While some opt to hit the town on New Year's Eve, others elect to spend the holiday celebrating with those nearest and dearest to their hearts by planning a family celebration.
If you want to ring in the New Year's holiday with your brood, plan an assortment of games to ensure that even your youngest partygoers will remain in a festive mood.
Year in Review
Promote reflection by preparing a year-in-review game. For this activity, pull out some old copies of your favorite magazines and newspapers. Clip images of events happened throughout the year that you are about to exit. Select pictures that represent important occurrences so that your family members can easily place them. When game time arrives, present your selected photos to your players and ask them to organize them in the order in which they occurred. As you go over the player's organization attempt, discuss what each picture shows and share your memories of these events.
Midnight Balloon Volley
Keep your kids from dozing off on the couch as the hours drag on with a midnight balloon volley game. Blow up a standard balloon and present it to your children. Ask them to attempt to keep the balloon up in the air, volleying it back and forth with their hands. Once they have mastered this skill, ask them to try to complete the same task, but with only one hand each, holding the others behind their backs. To keep the player engaged, loudly count each time a player returns a volley, urging her to try to keep the balloon in the air a bit longer with each attempt.
This Year Memory Game
Create a memory game using your favorite family photos as a kid-friendly way to look back on your year. To craft this game, select 15 to 20 family photos taken throughout the year. Size each photo so that each image fits within the same dimensions. Print out two copies of each photo on a thick cardstock or photo paper. When you are ready to play the game, spread the images out face down, mixing them up across the table or floor. Ask players to take turns turning over two images at a time. If the player turns over two matching images, he gets to keep the card. If not, he must turn them back over and wait his turn before trying again. The player with the most matches at the conclusion of the game, wins.
Make A Movie
Start a tradition where you make a family movie. Designate a videographer (or take turns) - sing a song, make up a dance, do a skit, have a talent show... This is a guaranteed way to laugh so hard your sides will hurt! You can make one every year and then watch the previous years movies. So cool. These will be treasured memories, for sure.
