December 27, 2018
Fun Ways To Celebrate New Year’s Eve With Kids!
Spending New Year’s Eve with your children…or any kids for that matter…can be a lot more fun than going to your typical dress-up party. Kids have such natural enthusiasm for anything fun and it’s contagious! Plus, staying up late for kids is a really big deal—you’ll get to share in their excitement at being a key part of the New Year’s celebration. After all, there’s nothing better than being around happy children! Here are some ways to get the party started!
- Make a piñata ball the looks like the glittery ball that drops at midnight. Make this on New Year’s Eve day to increase their excitement. Be sure to decorate it with sparkles, beads, anything to make it stand out. At midnight, let the kids bang it open. Sure will be a lot less noisy than banging pots and pans in the street, which was the old-fashioned way to ring in the New Year.
- Forget the bar. Set up a fun ice cream station with different flavors ice cream and all sorts of toppings. Decorate the table with a paper tablecloth and New Year’s Eve napkins and plastic utensils. Put a New Year’s Eve centerpiece in the middle. Keep the ice cream in the fridge until 11 pm, then “open” the ice cream station with a flourish of tooting horns. This will be your pre-midnight countdown “appetizers.”
- Play dress up! Pull out your high heels and old party dresses. Bring out some ties and suit jackets for the boys. Pull out your lipstick if you dare! You can even go to a party store and buy top hats, feather boas and child-size sparkling clothes. Make sure you take lots of pictures! If you’re up for it, rent a Polaroid, take snapshots and tape the photos up on a New Year’s Eve wall.
- If you’re up for it, let your children have a slumber party too! Fabricate a tent out of old sheets. For once, let them run around the house and scream. But be sure to keep it an at manageable level. Remember, this is all about celebrating and having fun.
- Play New Year’s Eve bingo. There actually is such a game. Get the free printables from Capturing Joy. Don’t forget prizes!
- Balloon pop may be loud but it sure is fun. If you have older kids, tie a balloon around each one’s ankle and then let them loose around the house as they try to pop each other’s balloons. The last one with an unpopped balloon wins. If you have younger kids, blow up balloons and let everyone run around trying to pop as many as they can in a specific time period. So no one feels left out, reward everyone at the end with a piece of cake or some sort of dessert.
- If your children are older, have a board game marathon, with prizes for those who win milestones in the game. Think glow sticks, noisemakers for prizes. Have everyone wear a New Year’s Eve hat while they play.
- Be sure to watch the ball drop at midnight. Give each child a small plastic cup of sparkling cider to celebrate. Do the countdown starting at 30 seconds. When the ball drops, make sure everyone kisses everyone. Jump up and down. Act like a kid yourself! You’ll never have more fun!
