New Year’s Eve can be a drag. It’s a night meant for parties. You always feel like you should be going out somewhere fabulous, and drinking champagne, and dancing in a fancy poufy gown…and really, you end up on the couch in your sweats, trying to make it to midnight, blowing those little paper blower-thingys, and heading off to bed exhausted. No? Just me?
But since having kids, this has all changed for me. No one asks if I’m going out on New Year’s Eve anymore (hallelujah!). People are impressed if I actually stay up until 12am. And no one expects to see me in a ball gown. Fun, low-pressure kids’ New Year’s Eve parties are The. Best.
So. With that in mind, here are five of our tried-and-true New Year’s Eve party ideas, to help you and your family celebrate.
1.) Serve chocolate fondue
Chocolate fondue on New Year’s Eve is a tradition at our house. We can have it when just the six of us are celebrating…or we can add a few more skewers and have it warming if we have a houseful of people. Either way, it’s always popular, always delicious, and — fair warning — always a fun, gooey mess for the kids.
2.) Drink non-alcoholic mimosas
We toast at midnight with sparkling cider, but non-alcoholic mimosas are a fun way to start the day, or to have with dinner, or to sip during the evening.
3.) Play kid games
Have some fun games planned to pass the time until midnight. Minute-to-Win-It games are always fun and simple to plan. And we love the Just Dance video games. We play ours on our Wii, but they’re also available for Wii U, Xbox One, and Xbox360.
We just tried out Just Dance: Disney Party 2, and it’s a great kids’ game. It has more than 20 tracks from Disney Channel movies and shows, so I don’t have to worry about it being appropriate for them. And my favorite thing about all of the Just Dance games is that while you can play it using a controller and keep track of points and scores — you don’t have to. You can put on the game and every child can dance to every song, without having to wait for turns back and forth while some kids sit out.
4.) Make noisemakers
These noisemakers were so simple — a paper plate, folded in half, filled with dried beans, and stapled shut. We glued some ribbon around the edges and decorated the plates, and shook them up to make some noise at “midnight.” Which brings me to perhaps the most important tip:
5.) Don’t actually celebrate at midnight
Or at least, not at your midnight. The New Year’s Countdown Clock can find a countdown in almost every large city in the world — find one that celebrates midnight an hour or so past the kid’s bedtime (just to make it a little special and fun!), and set up the countdown on your computer. We usually party along with Nova Scotia, and we’re done with our festivities at about 9:15pm when everyone (including me…don’t mock) goes to bed so that none of us are too tired and cranky in the morning. Perfect!
Hopefully you found a few fun New Year’s Eve party ideas to try out with your own kids this year. And you don’t even have to get out of those sweats after all.
Do you have any New Year’s Eve traditions you do with your family?
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
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