Everyone Can Celebrate Noon Year’s Eve. Great ways to include little ones in the New Year
Let’s face it, everyone wants to celebrate the New Year right? The littlest of kids wants to join in on all the fun. Since they can’t stay up late why not make a party for them? You can do this for one child or many – the more the merrier!
You need to have a few basic elements to make it a Noon Year’s Eve party. You need a count down, fun food and drinks. From here you can grow this into anything you can imagine. I like to keep it simple but I will share a few things we’ve done and a few things my friends have done in the past.
There are a few Key Elements to a Noon Year’s Eve party.
Activities: Any crafts you can think of are perfect but here are a few of my favorites. You can do them anytime you like or do them on the half hour or hour. I like to mark each set of bags with the time.
• Snowflake crafts (cut out snowflakes, glue and sprinkle with glitter, or add bling.
• Cookie decorating. Get something simple like a sugar cookie and use your imagination, maybe a clock, ball that drops in Times Square, horns, etc. Do geometric shapes and let the kids use their imagination.
• Pretzel Kiss making since, you don’t want to do the actual “kissing on New Year’s Eve!” Plus - Do you know the New Year’s Pretzel? You may want to share a New Year’s Pretzel.
• End-of-Year Reflection Worksheets – Do a review of the past year and a look ahead to the new year. Maybe a use these as time capsules and open them for New Year’s Eve 2019 of where they are now. This link has a few different worksheets for all kids from pre-k to 12.
• Photo Booth – hang streamers ribbons, or tinsel from a door or construction paper in black and white on the wall with gold or yellow streamers and have kids sit in front with noise makers. Snap away!
• Create your own noise makers (Paper plates stapled together with beans inside are great! Color the plates and add gems and glitter).
Party props: (hats, decorations, bubbles, party favors)
Food/Drink something nutritious and something fun to eat:
I like to keep it simple anything from Mac N Cheese, to fruit and veggie trays. We’ve done some simple sandwiches like ham and cheese or toasted cheese. Add a colorful soda or make some fancy mixed kiddie drink (I do 3-4 8oz cans of fruit drink like strawberry & pineapple and 1-2 liter bottle seltzer water (not tonic), and fruit (optional but it makes it more festive – use something the kids can eat). Root beer floats are fantastic and fun too.
The countdown: There are a few ways to do this.
You can do a countdown every half hour and at noon do a balloon drop and toast.
You can do the traditional countdown the last 60 to 10 seconds till noon (or any hour you choose).
You can do a craft each ½ hour then do a 10 second count down. I put the craft or activity in a bag and the kids open the bags on the half hour or hour. This gives them something to do and something to take home! Win Win.
You can add a Ball Drop to any count down you choose.
Ball Drop:
Something fun to do along with the toast and the noise makers. A bit of work but worth it to totally make a party an event!
• Use two vinyl tablecloths or pieces of fabric to hold the balloons.
• Punch holes through one side of each cloth and then “lace” the two table clothes together with a long string or twine.
• Tape the unlaced sides to the ceiling with painter’s tape (or you could tack up if you don’t mind holes in your ceiling).
• Leave some slack in the cloth rigging to hold the balloons.
• Stuff the balloons into the shallow “pouch” you’ve just created on your ceiling! We find about 40-50 balloons is an impressive number to drop.
• I have throw in a few handfuls of confetti in the past, although just a warning, you’ll be finding these until July. – I like to skip this now but it is super fun! An alternative is to put confetti in a large balloon and popping it at noon.
And a toast: At noon have the kids celebrate the Noon Year by doing a quick toast to the New Year with their juice boxes or a special punch you can make.
Something that makes noise to ring in the new year: (Poppers, horns, noisemakers or some sort) I love these poppers too.
You can stay up till midnight or do a Noon Year’s Eve. Dress fancy or make it a PJ party. It’s open to anything you can imagine. Tailor it to your family and friends. Make it intimate or a blow-out.
Happy New Year!
