Now that the holidays are over, it’s time to party! Kicking back and celebrating the new year is the best way to wrap up the busy holiday season, as is reflecting on everything this year brought us. It’s also probably the one day of the year we let our kids stay up until midnight (or, attempt to!), and it can be a little difficult finding ways to occupy them for that amount of time. Luckily, we’ve got some great ideas for you to have fun and celebrate a kid-friendly New Year’s Eve with your littles!
The Ultimate Camping Kit
Adventure awaits! The Ultimate Camping Kit contains everything your little one needs to enjoy imaginative play in the great outdoors or indoors during NYE! The 100% polyester tent measures in at 42″ x 42″ x 38″ and includes a hook and loop tie door curtain, fiberglass poles, and an easy-to-clean PE floor for any confetti that might go off!
The child-size chair is 15″ wide, 15″ deep, with a 23.5″ back, has a safety lock mechanism, and is made of 100% polyester – the perfect place to countdown to 2019. The cozy 28″ x 58″ sleeping bag features a polyester lining and shell with 1 lb polyester fiber batting fill. Each component in the kit is the perfect size for children to build their camping confidence. Your child will be ready to brave the elements (or the backyard) in style for 2019!
Kid-Friendly NYE Party Ideas
Staying in with the littles this year for NYE, or are on sleepover babysitting duty? Here are some really great kid-friendly NYE party ideas to keep the kiddos occupied during the long night, all while getting them excited for 2019!
DIY Party Hats
Making crafts is a great way to pass some time, so why not make something for the little ones to wear all night long? All you need are some party hats, this printable and you are good to go! You can attach them with glue sticks, tape or even print them out using sticker paper.
Hourly Balloon Pop
Grab 5 balloons and number each of them by hour. For example, mark a balloon with 7:00, then another as 8:00, then 9:00 and so on after you fill them up. For the midnight balloon, add some confetti to make it special. Every hour, help your little one pop a balloon. It will help keep them excited to stay up every hour!
Toast!
Your little one wants to be part of the action with a traditional New Year’s Eve cheers, so why not have a special toast just for them? This can be anything from Martinelli’s sparkling juice, to a milk and cookies toast. If you’re not too keen on giving them a sugary drink at midnight, you can just simply give them water – but give it to them a nice glass to make it special!
Noisemakers
If your little one is too small to be popping off poppers, sparklers or confetti guns, spend some time on New Year’s Eve crafting a noisemaker with them. There’s a ton of different noisemaker crafts that you can find online – check out one of our favorites from Alpha Mom. The best part is: it uses items you probably still have left over from Christmas, so it’s a great way to get rid of all that extra holiday wrapping paper and bows!
New Year Reflections
A fun new tradition to start on New Year’s Eve is to have your little one write some reflections to remember from the current year. You can create one yourself, or you can even use a printable, like this one from Bombshell Bling. It will be an awesome time to sit down with your kiddos to reminisce and learn to set some goals. Not to mention, it will be a special keepsake to look back on in the future!
New Years Eve Bingo
If your family loves to gather and huddle around the TV to watch one of the many programs that show the ball drop at midnight, you can play New Years Eve Bingo to make a game out of everything you see! We found this great printable from Bombshell Bling to help get you going. Whoever fills up their board first wins a prize!
Hour-By-Hour Bags
Can’t decide which of these awesome projects you want to do? Just go ahead and do them all with some hour-by-hour bags! All you need to do is grab some paper lunch bags, fill it up with everything your little one will need for the craft, staple it shut and mark the bag with an hour number. Every hour, your little one will look forward to opening it and doing whatever is inside. You can even spice some up and add a snack, or even an inexpensive gift for the very last one.
Let Us Know!
What are some of your kid-friendly New Year’s Eve traditions? How does your little one celebrate with the family? Did you do any of these projects? Let us know in the comments below! Happy New Year’s!