Celebrating New Year's With Kids

• Make a New Year's sparkle ball .
• Have a movie marathon.  Our favorites are old classics like North by Northwest, To Catch a Thief, and Shane, and newer classics like Back to the Future and Indiana Jones.  Hugo is a new favorite, as well as Captain America and The Avengers.  Don't forget the popcorn!
• Make a pizza bar--use tandoori bread, pita, or premade mini pizza crusts and set out bowls of toppings like  mozzarella and cheddar cheese, tomato sauce, pepperoni, sliced veggies like zucchini, bell peppers, tomato, and mushrooms, and have everyone build his own pizza.
• or, make a taco/nacho bar with taco shells, tortillas, or tortilla chips, cooked sliced chicken seasoned with taco seasoning or cooked and seasoned ground beef, grated cheddar or monterey jack cheese, diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, warm black beans, chopped avocado  and taco sauce or salsa.  My kids love to build their own taco creations.
• Have a family slumber party--camp out in the living room for the midnight countdown.
• Talk about resolutions and have someone write a list of family resolutions that everyone contributes to.
• Have a party hat contest.  Kids can use leftover/recycled Christmas bows and ribbons, stickers, and construction paper to decorate a folded newspaper hat.  Choose winners in various categories so nobody is left out:  silliest, most colorful, most festive, biggest, most creative...
• Display a world map and note when the new year rolls in in different countries.  
• Change over the calendar and talk about the months of the year with younger kids.
• Download a free customizable owl calendar.
• Read some books about time, days, seasons, and years:  Cookie's Week by Cindy Ward and Tomie dePaola, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, Frog and Toad All Year by Arnold Lobel, A Busy Year by Leo Lionni, and The Year at Maple Hill Farm by Alice and Martin Provensen.
• Take a new year's photo of the kids to remember this moment--they grow up so fast!