New Year’s Eve: Family Friendly Activities for Every Hour

We are celebrating New Year’s Eve at home this year with some friends and family. To keep it fun and interactive for the kids, I planned hourly activities that the kids can discover by opening a bag each hour from 6:30PM to 11:30PM. I created some graphics to print and glue on the outside of each bag, but you could easily write directly on the bag with a marker or attach stickers.

See below for what is in our bags, and some ideas for your own!

6:30PM

I decided to start our “party” at 6:30PM. During this hour we will decorate and also eat dinner. Our 6:30PM bag contains decorations, like balloons and signs. We will use whatever is in the bag to decorate the house. You could also include items like banners, photo booth props, streamers, and confetti. If you are making a special meal together, you could also include a recipe for dinner or the ingredients to make a fun themed snack. In past years, we made NYE themed cookies, fun drinks, and breadsticks in the shape of the year (we might do that again this year!).

7:30PM

Our 7:30PM bag is the “game bag”. This bag is filled with ping pong balls that we will try to shake out of a Kleenex box tied to our waists. I used this game for a bachelorette party years ago and it was SO fun to watch (and so hard).  You could also include other games like NYE bingo cards or NYE scavenger hunt clues.

8:30PM

The 8:30PM bag is our new year bucket list bag. It contains a worksheet for each person to fill out with information about the things they want to do or see in the next year. You could also do sheets for resolutions if you prefer.

9:30PM

At 9:30PM (I will start to get tired at this time haha…but seriously), we will engage everyone with a craft. Our craft will be making disco balls from foam balls and foil cupcake wrappers. You glue the bottom of each cupcake wrapper to the foam ball and it creates a mirrored silver ball. Other cute crafts might include 2021 coloring pages, materials to make photo frames for pictures from the night, or items to make noise makers (toilet paper or paper towel tube, solid objects for inside, and ribbon to tie each end shut).

10:30PM

At 10:30PM, we are going to make some fun themed drinks. One of our nephews loves to make mocktails with seltzer water. We have also used seltzer water and cotton candy to make fun, sweet drinks. This is also a great time for a snack if you are going to make it all the way to midnight!

11:30PM

We will open our last bag at 11:30PM. This gives us a little time to open the bag and get the TV turned on for the countdown. The last bag contains FUN stuff for celebrating at midnight, like noise makers, glowsticks, and 2021 headbands.

How are you spending your New Year’s Eve?

Katie G.