Have a Family New Year's Blast!
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!
Infants and toddlers make it simple. Tuck them in, turn on the
baby monitor, and you're free to party - as long as you're not
too noisy.
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
www.familycrafts.about.com/od/newyears or www.enchantedl
earning.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 pre-teens or teenagers 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.