Once you become a parent, New Year's Eve becomes a whole lot less exciting.
In my experience, anyway!
Staying up past midnight enjoying adult beverages is no longer as exciting when you remember there are tiny humans who will require your attention the next day- and they never seem to care if you've gotten enough sleep or if your head is throbbing. Kids.
When my girls were little, we started celebrating New Year's at noon instead of midnight. We were all well rested and happy at noon. We could play games and make crafts and make lots and lots of noise. We didn't worry about being on the road alongside people who shouldn't be driving and just generally got to enjoy being together as a family.
Check out the article I wrote for Zulily with loads of fun ideas for a fantastic New Year's Eve with kids!
I'm already lining up our Noon Year's Eve activities for this year- games, activities and food- so my family of five can happily celebrate 2021 together, even if none of us makes it to see the ball drop at midnight!
Festive Food for Noon Year's Eve
A party calls for fun food! Here are a few of the things I will be serving at our "Yay 2020 is finally over!" party:
1. Lil' Smokies in the crockpot.
2. Crescent rolls with butter. My kids love these.
3. Pinwheel sandwiches. I will spread cream cheese mixed with dry ranch salad seasoning on a tortilla and then add ham. Then I will roll up the sandwich and slice into pinwheels. I will make enough to display these on a platter in a way that the sandwiches spell out 2021.
4. Lots and lots of fresh fruit. My kids can eat grapes, raspberries and cantaloupe by the truckload, so I will have plenty of each out!
5. Cookies. Lots and lots of cookies! We love cookies at our house, so I will have Mint Meltaways, Peanut Butter Blossoms, Snickerdoodles and Chocolate Chip cookies on hand.
6. Kiddie Spritzer. My girls love acting grown up, so I will serve them kiddie spritzers in plastic champagne flutes. Since it's still morning, our kiddie spritzer will be orange juice with a splash of sparkling grape juice. The version I will have myself will include champagne.
7. Cupcakes. Because cake. And parties. And cake. I will likely pick a few up from a local bakery. Sugar Bee Sweets in Arlington is usually my go-to when I need a sugar fix!
Party Games for Noon Year's Eve
One of our favorite games to play as a family is Headbanz. It's quick and silly and appropriate for all ages!
We also love to play the wrapping paper game, and I prepare for this game a few weeks in advance. I prep by buying lots of fun little trinkets- things such as lip balm, small candy bars, key chains, bouncy balls and the like- and then one larger prize, usually a $10 giftcard to somewhere like McDonald's or Starbucks. You will also need several rolls of wrapping paper and lots of tape to prepare for this game.
-Start by wrapping the gift card.
-Add a trinket on top of the wrapped gift card and wrap the trinket and gift card together.
-Repeat this step, constantly wrapping the wrapped gift with a new gift until all gifts have been wrapped. You should have a wrapped ball the size of a basketball or larger!
To play this game you will need two oven mitts or glove and two dice.
-Have all players sit in a circle. Hand the ball of goodies to the youngest player and give the dice to the player to her right.
-The player with the ball dons the oven mitts and goes to town trying to unwrap the gift while the person with the dice rolls. Once the dice-roller rolls doubles, the gift ball and dice are passed to the left.
-Anything that fell out of the gift ball while the player was unwrapping it belongs to that player.
-Continue until all prizes have been claimed!
Try not to laugh too hard when you witness your family members trying to unwrap a ball of gifts with oven mitts on. It's harder than it looks! (This game usually takes us a solid 30 minutes to complete and everyone who plays thinks it's a hoot!)
Make or buy a few noisemakers, also, and let the kids run around the yard when the clock strikes noon, allowing them to make as much noise as they possibly can (it never ceases to amaze me how much noise my three sweet girls are capable of producing!) to celebrate this special holiday.
Party Wear for Noon Year's Eve
In my younger days, one of my favorite things about New Year's Eve was dressing up in a super-fancy outfit and too-high heels. I love all the sparkly things and all the makeup. For this reason, I let my kiddos get decked to the nines for our party. We usually find gorgeous, fancy dresses for less than $10 at Half of Half and find fancy shoes at Walmart (although they are usually barefoot because we are at our house!). I let the girls look up fancy hairstyles on Pinterest and do my best to recreate those for them. I also let my girls go hog-wild with my make up on New Year's Eve. My youngest, especially, doesn't think a girl can possibly wear too much blush. I put on a fancy dress and can usually talk my husband into a white button down and black slacks, as well. We take photos to commemorate the coming of a new year.
Making it to midnight on New Year's Eve may be a thing of the past for us (although my oldest and I did watch the ball drop together on the couch with her sleeping sisters last year!), but we do love celebrating the holiday all the same. Noon Year's Eve is a great way to have the best of the holiday and a full night's sleep, too!
