15 NYE Activities to do as a Family

New Year’s Eve is a day to reflect on the past year—all your memories together: from the successes & achievements to the trials & tribulations. And then just like that, New Year’s Day arrives and it’s a fresh start to a New Year and a New You.

What better way to celebrate this reflection and refresh, than with your family? Here are some NYE activities that can be enjoyed with your kids, to get ready for the New Year.

Go to a Noon Year’s Eve party

Depending on the age(s) of your kid(s), you may want to celebrate earlier in the day so you can get them home for bed at a decent time! Check out my list of Noon Year’s Eve parties and kid-Friendly Ball Drops for places you can celebrate with your kids.

Set up a balloon pop countdown

Air up 12 balloons and write the numbers 1-12 on each one. Then tape them up on your wall in a circle, so that it looks like a clock. Starting at 1p, every hour, on the hour, pop a balloon! Add more fun to it, by putting confetti or candy inside the balloons before blowing them up.

Put together countdown goodie bags

Similarly to the balloon pop countdown, you can put together 12 goodie bags that are filled with fun toys or crafts that your child can open up every hour. You can even have your child decorate each bag themselves to get them in the spirit.

Make DIY party poppers and noisemakers

No matter what time you have it, you can’t finish a countdown without making some noise! Your kids will have so much fun making their own confetti poppers and paper plate shakers, or any other type of noisemaker. Check out this great list of ideas of DIY Noisemakers that Woman’s World put together. Or for something that makes less noise, you can also do a DIY party popper and fill it up with confetti or mini pompoms.

My NYE Pinterest board has some more great ideas!

Set up arts & crafts

Be that Pinterest Parent and set up some fun arts & crafts activities for your kids! I’ll be honest, I’m not one to have the patience for this kind of stuff, but during the height of the pandemic, I came up with some great ideas for my kids while we were stuck celebrating by ourselves at home and they truly loved it! Some of their favorites were making “fireworks in a jar”, painting fireworks with salt, decorating party hats and masks, or probably the easiest of all: downloading free NYE coloring sheets off the internet!

Check out my NYE Pinterest board for more ideas.

Put together a family time capsule

This is probably the best way to capture all the memories you have together as a family from the past year. Just grab a plastic bottle or an enclosed box, and add things from the past year to it, like family photos, the kids’ artwork, relevant newspaper articles, other facts about the current year, ticket stubs from any movies or events you attended… it could be really fun too to have your kids write a letter to their future self or even a note from you to your children. There are also templates you can use with “About Me” type questions to help you get started.

*Photo via littlebinsforlittlehands.com*

Make gold slime

Take the arts & crafts one step further and make gold slime together – your kid will absolutely love this! There are so many recipes for homemade slime to choose from, but you can add more fun to it with glitter, gold foil or sparkly gems.

Watch a slideshow of the past year

Remember how much you used to love watching old family home movie of yourself growing up? Well, you probably don’t have a camcorder or a VHS tape with your kids’ photos and videos on it, but they will love seeing what memories you have of them recorded on your phone. Just hook it up to a TV or computer and let it play in slideshow mode.

Set up a photo booth

Speaking of photos, your kids will have so much fun getting festive with a photo booth in their house. Just set up an area and start with a fun backdrop of fringe garland and balloons. Then buy or DIY photo booth props on sticks—think: masquerade eye masks, party hats, fake mustaches and ties or just silly signs. Your kids can make these themselves, along with photo booth frames they can hold up.

Make NYE apps and snacks together

I don’t know about you, but when we celebrate NYE, we are all about noshing on finger foods! There are some really fun and easy recipes you can put together with your kids, such as a fruit kabob or platter, ham & cheese sliders, popcorn and trail mix, mac ‘n’ cheese bites and mini pizzas.

Mix together mocktails

Your kids will love this even more! Get really festive and make some yummy fun non-alcoholic drinks, like a holiday punch or a white Russian mocktail. And get more fun with it, by adding gummy bears in it, cotton candy or ring pops.

Work on New Year’s Resolutions together

It’s never too early to teach your kids how to set goals and to learn how to be responsible for their own self-care and growth. Help them come up with a list of at least 5 resolutions they can focus on after the New Year.

Brainstorm a bucket list for next year

This can be added onto your resolutions. Come up with places you want to visit, books you want to read, new foods to try, organizations to volunteer at and anything else you can think of!

Have a dance party

Put together a fun kid-friendly music playlist and blast it out for your kids to dance their hearts out! Make it even more fun with glow sticks for a glow-in-the-dark dance party, or get a disco ball for a disco party.

Play games

Pull out the classic board and card games, or you can even come up with some more unique ideas: NYE Bingo, a NYE Scavenger Hunt, a game of I Spy, a NYE word search or word scramble… or spice it up a bit with “Two Resolutions and a lie”

Check out my NYE Pinterest board for more ideas.

15 NYE Activities to do as a Family

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Noon Year’s Eve & Kid Friendly Ball Drops

Go on an adventure. ♡