Celebrating with New Years Activities for Kids

Looking for New Years activities for kids?

Celebrating the new year is all about celebrating the milestones from the past year and anticipating the new year with excitement and joy. If you’re celebrating New Years Eve with kids, you might be wondering how to pull it off. Will your kids stay up until midnight to ring in the new year?

Over the years, we have adapted our traditions to include fun and memorable new years activities for kids and keepsake new years crafts for toddlers I’ll cherish forever. There are so many fun family friendly New Year’s Eve ideas and New Year’s activities to try! Keep reading to discover some of my favorites and snag some of my favorite New Year’s printable activities too.

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Celebrating New Years Eve with Kids

Marking the passing of the year and the beginning of a new year is an important way to remember what has happened over the past year. Celebrating the start of the coming year fills us with anticipation, hope, and excitement. Including our kids in New Year celebrations that often begin long after bedtime can be a challenge, but it’s worth it.

So how do you do it? How can you successfully ring in the new year with new year activities for toddlers and young kids? I’m glad you asked.

There were certainly a few years at the beginning where we put our kids to bed at the usual time and tried to celebrate quietly from the couch as they slept. I’ll admit that for us, ringing in the new year this way didn’t feel like a celebration. That’s when I discovered “Noon Years Eve” and began thinking about celebrating the new year with activities that incorporated my kids in the celebration too.

How To Celebrate with New Year Activities for Toddlers

Celebrating the new year when your kids are young can be done with some creativity and a little planning. There are all kinds of fun family-friendly New Year’s Eve ideas to help you ring in the new year with your toddlers in tow.

Check out some of my favorite ideas for celebrating the new year with new year activities for toddlers:

Noon Years Eve

My favorite family friendly New Year’s Eve idea involves playing with the clock. Instead of celebrating the new year at 12 midnight, you celebrate at 12 noon. This way, the celebration is early enough that you can all get to bed on time and enjoy the day too.

Break out the sparkling grape juice or a drink of your choice and share some treats.

Have fun with confetti and dance the afternoon away with your toddlers all before nap time. You can celebrate in your family’s favorite ways at an earlier time in the day that works so much better for toddlers and tired moms too. 

Balloon Drop

For just a couple of dollars, you can set up a super fun balloon drop new year activity for toddlers to ring in the new year at whatever time you choose. You’ll need a plastic tablecloth, streamers, a glue stick, and some balloons. First, cut the tablecloth in half the long way.

Then, line up the short edges of the tablecloth and use your glue stick to stick them together with the streamer. Leave the streamer long so that it hangs down. You should have two tablecloth pieces attached at the center with a streamer that hangs down (you’ll need this hanging piece to release your balloons later).

Finally, attach the ends of the tablecloth to the ceiling and fill it with inflated balloons. When you’re ready to celebrate the new year with toddlers, pull the streamer and release those balloons! It’s a magical new years activity for kids they won’t forget!

Countdown Bags

If you’re looking for lots of exciting New Years’ activities for kids this year, you’ll love the idea of creating countdown bags to celebrate! Countdown bags are a fun way to keep toddlers and young kids entertained all night long (or all afternoon). Each bag will contain a New Year’s activity or a New Years’ craft for toddlers to do. 

Try to choose activities and goodies that will keep your toddlers entertained until it’s time for the next bag. This New Year’s Eve slime would be perfect to add in one! Check out more of my favorite things to include in a countdown bag New Year activity for toddlers:

• Selfie Props
• Minute to Win It Games
• Charades
• Time Capsule
• Noise Makers
• New Years’ Crafts for Toddlers

Netflix Countdown

I love the Netflix New Years’ countdown. If you have the Netflix streaming service, you can watch as many countdowns with your kids’ favorite characters as you like. We are particularly fond of the countdown with King Julien from the animated movie Madagascar.

Netflix offers new countdowns each year that you can watch at any time during the day or night with your toddlers and kids to ring in the new year. Characters count down with music, confetti, and hijinx. Last year’s countdowns included:

• Skylanders Academy
• Pinky Malinky
• All Hail King Julien
• Boss Baby
• Beat Bugs

In addition to the new countdowns available this year, Netflix will have all their old countdowns available for your kids to watch and enjoy too. Celebrate with as many fun and exciting kid countdowns as you like! 

