New Year’s Eve is often considered a holiday during which adults drink and party. If you have kids, though, you may prefer to find a few ways to celebrate that is a little more relaxed and kid-friendly. Check out these ideas for ringing in the New Year with young ones in tow.
Game Night
How about celebrating the end of the old year and the beginning of the new one with a game night? Round up a number of games — board games, card games, action games, and video games and plan to spend the night playing favorites. Be sure to throw in a few games you and your crew haven’t played before so you can try out something new. Buy board games on Amazon.
Movie Marathon
Plan to have a movie marathon on New Year’s Eve. Have everyone pick out a favorite movie or one they’ve been wanting to watch or choose a theme to go by. You could choose super hero movies, space and sci-fi movies, comedies, adventures, or even a movie series that has two or more movies (Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Princess Diaries, Lord of the Rings). Be sure to include popcorn and movie theater snacks. {Try out Amazon Prime for thousands of movies and tv shows.}
Costume Party
Celebrate the evening with a costume party! Who doesn’t love playing dress up? Break out all of the dress up clothes you can find (raid Mom and Dad’s closet if necessary) and plan to ring in the New Year in costume. Spend some time trying on costumes (don’t forget hats, scarves, jewelry, shoes and other accessories) and taking pictures.
After everyone has settled on a costume to wear, be sure to get some great snapshots of the creative outfits everyone came up with. Give prizes for each costume and don’t forget to include some great snacks. Since the party is a dress up party, bake gingerbread man sugar cookies and let the kids dress up the cookies with icing, sprinkles, edible pearls and other baking accessories.
Recipe Night
Spend the night making goodies that you’ve been wanting to try. Gather up a few recipes for snacks and treats that you’ve been eyeing and let the kids help you make them. Be sure to shop ahead of time for all the ingredients needed for each recipe then spend the evening making each one. Save all of the treats to try them at midnight (or as close to midnight as possible if the kids can’t stay awake that long). {Check out our recipe ideas here.}
Be sure to save all recipes and mark them with notes about whether they are keepers and worth making again or not.
Celebrating on New Year’s Eve with the kids can be plenty of fun. Pick out an idea for some fun things to do to celebrate then make it happen. It will certainly be a memory the kids will keep tucked away to share later on.
How do you celebrate New Year’s Eve with your kids?
I love these ideas! Unfortunately my daughter is still a bit too young to stay away that long to see the fireworks, but hopefully she will be next year. That’s not to say we can’t do them beforehand though!