Don’t want to deal with the crowds and craziness of New Year’s Eve parties? Or maybe you just want to stay in and celebrate with the kids. There are many fun things you can do at home as a family to ring in the New Year. Here are some great ideas to create your own year-end memories.
Have your own show. Take all those videos of when the children were really little, and dust them off. Spend the last night of the year watching those precious moments with the family. If you have hours and hours, take a break and have some snacks or favorite family foods. Don’t forget the popcorn!
Speaking of food, finger foods are a fun way to eat on New Year’s Eve. Quesadillas, Lil’ Smokies, cheese and crackers, mini-pizzas, or anything your family loves. You can keep it simple with these foods, served on paper plates. Don’t spend the last day of the year cooking and cleaning up. You will have a much better time just enjoying the company of your loved ones.
Another idea is a family sleepover. Put on your jammies and let everyone pick a favorite board or card game. Light some candles, or have a roaring fire. Spread out blankets on the floor and eat picnic style. When the kids get tired, they can curl up with their pillows and sleeping bags. No need to wake them when they fall asleep!
If your family likes to dance and play music, have your own dance. Get out the CD or MP3 player and maybe even a disco ball. You can also make a paper Mache ball filled with treats or candy that can ‘drop’ at midnight, as you watch the big Ball in Times Square.
Some people bake a cake with a hidden coin in it (like the King Cake for Mardis Gras). The person to find the hidden coin is said to have great luck during the New Year.
Reminisce about the old year and ask everyone to write down something good they will remember from 2014. Put all of the good memories into a special jar or box (great craft idea for the kids to do!), and then pull them out during the New Year to cheer everyone up on a gloomy day.
If the kids are just too young to make it until midnight, then celebrate a global New Year. Pick a country that will be celebrating at an earlier time. Tune in on TV to see fireworks, or look online and watch the video. You can buy or make poppers and noisemakers to ring in 2015. You can even incorporate some of that country’s customs into your celebration.
Your community center or churches sometimes have family parties to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Check online or in the newspaper to see if there is somewhere your family may want to go. Most of these end earlier, so you can still go home and get comfy to watch 2015 roll in.
Celebrating New Year’s Eve with your family can be fun and memorable. With a little planning, but not too much hard work, your family can enjoy each other and make new memories for the years to come.
How will YOU be celebrating New Year’s Eve?
Love that cake idea. That idea could be used for so many more things as well.
Those are fun ideas. This year we just had Chinese and watched movies.
I love the idea of a hidden coin in a cake. I think I’ll have to skip doing that though. The way everyone eats cake in my house, we’d be going to the hospital for x-rays. =D
I like the coin in the cake idea. I can imagine my kids digging through the cake trying to find it.
So many great ideas! There’s something really nice about celebrating New Year’s with kids who are so excited about staying up late!
These are all such great ideas! My kids are grown and it has been many, many years since we have stayed awake to see New Year’s in but it won’t be long before I can practice this with my own grandkids.
These are good ideas! I’d rather be home, anyways – away from all the half-drunks on the road, you know!
These are some very creative ideas for celebrating New Years Eve as a family. We always spend it together but we only do fireworks and watch TV. We’re boring people. lol
My daughter had her boyfriend over, who has never played board games. Can you imagine that!? So, we played all the classics- Life, Monopoly, Sorry, etc.
I am loving that cake idea. I will have to remember that for next year. When I was growing up in the south everyone ate black eyed peas for good luck. I could never get into that.
When I was a kid my aunt used to make me cakes with coins in it and I recently spoke to her for the first time in 20+yrs and I asked her if she remembered it was such a nice memory. So fun.
Awww I love the cake idea! New years eve is always such a fun time!
I love family slumber parties, so much fun! I get 2 new years every year since I have Chinese New Years as well 😛
Such great ideas. It looks like you had a lot of fun this new years.
The cake with the hidden coin is a fun idea! Family celebrations rock, no matter what we do. 🙂
Great idea on copying the Galette du Rois for NYE too.
There is just so much that can be done for a family NYE celebration