You don’t have to put in a lot of work to make New Year’s fun and festive! Here are 7 New Years Eve ideas for kids to keep the celebration simple and memorable!
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Most people have plenty of Christmas traditions, but what about New Year’s Eve? How does your family celebrate?
Do you stay up till midnight? I’ll admit, we never do. Starting out the year with cranky, sleep-deprived kids just does NOT work for our family, so we celebrate early and tuck everyone into bed at a semi-reasonable time.
But even without staying up crazy late, we have plenty of simple traditions that make the holiday feel special and meaningful for our family.
For us, New Years is a time to celebrate all the good times we’ve had as a family during the year and set our vision for a good year ahead!
Here are some of the things our family has done to celebrate New Years Eve in the past:
Note: We don’t do ALL of these every year. If you’re looking to add some fun to your New Year’s celebration, try picking one or two of the ideas below. You can always do something different next year!
New Years Eve Ideas for Kids
1. Decorate party hats. Print out some party hats (this free download is super cute) and let kids color and decorate them to wear during your celebration!
2. Create a “Favorite Memories” poster for the year that’s ending. It’s simple! Just grab a cheap poster board or a large piece of paper. On it, write something like: “What we loved about {YEAR}.” Then invite each family member to share their favorite memories from the year. Write them all on the poster or have kids draw pictures of their favorite memories. This has been my favorite tradition the past few years! It’s a great way to reflect on the adventures, accomplishments, and the good times we’ve had together throughout the year. It helps us all realize how much we DID do during the year, and to be grateful for our abundant life. Learn more about this tradition here.
3. Make a “Year in Review” photo slideshow. Make a digital slideshow with pictures from your phone. You could even show this to your family before making your poster (above) to help remind everyone of all the memories you’ve made throughout the year. Don’t have time to make a slideshow? No problem! Just scroll through the pictures on your phone with your kids. My kids LOVE to snuggle up on the couch and look at pictures of themselves. I bet yours do, too! Simple is good.
4. Make chocolate fondue. Did you know that you can make chocolate fondue in less than five minutes using only chocolate chips and cream?! It’s ridiculously easy (here’s the recipe I use), and yet it feels so fancy! You don’t even need a fondue pot (although we love to pull ours out for this occasion). Just a microwave. Add whatever dippers you can find in your pantry, and have a fondue party!
5. Mix your own mocktails. Use Sprite or 7up as a base, and then add whatever other flavorings/juices you want to try! Grape, apple, orange, lemon, lime, pineapple, etc. If you want to get really crazy, try adding different ice creams to make a float. My kids love mixing “potions” so this one is right up their alley.
6. Try “new foods” for New Years. This is a tradition from my childhood that I’m passing on to my kids. We go to the store and pick a handful of foods we’ve never tried before. You can just go to the normal grocery store, or search out some really unique foods if you go to an international food store (like World Market). Sometimes the foods we’ve tried have been gross, and sometimes we’re surprised to discover a new favorite! Either way, it’s a good way to talk to kids about the importance of trying new things…and not just food. We talk about what new activities and goals we might want to try during the new year.
7. Have a board game tournament. Let each family member pick a favorite game, and play ALL of them in one night! You can set a limit for how long the games can be…we usually say it can’t be a game that will take more than 20-30 minutes) and then see who is the overall champion at the end of the night!
Related: Our favorite family board games
8. Rock out together with a family dance party! Crank up the tunes and get everybody moving to your favorite dance songs. If you want to make it extra special, grab some cheap glowsticks from the dollar store (or from Amazon), and make it a glow-in-the-dark dance party. These are our favorite at Halloween time, but it would be perfect for News Years, too.
There you have it! Seven easy New Years Eve ideas for kids to make the holiday feel special without the stress.
Tell me in the comments, what are YOUR New Years traditions?
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