When I was a child, my brother and I celebrated New Year's Eve with our grandparents every year. We'd rent movies from the movie store (yeah, no Netflix back then!), make fun foods like English muffin pizzas or make your own ice cream, and we would play games and watch movies until it was time for Dick Clark to count down to midnight. This was a tradition I looked forward to every year, and I've been recreating the fun at home with my own kids each year.
You can easily have fun at home celebrating New Year's Eve this year, too!
Confetti Shooters
Supplies:
- Paper cups
- Scissors
- Balloons
- Filler like confetti, cut up bits of paper, pompoms
Instructions:
- Cut the bottoms off of the cups and the tops off of the balloons.
- Tie the bottom of the balloons closed.
- Slip the cut end of the balloon over the bottom of the cup and secure it.
- Fill with items of your choice and at Midnight, pull back like a slingshot and let it fly!
Balloon Drop
Supplies:
- Lots of balloons
- A plastic tablecloth
- Duck tape or packing tape
- A string or ribbon
Instructions:
- Open the tablecloth and cut it into 4 equal pieces.
- Lay out and tape loosely together with the packing or duck tape.
- Where the 4 corners meet in the center, leave a little space open (less than the size of one of your balloons.)
- Tape a piece of string to one of the center corners tightly. This is where it will be pulled, so make sure it's on there securely and long enough to dangle so that your child can reach it to pull on it.
- Tape the 4 outer corners of the tablecloth to your ceiling with sturdy tape (being careful not to damage your paint or wood-use your discretion) leaving a bow like a hammock so you can fill it with balloons.
- Blow up enough balloons to fill your "hammock".
- At midnight, have your child pull on the string and release the balloons!
Countdown Clock with Hourly Activities
Supplies:
- Balloons (you'll need 1 balloon for each hour or half-hour you are celebrating)
- Small pieces of paper (1 paper for each balloon)
- Markers (with a soft tip)
- Tape
- Hula Hoop
Instructions:
- Write 1 activity on each piece of paper, and put one slip of paper with an activity inside each balloon. We start our countdown at 7:00 and pop 1 balloon each hour through 11:00pm (so 5 activities), and at midnight the Balloon Drop falls. Activity ideas can be found later in the article.
- Have the kids blow up the balloons.
- Carefully write the times on each balloon.
- Tape balloons in a circle either on the wall or on the hula hoop making sure that it is at a height your kids can reach.
- Have the kids pop the balloons on the hour until you reach midnight!
Activity Ideas:
- Create New Year's Eve hats
- Use paper plates, tissue paper, stickers, yarn, etc. to decorate and make a hat.
- Make a snack charcuterie board
- Use kid-friendly items like strawberries, mozzarella cheese sticks, pretzels, grapes, peanuts, carrot sticks, celery sticks, ranch dressing, pepperoni slices, mini marshmallows, chocolate, etc.
- Play Games
- Let each child pick a game (or mom and dad can get in the fun, too), and take turns playing each game.
- Indoor (or outdoor if it's still light enough to take a walk) Scavenger Hunt
- Have each child find something that begins with each letter in NEW YEAR
- Create a Family Vision Board
- Make sure you have lots of magazines and click here to read our article about how to make this.
No matter how you decide to celebrate at home this New Year’s Eve, you can still make it memorable and fun! Happy New Year Berks County!