Special New Years Crafts for Toddlers

Including New Years crafts for toddlers in your countdown bags is one idea, but you can still have all kinds of creative and crafty fun without a countdown too. These New Years’ crafts for toddlers are perfect for New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, or celebrating the beginning of a new year in your preschool classroom.

New Year’s printable activities are an excellent way to help your toddlers have fun, build early learning skills, and save yourself some prep work.  I’ve put together some fun New Year’s printable activities and crafts your toddlers and preschoolers will love! Check out my favorites:

Printable 2024 DIY New Years’ Party Hats

Print this cute black and white New Years craft for kids and let the memory making begin for your toddlers or preschoolers!

This 2024 New Year’s party hat freebie is perfect for helping young children practice scissor skills and build fine motor strength while coloring their very own New Years’ party hats for a celebration in the classroom or at home. The best part is that with my New Year’s printable activities, there’s almost no-prep for you!

Just print, color, cut, and staple to a sentence strip for a fun DIY New Years Eve hat your kids are sure to love!

Cut and Paste New Years Craft for Toddlers

I love to do cut and paste crafts in the classroom because they’re fun and easy for toddlers. Plus, they provide an excellent way to help your young learners build important fine motor skills too.

You can use these cut and paste fireworks New Years’ crafts for toddlers to make a special keepsake for your celebration this year. It’s a New Year’s printable activity your whole family will admire as you celebrate.

New Years Craftivities for Kids

Need a fun way to add in some writing this January? If so, you won’t want to miss my New Years craftivity.

Craft a New Years boy or girl and choose from the 3 different writing phrases for an adorable January bulletin board display.

New Years Eve Color By Number Printables

Color by number printables are a huge hit with my preschoolers that I knew I had to pull them out for the big day too.

These easy New Years Eve worksheets are a great way to work on fine motor skills as you target academic skills such as numbers and letters as well.

Fun & Memorable New Years Activities for Kids

Make the new year fun and memorable at home by starting some new family traditions for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day this year. You can read about how people celebrate the new year all over the world in some of these fun books with your kids this year:

• Lanterns and Firecrackers by Johnny Zucker
• Feliz New Year, Ava Gabriela by Alexandra Alessandri
• Happy New Year Around the World by Sylvia Walker
• The Night Before New Years by Amy Wummer

Then, have some fun adopting celebrations from around the world with your kids or trying out some old family traditions to ring in the new year. Some of our favorites include dancing and drinking root beer floats. 

Some families eat 12 grapes at midnight to kick off the new year. It’s a healthy snack idea for toddlers that’s a fun way to practice counting and one-to-one correspondence too. According to the tradition, eating 12 grapes ensures you’ll be lucky and prosperous throughout the new year. 

Try adding New Year’s crafts for toddlers and family friendly new years eve ideas from around the world for even more fun at your celebration this year. For example, you could use paper lanterns to celebrate as they do in many Asian countries.

Or this fun Chinese New Year craft of a dragon. What’s your favorite family-friendly New Year’s Eve idea?

Virtual New Years Celebration Ideas

There are so many cool ways to celebrate and enjoy New Years’ activities for kids. If you’re looking for ways to celebrate the New Year virtually with your students, family, or friends you might want to try some of these fun ideas.

Bingo New Years’ Activity for Kids

We love bingo! It’s a great way to help kids practice number recognition skills too. You can even send a prize to the winner of the virtual bingo game in the mail the next day. 

Virtual New Years’ Eve Trivia Game

Trivia games are a great way to get reluctant or shy kids in on all the fun. Plus, you can really learn a lot of cool things about New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day! For example, did you know 45% of Americans make New Year’s Eve resolutions? 

New Year’s Resolution Activities for Kids

You can get the conversation started at your virtual celebration by talking about New Year’s Resolutions. After explaining what a resolution is to your kids, talk about what their resolution will be and why. They will surprise you with their insight and imagination.

Then, play a fun game where you try to guess each other’s resolutions or guess Mom & Dad’s New Year’s resolutions. Throw in a few fake ones or really silly ones for extra fun.

How will you celebrate the New Year with your kids this January? Do you have some fun New Years’ activities for kids planned? Share your ideas in the comments, so we can all try them at home too. Don’t forget to grab your own New Years’ printable activities for all kinds of family-friendly New Year’s Eve fun!