Bring in 2025 with these seven ideas for a kid-friendly New Year’s Eve
New Year’s Eve may look different now that you have a family but there is still plenty of family fun to be had. Involve the whole family in the celebrations and start 2025 as you mean to go on.
Bring in the New Year Before Bedtime
While it can be fun to let kids join in the celebrations, every parent knows it isn’t as simple as just keeping them up a bit later than normal. Children that are over tired can be fractious and the consequences of a break in routine can be felt for days after the event. Instead, host your own New Year celebration before bedtime and give your kids an authentic experience, just a few hours earlier than usual. Bring in the ‘New Year’ with your own countdown, a firework video found on YouTube, and a glass of sparkling fruit juice.
Create a Time Capsule
Time capsules had millennials hooked in the early noughties so unlock some of that nostalgic feeling and create your very own with your kids. Use an old biscuit tin or some Tupperware to collect a few photographs from the last year and ask each member of the family to contribute something that will remind them of 2024 in the future. If you’d prefer not to include material possessions, use New Year’s Eve to write letters to your future selves or get the kids to draw pictures of their favourite moments from the past year. Creating a time capsule will not only make special memories for the future but also allows you, as a family, to reflect on the recent past.
Gratitude Circle
End 2024 by reflecting on the past year and sharing everything you are grateful for as a family. While it may seem like a mature thing to do, kids benefit from reflection as much as adults as it helps them to develop critical thinking skills. Younger children will need more help remembering events that occurred previously but by talking about memories and analysing them you help to strengthen their memory recall and investigative thinking skills. Reflection can be as simple as asking them about what they enjoyed doing this year and what they would like to do more of in 2025.
Decorate Party Hats
Create your own DIY party hats using coloured card and elastic. Encourage the kids to get as creative as possible when decorating their new headwear and break out the glitter for that extra sparkle; it is New Year’s Eve after all!
Glow Stick Dance Party
Let loose and have some fun as a family by transforming the play room or the kitchen into a New Year’s Eve Disco. Bring out the night lights, and blast the kid-friendly music while everyone shows off their best dance moves. Adding something as simple as glow sticks will really elevate the fun and transform a typical kitchen dance session into a core memory.
Create a Family Bucket List for 2025
Ask everyone to think of some ideas of activities to do together as a family in 2025. For this to work you need to agree a budget beforehand. For example, bowling is fine, a trip to Disney Land is not, and get everyone to write their ideas down on scraps of paper. For kids that can’t write yet, discuss the ideas as a family and appoint an adult to do the writing. Place the scraps of a paper in a jar and keep it somewhere visible so when you’re at a loss for what to do over a weekend or holiday you have several fun suggestions to pick from.
Set Eesolutions as a Family
A recent survey, published by Statista, revealed that people stick to their New Year’s resolutions for just five months, on average. In our latest issue of NI4Kids we look at ways families can follow through on their intentions by working together, whether that be on a group activity such as introducing a regular family exercise routine or volunteering together, or even something as small as five minutes of quality time together at bedtime discussing the highs and lows of the day. Read the full article here for more ideas.
