Building a Fairy House

Just like you might build a birdhouse to attract birds to your yard, the best way to attract fairies is to make them feel welcome by creating a nice space for them to live.

Here are some tips for building a fabulous house fit for a fairy.

• Choose a spot in nature. While your child may be tempted to build a tiny fairy house in their bedroom, fairies prefer to live outside. They are secretive creatures (which is why you don’t see them all the time), so pick a spot that’s a bit hidden, especially from humans. At the base of a tree, in the branches of a dense shrub, inside your bean tripod, some place hidden from sight. 

• Use natural building materials. Fairies are creatures of nature. They don’t want to live in a house built from man-made materials like plastic. Build your fairy house out of the natural materials you can find in your backyard or a nearby park, such as:    
• Bark: Slabs of bark are perfect for making the floor, walls, and roof.
• Sticks: You can use sticks to build walls, then cover them with leaves or moss. Sticks are also good for building fairy furniture like a table or chairs.
• Pinecones: They are the perfect size for fairy chairs and couches.
• Acorns: Acorn caps make great fairy plates or cups.
• Rocks: Use rocks to make a walkway up to the fairy house. A flat rock could also be a tabletop or bed.
• Shells: Fill a big shell with water to create a fairy bathtub. A small shell can be a sink or bowl.
• Moss: Moss works for everything fairy related. It can be used to create a soft carpet, luxurious bedding, or even rainproof roofing.
• Don’t forget to decorate. Use flowers, shiny stones, or colored glass to add some zhoosh to your cozy creation.

• Leave a note. Once you’re all finished building your fairy house, write a note, and leave it for your guests. Tell them you built the house for them, and you hope they like it and will stay. With luck, they’ll write back! Look carefully for tiny fairy notes they might leave for you. You may even want to leave the occasional fairy treat, but don’t pester them to grant your wishes. 

In most cultures, fairies are the guardians of nature. They protect waterfalls, whole forests, or just a single tree. If kids want to find fairies, they must respect and care for nature, too. Looking for fairies gets kids outside, crawling around on their hands and knees, noticing the dew on the grass, the bee on the blossom, and the nearly invisible slug trail looping across the dirt. Whether they find fairies or not, they will be out in nature, having adventures, and connecting with the more-than-human world.

Learn more about fairies from across the world in Finding Fairies: Secrets for Attracting Magickal Folk by Michelle Roehm McCann and Marianne Monson.