Simple ideas for celebrating new years with kids. Be sure to also check out our fun word of the year generator!
2014 was our first year actually celebrating New Years with our kids. It was the first year they showed any interest in celebrating, and I was perfectly happy to wait for that moment!
Mike and I are pretty lame when it comes to New Years celebrations – we like our sleep way too much, and that is going to be reflected in our plans to celebrate with the kids, as well. Here are our favorite easy ways to celebrate New Years with kids:
Simple Ways to Celebrate New Year’s Eve With Kids
What You'll Find on This Page
#1 Ring in the New Year in a Different Time Zone
I love my kids’ bedtime, and particularly how cheerful they are so long as I get them in bed on time.
This year we will all (try to) stay up until midnight in our own time zone together for the first time.
Every year before this one I used global awareness to my own personal benefit.
Emma is very proud of being born in Scotland, and Scotland is conveniently 8 hours ahead of California time. So we would ring in the New Year with our Scottish (and other UK) friends.
You don’t have to have a direct tie to another place for this to work! Just pick a spot on the other side of the globe and you’ll be set!
Savor the Moment
Memories are important to me, and so is making the most of the time we are given to live. With this in mind, I made a very simple page that the kids can fill out every year, remembering the past year and looking forward to the next. I even turned it into a printable that you can do with your kids (you can also click on the image below to download the PDF). You will notice that I didn’t put a year on it, so that we can re-use this template again in the future.
Choose a Word of the Year
My post on how to choose a word of the year has lots of suggestions. You can also use this fun word of the year generator! My friend Andie created a printable world of the year activity that you can also use!
Have Fun!
Celebrating a new year is a great opportunity to have fun together as a family! Play your favorite board games, bake cookies, and maybe even watch a movie as you count down to the new year.
Are you looking for more fun ways to celebrate New Years? Check out my New Years for Kids Pinterest board for more fun ideas!
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
It’s probably not too late to use this printable. I love your idea to celebrate midnight in another timezone, very clever! My husband almost always works on New Years Eve so it is usually a party for 3 at my house. This is the second year I said my kids could stay up, we usually go to bed kind of late anyways but again none of of made it, oh well!
We didn’t make it to midnight at our house either!
Sleep is a good thing :) I’ve always preferred celebrating New Year’s breakfast with the children rather than staying up until midnight. That doesn’t work so well with the teens though – midnight sounds early to them :( Happy for me I pulled younger kid duty, this year, while Doug headed off to our church for a game night with the older ones.
I’m making the most of sleeping while the kids let us!
I love the page you made the idea of celebrating New Years at a different time zone. Brilliant!
We are hoping to repeat a very successful last New Year’s Eve when our friends who have a boy in Anna’s class and a girl in the first grade had a sleepover at our place. The kids had a blast, and so did we.
That sounds like a lot of fun!
Love the simple, reflective questions you created for your kids! Thanks for sharing the printable – I think we will use it, too!
Hooray! I am so glad you like my printable.
I haven’t celebrated New Year’s Eve with my kids (or even anyone since having kids). I too am waiting until they’re actually interested in staying up late and counting down! Otherwise, it’s just too disruptive for their sleep and we have to deal with their crankiness the next day lol.
SO true about cranky tired kids! Well-rested kids (and, quite frankly, adults) are much more pleasant to be around.