Traditionally, New Year’s Eve is considered a holiday for grownups. True, midnight is past most kids’ bedtimes, but there are still plenty of fun ways to usher in the New Year with children.
Party Activity Ideas
1. Here are some fun ideas for creating New Year's Eve traditions for families with kids:
2. Have the kids spend time scrap-booking their memories from the previous year or making time capsules that will be remain sealed until the children turn 18--or at least until the next New Year's Eve.
3. Get fancy! Play dress up with young children. Bring out the bow ties, high heels, feather boas, lipstick, and pearls. Make it even more exciting by adding a photo booth!
4. Hold a mock New Year’s Eve for young children, celebrating at 7 or 8 p.m. instead of midnight.
5. Make a ball-shaped piñata that resembles the big ball that drops in New York City. You can even have the kids help you decorate it with paint, sparkly beads and glitter, at midnight, let the kids bang it open.
6. Use a balloon drop kit or make your own by filling some netting or a plastic tablecloth with inflated balloons. Tape the balloon-filled net to the ceiling in the party room and release them when guests reach the end of their midnight countdown.
7. Have kids make their snack bags to open up and enjoy at midnight. They can fill brown paper lunch bags with treats such as New Year’s cookies or winter trail mix. Have them draw their countdown clocks on circles cut out of card stock or sheets of foam, and paste them into the bags.
8. Have kids help paint the numbers on the cookies for this cake, then take one off and eat it for every hour that passes. At midnight, it's finally time to cut and enjoy the rest of the cake!
9. Goal setting. So often it’s just us parents setting goals for the year, but this year I want to get the kids involved too. It doesn’t have to be over the top, just simple goals that work for their age like, what places would they like to visit more? What do they want to do in the afternoons more often? What dinners might they like regularly?
10. Letter to my future self. I’m going to have the kids write a letter about what they hope happens in the next year. They could write about school, their friends and how much they enjoy playing with them or even the dreams they wish will come true.
Wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year!
