mash-up fashion, homeowners across America have kept their giant skeletons up year-round – dressing them for Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and yes, St. Patrick’s Day. Social media feeds have been full of hilarious images of these towering skeletons wearing green top hats and holding shamrocks. As one commenter noted, people have re-decorated the big Home Depot skeleton “for all the different holidays (Santa outfit, Easter bunny ears, St. Patrick’s Day leprechaun hat and beard, etc)”​. These undead leprechauns have become neighborhood mascots, drawing drive-by admirers and giving everyone a good laugh – a perfect example of how a viral decorating trend jumps from one holiday to the next.
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• Shamrock Shenanigans Caught on Camera: Another viral moment came when a homeowner rigged their Christmas light display to play Irish jigs in March. A TikTok video of a house flashing green and orange lights in sync with “Danny Boy” made the rounds, proving that synchronized holiday lights aren’t just for December anymore (much to the delight – or annoyance – of neighbors!). In other cases, ring doorbell footage of inflatable leprechauns dancing wildly in a windstorm have given the internet a chuckle. One Texas family even went viral for building an elaborate front-yard leprechaun trap with a rainbow slide and fake gold coins – an over-the-top craft project originally meant for their kids that ended up featured on a morning news segment after racking up millions of views on Facebook.
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These viral bits may be fleeting, but they highlight how St. Patrick’s Day home decorations have captured popular imagination. Whether it’s setting world records or becoming the latest TikTok sensation, going big and green has never been more in style.
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Over the past decade, these examples show how St. Patrick’s Day home decorating has evolved from a fun novelty into a full-blown cultural trend. What was once limited to a green door wreath or a shamrock on the window has transformed into a creative outlet for people to share joy, show off their Irish pride, and even support their communities. From Brooklyn’s glowing green landmark to entire cities turning porches into floats, homeowners are redefining what it means to celebrate March 17 – proving that there’s no such thing as “too much” when it comes to the wearin’ (and decoratin’) of the green. 🍀

Sources:

• Time Out New York – “Brooklyn house extravagantly decked out for St. Patrick’s Day”​timeout.com
• Storyful via Yahoo News – “Festive Brooklyn Home Glows Green Ahead of St. Patrick’s Day”
• ABC7 Chicago – “Shamrock Our Blocks gets South Side Irish in holiday spirit”
• FOX 32 Chicago – “‘Shamrock Our Blocks’: Decorate your home for St. Patrick’s Day”
• OffBeat Magazine – “Pluck of the Irish: Shamrock Our Blocks offers safe St. Pat’s celebration”
• Dogtown United (St. Louis) – 2022 St. Patrick’s House Decorating Contest Results​dogtownunited.org
• WTTW News – “Neighbors Salvage St. Patrick’s Day Fun With No-Contact Shamrock Hunt”​news.wttw.com
• 105.7 WROR Radio – “Guinness Record for World’s Largest Shamrock”
• Boing Boing / Reddit – discussions of the 12-ft Skeleton holiday trend​bbs.boingboing.net

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