Booting up Animal Crossing today will reward you with a special gift to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Day has typically been a yearly celebration of Irish culture by Irish people, and an excuse to get blind drunk by the rest of the world.

The festivities of this special day have spread into Animal Crossing: Let's Go To The City, with Nintendo issuing yet another item of downloadable content to players who keep their WiiConnect24 settings on.

From today through till March 30th, if you boot up your copy of Animal Crossing for the Wii, you should find mail pelican Pete waiting outside your house to deliver a letter with a present attached from Nintendo. The present is a Shamrock Hat, perfect for bringing Irish spirit and cheer to your town!

Franklin and forum moderator darksnowman are currently the only Irish staffers on the team. Fact.

We've heard confirmation of the availability of the item in the UK and across Europe, as well as in the US. N-Europe's various towns are yet to receive the hats, but in the meantime, there is Guinness.

Thanks to site reader canand for providing the images!