Ten Ideas for Young Families on New Year's Eve

In an effort to add interesting activities to our holiday, I asked my friends how they celebrate New Year's Eve. I expected to be barraged with an entire arsenal of ideas, considering how many inspirational and creative friends I have. But after the first three responses said the same thing, I added this qualifier: "I'm looking for activities a little livelier than sleep." 

So for all my friends who need family-friendly ideas, you are welcome. 

1. Countdown Activity Bags
Write activities on slips of paper and put each one into a paper lunch sack. On the outside of each sack, write the hour the bag should be opened. This website gives you printable clock faces to put on the front of each sack. Your activities don't need to be exotic. Children love opening a bag that says, 'Make a snack' or 'Go light the sparklers.'

Instead of paper sacks, I plan to put my slips of paper in balloons and let the children pop the balloons to get the next activity. I already know my children love this idea because we sometimes do it for Mix-Up Day at school to determine the order of their classes.

2. Reminisce
Watch video clips or look at pictures you've taken of the family during the year. Reflect on the high and low points of your year. This is a great time to remember the good things the Lord has done for your family and to recount how He helped you through the tough times.

3. Photo Hunt
Print out as many photos of your year as you want and hide them around your house. I plan to print about 15. After everyone searches for and finds the pictures, make it a group effort to arrange them in chronological order. 

4. Set Goals for the Coming Year
Take time for everyone to write down personal and family goals for 2021. My children always ask for suggestions when we set annual goals. One of the suggestions I'll offer this year is a monthly book challenge and rewards for completing it. The children also contribute ideas for our family goals and we value their input.

When setting your goals, remember to make them SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.

5. Play Games
Charades. Board games. Rhythm games, such as "Oh Pass the Shoe" which we plan to teach to our children this week. Hide and Go Seek in the dark. Hide the Thimble making all levels of the house fair game to hide the object in. Musical chairs. Occupation. Swat. 

6. The Ball
In advance, make a basketball-sized ball by wrapping lots of prizes in layers of plastic wrap. Note: one year, the ball sat in a hot car for a few hours and the layers shrank, making them particularly challenging to unwrap. I'm not advocating that step, but it did add new levels of desperate energy to the game, even in adults. 

To play, participants sit in a circle around a table with the ball in the middle. Everyone takes turn rolling a die. As soon as someone rolls a six, the game begins. The one who rolled the six begins unwrapping the layers of the ball as fast as possible, keeping any prize he uncovers. Meanwhile, the person beside him rolls the dice on high speed and can grab the ball as soon as he gets a six. Players are not allowed to gouge into multiple layers or use tools of any kind. The plastic needs to be unwrapped layer by layer. 

Prizes in the ball can be anything from breath mints and candy to larger items like garden gloves or money. The core of the ball usually highest in value. 

7. Feed the Fun
Snacks, of course. Baked Brie with crackers. Nuts and chocolates. Flavored popcorn. Let your children help plan the snack.

8. Time Capsule
Family time capsules intrigue me, but I can't get past the idea of needing to wait years and years to reopen them. If you don't mind the suspense, fill a capsule with items significant to your family in 2020. Each family member contributes something for the capsule. Then package it up and put it out of sight until the agreed upon date when it can be opened. 

A variation to the time capsule is to do a Memory Jar this coming year, an idea I found here. Get a large glass container and fill the jar throughout the year with mementos of significant events or other keepsakes. If we would have done a Memory Jar in 2020, I would have dropped in things like a face mask, my son's hospital band, an article about the election, a ticket stub from Strasburg's train, and one of my 3-year-old's pocket knives (any twig with a point). The jar is never off-limits, so if you add something prematurely like a game piece, you can retrieve it without breaking a contract. Keep the jar forever, giving your posterity a container of tangible memories. 

9. Add Some Sparkle
As a family with young children, I do not promise we will stay up until midnight. But even if we decide, for sanity's sake, to turn in early, we will light our sparklers and share sparkling grape juice at the end of the party. 

Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought putting children to bed before midnight was acceptable:

Her next comment was, 
"And put them to bed around 8 or 9."

10. Slumber Party
Gather your gear and sleep in the living room as a family. We traditionally do this for every birthday and I'm working up my courage to suggest it for New Year's Eve as well. One of my hesitations is that the hardwood gets more unforgiving every time. The other hesitation is that we had two short nights last week and it has taken our youngest a few days to restore his good humor. I might leave this idea for you, at least this year. 

However you choose to observe the holiday, I trust it will include meaningful family times and create happy memories. May you enter 2021 with faith in God, peace in your heart, and hope for tomorrow.