Celebrate New Year's Eve with these fun New Year's Eve traditions to make it fun for the entire family! Includes kid-friendly ideas.
NEW YEAR'S EVE TRADITIONS FOR THE ENTIRE FAMILY
Are you wondering how to celebrate New Year's Eve? And you want to make New Year's Eve fun for your entire family? This post is for you!
Celebrating New Years Eve was always a family affair growing up.
If you'd like to start some of your own meaningful family New Year's Eve traditions, this post is for you! As always, no pressure to do them all. Just pick your favorites for a fun New Year's Eve together!
NEW YEAR'S EVE TRADITIONS- ACTIVITIES
1. WATCH FAMILY VIDEOS FROM THE YEAR
Chances are you have probably taken a million family videos from the year. Compile them before New Year's Eve and take some time to watch them.
We love watching all our family videos from the year and even year's past. It will be so fun to see how everyone has grown and it's a great way to look back on your year.
2. TAKE A FAMILY NEW YEAR'S EVE PICTURE
Taking a New Year's family photo is one of our favorite traditions! In fact, my family usually gets really into it and we all wear black and silver or gold for our New Year's Eve party.
FAMILY NEW YEAR PHOTO IDEAS:
- Hang up a black sheet or tablecloth for your backdrop
- Create a simple New Year's Banner or you can purchase one such as this one
- Grab or make some fun props such as hats and glasses
And some of NYE photos from years past:
3. NEW YEAR'S GOALS
New Year's traditions must includes making goals, right?
Make a family goals binder with these printable goal sheets right here. We keep a Family Goals binder where we update our goals and reminisce on the last year's goals. If we're really good, we pull them out monthly or at least a few times in the year to check our progress.
4. LET KIDS STAY UP LATE
My parents made New Year's Eve extra special for us since it was the only night of the year that we got to stay up as late as we wanted.
Some of you may be cringing at this idea, so I'm not saying it's a must. But... usually there are very little commitments on New Year's Days, so we were always able to sleep in after a long (or short) night.
Staying up as late as we wanted was an absolute treat! There was no bedtime to fight and since our celebrations involved the family, we weren't intruding on any of the festivities.
Tip: If you don't want your children staying up until midnight, do a faux midnight countdown. That way they still get to have the fun of the clock striking 12 in their mind.
5. BANG POTS & PANS AT MIDNIGHT
Want to know how to ring in the New Year with a bang?
Try running up and down the streets at midnight with pots and pans in hand. There's no need for fancy noisemakers when you can pull out pots and wooden spoons from the kitchen. (We always had some extra wooden spoons on hand so we wouldn't break the nice ones!)
To this day and no matter how old we get, we still run outside at midnight and bang pots and pans and scream, "Happy New Year!" Children and adults love this fun new years traditions.
Tip: Buy wooden spoons from the dollar store that you don't care about!
6. DELIVER NEIGHBOR GIFTS
Some years, in an effort to simplify Christmas, we give New Years gifts instead of neighbor Christmas gifts. New Year's Eve is a great time to deliver them!
Here's 4 reasons why we give New Years gifts for neighbor gifts.
If you'd like to do the same, here's some simple gift ideas.
NEW YEAR'S EVE TRADITIONS- GAMES
1. NEW YEAR'S EVE COUNTDOWN BAGS
What to do new year's eve?
Celebrate New Year's Eve with fun countdown bags for each hour. Make New Year's Eve extra fun for littles by having a special treat, snack, or game for them to open on each hour.
We did this a few years ago and the kids loved it! And seriously, the time passed by so quickly.
Get the free printables for the New Years Eve Countdown Bags here.
2. WHITE ELEPHANT GIFT AUCTION
Did you run out of time to have a white elephant gift exchange before Christmas? A fun New Year's Eve game is a gift auction. Get the details here
3. DOLLAR BILL GAME FOR NEW YEARS
Playing games at your NYE party at home is a must! Whether you are celebrating New Years Eve with 5 people or 15, playing the dollar game will be a hit! (Hint: it pays to play!)
How to play the dollar game for parties here.
4. M&M GAME OR SKITTLE GAME
Another fun and simple group game, this M&M Game (or Skittle Game) is a fast-moving game all ages can play.
5. PLAY FAVORITE FAMILY BOARD GAMES
Another favorite New Year's Eve tradition is to pull out all your favorite family games! Grab all the new family games you got for Christmas since New Years is a good time to play them all.
Here's our favorite family games for New Year's Eve!
6. DICE GAME FOR GIFT EXCHANGE
Another super fun New Year's Eve game is the dice game for gift exchange! Everyone brings a gift or two. Roll the dice to find out what you do with your gift! See all the game variations here.
7. MINUTE TO WIN IT GAMES
And of course, don't forget that Minute to win it games will are great New Years party game! Here's 30 Top Minute To Win It Games for New Years.
8. DREIDEL GAME
It doesn't matter if you are Jewish or not, playing the dreidel game is a game you'll have lots of fun with.
You can play this group game for NYE with any amount of people. It's simple enough for kids to play, too!
NYE TRADITIONS- FOOD
1. NEW YEAR'S EVE APPETIZERS
Don't forget the New Year's appetizers! Here's a post with all out favorite New Year's finger food ideas including our favorite easy chocolate fondue recipe.
2. DO A NEW YEAR'S EVE TOAST
Another fun New Year's Eve tradition is doing a toast! Grab some non-alcoholic sparkling drinks, such as Martinellis. Or whip up some fun Italian sodas.
Let us know what you think!