Many adults enjoy ringing in the new year with parties, fun, and games. Children are no different. However, at times the children are left out from this because for whatever reason the adults may not think to include them. Below you will find many ways to include the kids, games to play, and ideas for toys and party favors to keep them busy and entertained. The New Year’s Grab Bag of Fun includes some of the game and toy suggestions, so be sure to read that section closely for ideas.
The New Year’s Grab Bag Of Fun
One way to incorporate fun for children into the New Year’s celebration is to create a bag of fun for each child. Inside the bag should be age-appropriate games, cards, treats, toys, party favors, and even books. Some great things to include are joke books, card games like Uno, jump ropes, bubble gum for bubble-popping noise, jacks game, travel games, bubbles, snap n’ pops, baby rattles, bean bag balls or koosh balls to toss around, brain twisting puzzles (like Rubik’s cube), Mad Libs, and more. Place lots of goodies in each child’s bag and be sure to have different games and cards so that the children will want to play the games with each other. Tie up the bags with some curly ribbon and place them on a stand or table for the kids to choose. Be sure to label the grab bags according to age so that the toys are safe.
Ways To Include The Children
Mommy, Why Can’t I Have A Drink Like That? – When the adults are sipping on their colorful drinks, sometimes the children will wonder why they can’t have any. Instead of telling them they aren’t getting any and having to explain about alcohol, make the children virgin versions of the same drinks. They don’t have to know their drinks aren’t the same. Give them little paper umbrellas or crazy straws to accent their drinks.
Karaoke Time! – A popular thing to do at New Year’s Eve events is to sing karaoke. Why not let the children join in, too. You might be surprised at how well they’ll do. Even if some of their voices aren’t award-winning (along with some of the adults, I might add), it’s still really cute and fun to watch.
Pass The Resolution – At resolution time, adults and children alike can participate together. For this fun game, each person should write their resolution on a slip of paper and fold it in half. Then, everyone should get in a circle. A timer or stopwatch can be set for 1 minute at this point. Everyone passes their resolution to the left and continues passing them around the circle until the minute is up. Then, the resolutions should all be read aloud. The fun part about this one is that no one will know who wrote each one. Because of this, some might feel open to write in some funny or secret ones. What’s your resolution?
New Year’s Eve Party Favors
Blow-Outs – No New Year’s Eve party is complete without blow-outs. Just make sure they are the noise-making variety. If you have kids that may want them before midnight strikes, get an extra supply of the non-noise-making ones for their earlier entertainment. Break out the noisy ones near midnight to ensure that they will not get broken from too much use.
Other Favors – Don’t forget to also include other party favors as well. Having a variety of noisemakers, streamers, blow-outs, poppers, and more will keep your young guests entertained into the night.
Fun Toys The Children Can Play With On New Year’s Eve
Ensuring that the children are kept busy and entertained involves having plenty of entertainment on hand. Toys are an essential part of that. Listed below are some great toys to include at your New Year’s Eve party.
Bubbles, jump ropes, cards, board games, coloring books and crayons, and drawing pads and pencils are all good ways to keep children busy.
If you have babies at your party, get a few varieties of baby rattles and child-safe maracas. Even the bigger kids enjoy these as well on New Year’s Eve because it’s another fun way to make noise.
Fun Games The Children Can Play On New Year’s Eve
Children enjoy playing games many days and New Year’s Eve is no exception. Some games children might enjoy are as follows.
Board games – Uno Domino, UpWords, Scattergories, What Were You Thinking?, and Connect Four are examples of board games children enjoy.
Miscellaneous – Some more ideas include video games, Twister, Ring Toss, Horseshoes, Dice, trivia games, hopscotch and sidewalk chalk, and card games.
Hide and Seek – This classic game can be very fun and exciting to play at a New Year’s event because many parties on this night will have a great number of people attending. The more kids that are there, the more fun this game can get. Since most people already know how to play this, I won’t include instructions. For those poor souls who don’t, do a google search and learn. You won’t regret it.
Overview
There are many ways to make New Year’s Eve fun for children. The most important thing to remember is that they do need to be included. Children enjoy having fun on this evening as well. This is one night where children can stay up late if they choose to. Although some may fall asleep early, others will enjoy shouting “Happy New Year!” at midnight. For those who won’t make it that far, have a “Happy New Year!” shout at an earlier time. That said, Happy New Year!
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