Typical New Year’s Eve events involve alcohol, a late night out, and tons of traffic – basically not a family-friendly event
But ringing in the New Year is an exciting time where you can look back at all the ways you have grown together as a family and all the accomplishments that have been made.
Check out some of our parent-approved New Year’s Eve activities that are fun and safe for the whole family, and the best part is you never have to leave the house.
Count down balloons
Fill a balloon for every hour from dinner time to midnight and have the kids pop the correct time on every hour.
To create a more festive environment, fill each balloon with confetti or a small note.
Make them different colors, or even hide them around the house for the kids to find before popping to make a game out of it.
Marshmallow dodgeball
Coming up with fun family games inside during the cold winter evenings makes you become pretty creative.
Marshmallow dodgeball is not lacking in adrenaline and creates great family photos.
Split the family into two teams and give a bag of marshmallows to each member, and then countdown to let the games begin. If you are hit you have to stand to the side and cheer on the remaining contenders.
Countdown plate clocks
Get out the craft supplies and snacks, and get the whole family involved in making a countdown clock out of paper plates and construction paper.
Pin the hands in the center of the plate and decorate the plate with bright pipe cleaners coming off the edges, and lots of glitter.
Have every member move their clock hands as the hours count down, having the final countdown at midnight.
Glow in the dark games
Night activities will seem much more festive if they are done with glow in the dark accessories.
A Pumpkin and a Princess suggests putting glow in the dark tape around bottles, and then play ring toss with glow bracelets.
You can also get glow glasses for everyone to wear, or shape glow hopscotch on the floor with tape.
Make popcorn balls
Get the matching family aprons out because it is going to get messy- but don’t worry, there will be a lot of memories made in the process.
There is a great recipe from That Skinny Girl Can Bake. The ingredients are:
- 10 cups popcorn
- 30 large marshmallows
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- Sprinkles, to decorate
Melt the marshmallows and butter together until smooth, and then mix in the popcorn. After it cools a bit stir in vanilla.
Form into balls using buttered hands and then roll in sprinkles. Stick the colorful and delicious popcorn balls inside festive cups and enjoy over a movie or photo slide of the last year.
An eventful New Year’s Eve can be done in the safety of your own home, where you can pop right into bed after midnight strikes…or even celebrate the New Year at 9 to make it more manageable.
Whichever activity you choose, you will surely value the precious time among those you love the most.