New Year’s Eve Family Party

New Year's Eve Family Party

A New Year’s Eve Family Party Celebration

fullsizerender-10Make New Year’s Eve feel like a celebration at home with your kids.  For us, it’s my husband and I and our three girls, but this would work great with extended family or friends too!  (My inspiration, along with printables, can be found here)

New Year’s Eve can be a special celebration for the whole family!

In years past, we have created a family party which starts around lunchtime.

We surprise the girls around noon with a bin full of New Year’s Eve decorations and a collection of activity bags for them to open at specific times. This meant the entire afternoon and evening were planned out and they were surprised with an activity every hour or so.  It was a lot of fun for them and for us.  This can be adapted to be age-appropriate for your child(ren).

You will need:

  • Hats
  • Noisemakers
  • Fancy glasses for our special New Year’s Eve drink recipes below
  • Drink recipe ingredients
  • Table decorations
  • ‘Happy New Year’ Banner
  • Dinner prep ingredients or takeout phone number

Put everything in a bin, box or bowl.

Next, come up with a schedule of activities for the evening, and plan a surprise bag for each:

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Create your graphics in Word or simply hand-write on card stock. The bags shown were purchased at Homesense.

Decide how you want your evening to flow:

What time do you want to begin your countdown bags?  How many activities do you want to plan & make activity bags for?  The items inside your countdown bags can be a related prize or gift, to the activity, or just a note outlining the activity for that bag.

Here is an example:

12 pm Decorate

Decorate the house with everything that was in the bin: banner, noisemakers, champagne flutes, hats, balloons, etc

2.00 pm Bake Cupcakes

I put sprinkles in the activity bag

3.00 pm Play Just Dance

I printed an image of the Just Dance game cover and placed it in the bag.  This was a huge hit for our family as all 5 of us enjoy playing Just Dance and we have plenty of versions of this game to choose from.  Any game would do, board games too!

4.00 pm Watch a Movie

I printed a mini movie poster of the Ice Age movie and placed it in the bag with some popcorn.

5.30 pm Order Chinese Food

I placed a fork, napkin and the Chinese food restaurant’s number in the bag.  This year we’ll be making dinner at home so there will be a hint as to what we’re having in the bag.

6.00 pm Write New Year’s Resolutions

There are fantastic templates all over Pinterest for this purpose. It was so much fun writing out our plans and hopes for the coming year and sharing them.  If your child is too young, you can do this with your spouse as a plan for your family for the year.

7.00 pm Video Interviews

Interview one-on-one with each child on video.  Sample questions below. (this one is so much fun when they’re little)

8.00 pm Get ready for Midnight!

We watch the New York ball drop at 9.00PM Pacific so the kids still get to bed just after 9pm. This activity includes finding the TV Channel with the countdown/ball-drop, pouring everyone a special drink and getting hats & noisemakers ready. Confetti or bubbles can be placed in the bag.

Special Drinks:

ADULT: CRANBERRY SNOWDRIFT

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Ingredients

1 oz (30 mL) Ocean Spray® White Cranberry Cocktail
1 oz (30 mL) white crème de cocoa or other clear chocolate liqueur
1/2 oz (15 mL) white chocolate liqueur
Ocean Spray® Fresh Cranberries
Decorator’s sugar
Chocolate, shaved

Directions

Combine first three ingredients with ice. Shake and strain into a glass. Thread the cranberries onto a cocktail pick. Dip in water and roll in sugar to coat. Perch on the glass as a garnish, with shaved chocolate.

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NON-ALCOHOLIC: CRANBERRY & POMEGRANATE GINGER SPLASH

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Ingredients

6 ounces (175mL) Ocean Spray® 100% Juice Blend – Cranberry & Pomegranate
1 ounce (30mL) orange juice, chilled
4 ounces(125mL) gingerale, chilled
Sliced oranges and fresh cranberries for garnish

Directions

In tall glass, mix cranberry juice and orange juice. Stir in gingerale. Fill with ice. Slice oranges and cranberries. Place in drink.

Find more Cranberry recipes at Ocean Spray®

Some other ideas:

  • Crafts
  • Board Games: Memory, Candyland, anything age-appropriate
  • Play Barbies or Lego (kid’s choice!)
  • Karaoke
  • Draw a picture of your favourite memories of this year
  • Create a vision board/collage with magazines and posterboard for the New Year

Sample questions to ask during the interview:

  • What is your name?
  • What is your favourite colour?
  • How old are you?
  • What does your Mom/Dad do during the day?
  • What’s Mom/Dad’s name?
  • What is your favourite activity?
  • What is your favourite day of the week?
  • What do you want to be when you grow up?
  • You can ask anything, just don’t forget to video tape and keep year after year!

Happy New Year from Modern Mama!

Connie-Signature

* Posted in partnership with Ocean Spray®

 

 

 

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