by Linda Castillo
It’s been awhile since I went out to ring in the New Year at a loud, crazy party. Since we have become parents these days my hubby and I have had more quiet NYE celebrations. But now that my eldest is at an age where she understands holidays more so this year I wanted to do something fun for the family to kick-off 2016.
Here are a few of ideas to make your family’s celebration a festive and rocking New Year!
Dress Up – Just because you aren’t leaving the house doesn’t mean you don’t want to look sharp! You can even have it theme inspired such as Princess or Super Hero themed. Or go the complete opposite and make it a pajama party.
Toast the New Year – Have some sparkling apple cider on hand for the kids and champagne for the adults to toast in the New Year.
Countdown with different activities for the evening – I have seen different variations of this activity from kids opening a bag with a new activity to do at the top of the hour. I opted to use simple scrapbook paper to label the fun activity. The activities we will be doing include:
- Freeze dance
- Family resolution tree – This is an activity where everyone can participate to come up with the family goals like traveling, eating more vegetables, exercising and playing nice together.
- Watch a movie and make popcorn
- Bake cookies or make sundaes
- Play games – Hungry Hippo, Bingo, Alligator, Memory, etc.
- Build a fort – I remember building a fort all the time at my grandma’s house. It was so fun and a great place to hang out for all the little ones.
Faux countdown – This year Netflix is streaming an early countdown just for the kids. Hosts for the shows include cartoon characters such as Puffin Rock’s Oona and Baba, the Care Bears & Cousins, Inspector Gadget, King Julien, and Mr. Peabody and Sherman. Let your kiddos decide which host they want to watch.
Bring in the noise – I remember running around in circles hitting the pots and pans. Get your little ones ready for their favorite noisemakers and let them go CRAZY at “midnight.”
Create a balloon drop – If you are hosting a party with a bunch of kiddos they will be so excited to have all the balloons drop on them at the midnight.
And if you are lucky, your hubby and you will have enough energy to stay awake and watch a movie after the kids are asleep. Whatever you end up doing, I wish you a Happy New Year!!!
Linda Castillo is the Founder and Executive Editor of www.ModernLatina.com. She writes on topics that empower and inspire Latinas including art, motherhood, green living, culture, travel, and issues transforming the Latino community. Linda has earned a B.S. in Business and a M.S. in Mass Communications from San Jose State University.