Today – Easy Ways to celebrate New Year’s Eve with your Kids
New Year’s Eve is a special time for most adults, but for kids, it is even more special. Most are in bed before the new year actually rings in, so for a lot of children; it is a mysterious and elusive time and most want to stay up to see what happens. Bedtimes must happen for kids though, but that doesn’t mean your kids can’t celebrate with the rest of the family. These ways to celebrate New Year’s Eve with your kids are sure to be a fun time for your little ones while keeping them on their regular sleep schedule.
Easy Ways to celebrate New Year’s Eve with your Kids
Have a small kid-friendly party – New Year’s Eve parties don’t have to be full of alcohol and not friendly for kids. In fact, they can be very family friendly if they’re planned correctly. Serve kid friendly snacks such as finger sandwiches, pizza or chicken nuggets. Have a non-alcoholic drink option for the kids to partake in. Buy typical New Year’s Eve party decorations such as top hats and banners. Your kids will love being able to participate the way the adults do.
Use Netflix – For the past few years, Netflix has done something pretty awesome on New Year’s Eve for kids. You see your children probably don’t realize what time it is most of the time. With the New Year’s Eve event on Netflix, they count down the new year at around 9 pm. This lets little ones still ring in the new year with a bang, but doesn’t keep them up past their bedtime. If you don’t have Netflix or if the event is unavailable, you can easily do a version of this yourself.
Serve special drinks – New Years Eve is special and the drinks should be as well! Instead of serving the same old juice or soda, serve a special punch or other drink that your kids don’t get very often. This will really bring out the “special” for them when they see those drinks in glasses.
Host a family movie night – Who says you have to party on NYE? Why not host a family movie night instead? Around 7 pm on NYE, pop in a family favorite. By the time the movie is done, it will be bedtime and you can follow through with the ringing in a bit early.
Let them stay up an extra hour – Since this is such a special night, feel free to ease bedtime restrictions a bit and allow your children to stay away for an extra hour or so. This alone will make the night special for them and won’t add too much extra to your own night.
Set New Year’s Goals with them – Everyone has goals and that includes old kids. Sit down with them and have a conversation about what they want to accomplish in the new year and how to go about doing that. You may be surprised at what they tell you they want to work towards.
Teach them about New Year’s – For older kids an pre-teens, they’ve experienced enough new starts to the year to know when it happens, but they may not understand why. Before the festivities start, have a quick lesson on why we start a new year every 365-366 days. Bonus points if you don’t know yourself and learn something new!
I hope you have enjoyed these simple and easy ways to celebrate New Year’s Eve with your Kids. You can see more of my posts about Christmas and New year here and do take a peerk here at a lovely post showcasing some fabulous DIY homemade Advent calendars
here are some more great new years fun activities to do with kids
