New Year's Eve Fun With Your Kids: UPDATED 2021-22
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Plan and prepare for New Year's Eve Fun with your kids!
These tips, ideas, and printables are great ways to enjoy this special time with your kids and family.
If you're like me and stay in for the evening with your family, I hope that these ideas for New Year's Eve Fun With Kids help. We have used some of these activities in the past.
I look forward to trying out new games, crafts, and books to celebrate the New Year family-style.
New Year's Eve Fun With Your Kids: Tips
Have you done New Year's Eve at home with your kids before? If so, you probably know that this special event can pose a bit of a challenge. Excitement, change in schedule, and fun activities can lead to super fun or super meltdown.
Here are a few things to consider prior to your New Year's Eve Fun With Kids:
Bedtime
Will you let your kids stay up to watch the ball drop or have them go to bed at the regular time? Either way, there are tons of ways to keep the fun going. You know your kids best! Is it better for your family to stick to a schedule or will one night of late-night fun be manageable? The ages and stages of your children, plus your current family situation, will be important factors to consider.
Sit down with your family and talk about your New Year's Eve plans. Be honest and explain your hopes for the evening. Also, set clear expectations that if behaviors and/or attitudes take a turn for the worse, that all bets are off and to bed it is!
Be Flexible
Sometimes, our grand plans often crumble to dust. We may have high hopes for family fun for all, followed by a few quiet activities to settle down for the evening.
And then those dreams deflate as we watch our fun-filled night disintegrate into sobs.
Keep your expectations in check. Go into the night knowing that this special evening is a change for your kids and their reactions may be atypical. Your typically active, social 6-year-old may meltdown when a game is attempted. Your quiet, shy 9-year-old may become loud and boisterous. It's all good! It's part of doing something different and everyone will survive-I promise.
If you plan five games and two crafts but only get around to two total activities, no worries! Gauge how your family is doing and decide what's working and when to call it quits. It's all about rockin' New Year's Eve Fun with your kids!
Modify games, crafts, and activities, if necessary. Your three-year-old may need multiple turns at Pin The Top Hat On The Baby (see below) while your eight-year-old is fine with just one. Just keep reminding yourself: this special night is about having a fun time as a family celebrating the past year!
New Year's Eve Fun with Kids: Crafts
- Party Headbands: Create silly headbands for all! Customize with name and the new year. (For more ideas on all these crafts, check out our printable pack.)
- Party Crowns: Have a special prince, princess, king or queen? Make a paper crown for the new year.
- Party Poppers: These DIY "English Crackers" are a huge hit for kids of all ages! Make them as you await the ball to drop or create ahead of time for a big surprise! Our free New Year's Eve Fun Printable Pack has lots of ideas of what you may want to include.
- Photo Props: Have fun with New Year's Eve Photo Props!
New Year's Eve Fun with Kids: Books
Part of your New Year's Eve fun can be having some read-aloud time! Keep a few books close by to pull out when you need a bit of quiet or rest. Here are a few books to enjoy that have New Year's Eve themes:
The Night Before New Year'sSquirrel's New Year's ResolutionHappy New Year, Spot!New Year's Day (Celebrations in My World)
New Year's Fun with Kids: Games & Activities
New Year's Eve Charades: Have a blast acting out some of this past year's favorite events, movies, and more! Think of the year ahead and act out future hopes or events. Find New Year's Eve charades prompts in our printable pack.
Countdown Chain: My boys love countdown chains! Make a paper countdown chain for each hour until midnight (or bedtime!)
Balloons Countdown: Another fun way to count down to midnight is to hang balloons from streamers and pop one an hour. For bonus fun, add confetti!
Scavenger Hunt: This activity can be exciting for all, especially toddlers and preschoolers. Create a checklist with pictures (or use the one in our printable pack!) and have fun finding these special objects-New Year's related or not!
Treasure Hunt: An awesome way to keep the kids busy is to set up a treasure hunt (again, New Year's related or not!). Hide objects around a room (or the whole house if you are brave) and give a map for kids to find. A variation of this activity is to write clues for your kids to decipher and then find objects.
New Year's Eve Fun with Kids: Songs
What New Year's Eve party is complete without "Auld Lang Syne"? The problem may be that your kids don't know the lyrics! Fear no more, you can find the lyrics with an explanation, word search, and hangman sheets in our printable pack.
New Year's Eve Fun with Kids: After Midnight
Okay, now you've had all this great family fun time! And it's time to wind down and call it a night.
What to do? Again, you know your family best.
Will soft, soothing music do the trick?
How about dimming the lights and snuggling on the couch?
Perhaps reading a book or taking a calming bath will work?
Having a plan to wrap up the night in a relaxed fashion can help all family members have a more positive New Year's Eve experience.