Welcome back! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and spent too much time in your pajamas, ate too much, and celebrated with friends and family. Now it’s on to biggest celebration of the year! New Year’s!
You can definitely still celebrate New Year’s Eve after having kids, but your evening is probably going to look a little different that it did before kids. You may not be going out and partying until the wee hours of the night, but you can party with your wee ones. There are a lot of great ideas to include the kids in your festivities below. Do one of them or any combination of them.
5 Fun Ideas For New Year’s Eve with Kids
1. Noon Day Party- Host a party for all of your play date friends and have a countdown at noon! Have a balloon countdown by filling each balloon with confetti and marking each hour on the outside of the balloon with a marker or sharpie. Then pop the balloons with a pin or needle every hour leading up to your countdown. If you don’t feel like cleaning up confetti afterwards, try making a balloon drop. There’s a great DIY on “Been There, Pinned That” showing you how to afix the balloons to your ceiling in order to pull a string at noon and watch the balloons drop.
Balloon Drop
Balloon Countdown
2. Ring in the new year with fireworks! Some areas offer places to go watch professional fireworks, but if there aren’t any in your area make your own with sparklers. I’d recommend doing this for the older kids as it might be a little dangerous with young ones. You can buy sparklers online here, even though they are typically used for weddings. Be sure to not use them in dry areas in case of catching anything on fire and/or have a bucket of water to put the sparklers out in once they’ve stopped sparkling. You can also use this plastic cup method to protect little hands from any hot sparks.
Sparkler Hand Protector
3. Have a bubble machine dance party, much like those night club foam parties for adults, the kids will love the bubbles. Be sure to use the machine where the floor won’t get too slippery and crank the music for a little dance party. Find a bubble machine here plus it has pretty decent reviews and over 1,500 reviews.
Bubble Machine
4. Host a family/friend sleep over. Maybe even make it a PJ party? Ensure you have adult and kid friendly food and drinks, play a few games including the kids, and have a countdown before bed. Set up air mattresses, pack n plays, or sleeping bags to accommodate everyone. Once the kiddos are all tucked in, then you can enjoy adult only time with your friends and family until midnight. This is a great option if you can’t find a baby sitter, or don’t want to chop off your arm or a leg to pay for one.
5. Another option is to look into church or community center family parties. Some include food, games, movies, dance parties, and of course a countdown.
What are your plans for New Year’s? If you have kids how do you plan to incorporate them into your celebration? More than likely, we’ll all be asleep by 9:00 p.m. in The Daily Hostess house!
