Have a Family
New Year's Blast!
by: Norma Schmidt
Believe it or not, you CAN enjoy a New
Year’s Eve bash once you have kids – even if
you CAN’T get a sitter!
PRESCHOOLERS
AND KIDS IN THE EARLY ELEMENTARY GRADES LOVE
GETTING INTO THE NEW YEAR'S SPIRIT.\
To build
excitement, announce a day or two ahead of
time that you’re going to have a night-time
New Year’s party with pajamas on.
Then, when you
go grocery shopping, you can let your child
pick out a party snack.
A trip to a
party store for some inexpensive noisemakers
will add to the excitement.
Or, create
home-made noisemakers and decorations
together. Visit
familycrafts.about.com/od/newyears or
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/newyear/
for ideas.
On the
afternoon or early evening of December 31,
sit down together with some oversized
construction paper, glue sticks, markers,
crayons and scissors and make party hats.
Now, here’s
the sweet part: Young children don’t seem to
mind at all if “midnight” comes at 9 PM – or
even earlier!
All you need
to do is put on your party hats, pick your
time, count down from 10 and yell “Happy New
Year!” with lots of noise and hugs and
kisses. Then enjoy your party snack.
HAVE OLDER
KIDS IN THE HOUSE?
You have even
more fun choices as kids mature. You can:
Print out
the words to “Auld Lang Syne” (“times long
past”) from the Internet and learn to sing
it as a family. You can get the words and
hear the tune at
http://wilstar.com/xmas/auldlangsyne.htm
Put into a
box all the ticket stubs, souvenirs and
photos you’ve saved from the year that’s
ending. Take turns pulling items out of the
box and sharing fond memories.
With adult
supervision, let kids make home-made party
snacks.
Rent funny
movies or old sitcoms to watch together.
Maybe Abott and Costello or “The
Honeymooners” will tickle your family’s
funny bone.
Invite
everyone to write down on a strip of toilet
tissue events from the year that they want
to put behind them. Then ceremoniously (or
unceremoniously!) flush away.
Play an
old-fashioned game of charades. You might
want to print out the special charades sign
language from
http://www.answers.com/topic/charades-2
Invite
family members to write down hopes and
intentions for the coming year on slips of
paper. Each person can seal their paper in
an envelope, to be opened the following New
Year’s Eve if desired.
After your
celebration, consider saving your
noisemakers and decorations to use again.
Kids enjoy rediscovering their old favorites
from year to year.
As for you –
Who knows? Maybe the kids will take you to a
whole new level of New Year’s fun.
(c) Norma
Schmidt, LLC
