New Year’s Eve Fun and Activities for the Family

To those who say New Year’s Eve, with its late hours and reputation for excess, is a tough holiday to celebrate with kids, we only laugh and smile knowingly!

Here are some cute tips for packing your New Year’s Eve celebration with the kind of surprise and silliness children love. Happy New Year!

NOISEMAKER SHAKERS
Fill plastic film canisters halfway with corn kernels and decorate with shiny stickers. (Con-Tact or construction paper, glitter, fabric paint and opaque paint markers are also good for decorating.) We poked a hole in the canister’s cap (a parent’s job) and threaded curled ribbon through. Knot the ribbon on the underside of the cap, and let the rest stream out of the top.

STREAMERS
Staple lengths of crepe paper to an empty cardboard tube or a straw and decorate with abandon.

COUNTDOWN NUMBERS
Draw and color in the numbers 1 through 10 on poster boards–one number per board. At midnight, each child promenades down a flight of steps, number card held high, as the crowd yells out the number and cameras flash. “That was their moment,” says Susan. As the last child hits the last step, the streamers were blowing and the shakers were shaking. “You would just not believe how cool that turned out.”

MIDNIGHT BALLOON SHOWER
Here’s how to do it:

• Line up two rectangular paper tablecloths and punch holes every 2 to 3 inches down one long side of each.
• Stitch the tablecloths together with yarn, leaving a foot or so at the end for a rip cord.
• Tape the cloth to the ceiling on three sides, leaving the side opposite the rip cord open. Tape the cord up separately, so it’s accessible. Let the center of the cloth hang down to allow space for the balloons.
• Inflate at least 75 balloons.
• Buy thin streamers and metallic confetti.
• Stuff the cloth with balloons, then add the confetti and streamers on top. (Reverse it, and the confetti will weigh down the cloth and filter out ahead of time.) Tape up the last side of the cloth.
• Let her rip! At the stroke of midnight, just one strong pull tears through the paper, releasing a cascade of balloons and confetti–followed by stomping feet and a cacophony of pops.

BUBBLE WRAP STOMP
Looking for a way to ring in the New Year that will have the crowd on its feet? Look no further than a packaging supply store. For just a few dollars, you can pick up several yards of large Bubble Wrap (or recycle Bubble Wrap that comes with holiday gifts). Just before midnight, unroll it on a hard surface, such as a wooden floor or driveway, and when the countdown concludes, join the fun with a “the Bubble Wrap Stomp.” It sounds like firecrackers!

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AT WWW.LETOP-USA.COM

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Poll: What are your plans for New Year’s Eve?

As parents, especially of little ones, it becomes tough deciding what to do on New Year’s Eve. Ever since my daughter was born, I haven’t celebrated New Year’s like I used to. That is… getting dressed up to go to a party, drinking champagne, dancing, getting home by 3 AM, then sleeping in the next day. The past four years has found us struggling just to keep our eyes open past 10 PM so we can at least see New York’s celebration. We go to bed shortly after that because we know our little girl will be waking us up for breakfast at the usual time.

This year we will be celebrating with other friends who are parents of little ones. We will try to party it up like we used to. But even if we don’t stay up late or dance the night away, we will at least be in the company of friends and all our children.

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