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Elvine Assouline - Founder
10 fun ways to celebrate New Year's with your children
Traditionally, New Year’s Eve is time for grownups to make new resolution and celebrate the whole night. For the kids, it’s another story… Midnight is past most kids’ bedtimes but even if your children are small, they can still take part in the big countdown to the New Year and still make it to bed well before the wee hours 😀.
We have some really cute and fun ways that your children can help ring in the New Year.
Make a Family Time Capsule
Make a wish...
When it’s time to ring out the old year and look towards the new, it can be nice to reflect with the kids about what was great about their year. I really loved the idea of Kelli Crow with the Family Time capsule (above) for collecting these thoughts throughout the year, but I really loved as well this tree craft idea. It’s nice activity to do with the kids in this time the year.
This wishing tree craft is a chance for your kids to make wishes for others. It’s a great way to turn their focus to others during this time.
Check out the tutorial from No Time For Flash Cards: New Year’s Craft.
Time Zone Trickery
Who says you have to wait until midnight in your time zone? It’s close to midnight somewhere in the world, right? So if your kids are fading by 8 p.m., find a country that’s celebrating earlier than midnight your time. Just check out your time zone.
Countdown Drama
Let your kids count down the 12 minutes until midnight (in the time zone you chose). Do a family hug at every minute mark. Write out the numbers one to twelve on individual sheets of paper. Tape them to the wall and let the kids pull them down, one by one. You can also have 12 different snack stations with mini-snacks: 1 chocolate kiss, 4 kernels of popcorn, etc. Let everyone move from one station to the next as each minute passes. You can also write down things to do on the countdown papers: 12 jumping jacks, 11 silly faces, etc.
Count down the hours with balloons
This is a great idea that came from Alison from howdoesshe.com
Have a new activity ready to go, in each balloon, for every hour. A few examples: 6:00- bake cookies, 7:00- paint with shaving cream, 8:00- making a card for someone.
(If you don’t let your kids stay up until midnight, do these every 20 minutes and end at your normal bedtime).
Musical game
Let’s throw a karaoke or musical video game (such as Rock Band or Guitar Hero) party. It’s fun and it’s a great way to start the new year with music!
Photo booth party
Create a New Year’s Eve photo booth. Arrange an area of your home to be the photo booth stage. Find a wall or background that you can use as a backdrop, and decorate it with some holiday decorations or your written resolutions. You could even print out some masquerade type costume pieces, and have your very own photo props.
Family Game Night
Having a regular family game night is a great tradition to strengthen the family unit. Not only does it ensure time for connecting with each other, it also gets your kids in the habit of communicating with you – something that will pay-off big time when they’re older.
Confetti Popper Toilet Paper Tubes
Make confetti poppers to use at midnight (or whatever you decide what time midnight is for your children).
Tutorial from Smashed Peas and Carrots.
Set the new year resolution with your kids
This is a great time to start a discussion with children about the importance of both reflection and of goal setting. Talk about areas where your child thinks they could improve, why they want to improve and steps they can take to reach their goal.
You can kick off the conversation by sharing some of your own goals or areas of improvement so they have an example to get them thinking.
Download our new year resolution sheet bellow
