New Year: a time for celebration and looking forward to fresh beginnings with hopeful optimism. This unique time of year is often spent with friends and family and includes chatter and laughter going into the wee hours of the morning.
But just because you have children, New Year doesn’t have to mean a mug of Horlicks and bed at 9pm. It's their New Year as much as anyone's after all and who better than our own children to show us how to have fun and spend an evening in buoyant anticipation of the year to come?
With our handy tips for a kid-friendly New Year's Eve, you can enjoy the evening without worrying or feeling that you’re missing out. Check out our New Year's Eve ideas for families and, if you're ready to start planning, click the button to browse our family-friendly New Year cottages.
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Throw a family-friendly party
What with most of your time having been taken up by Christmas planning, it's understandable that your creative juices might be waning and therefore you find yourself asking, "What to do on New Year's Eve with the kids?".
The good news is that it doesn't need to be a Nobel Prize-winning idea in order to keep them entertained. You could throw a family-friendly party with friends who have children of a similar age, or even with parents of the children's friends at school.
If they're a little bit older, they might relish the chance to feel more grown-up at a dinner party with the adults. You could put all the children at one end so they can converse with their peers whilst still feeling involved in the conversations, games and celebrations taking place between courses.
If you feel younger children might not have the concentration span for a dinner party, you could set up a separate area (that is easily supervisable) where the children could entertain themselves. Provide some games and toys and leave them to it. You could even bribe a slightly older child to keep a watchful eye over them for you. While the grownups enjoy dinner and cocktails, the children can cavort and romp to their heart's content! A late night and having fun with their friends will keep the little ones happy.
Large cottages for New Year
Make an inspiration board
Everybody always talks about New Year's resolutions, but admit it, despite our good intentions, we often come up a bit short when it comes to committing to them for the entire year.
A couple of ways around this include:
- Doing it as a family – when you have others in the same boat as you, it can encourage and spur you on to dig in and achieve your goals
- Making it tangible – by creating an inspiration board together and hanging it somewhere noticeable to the entire family, you won't forget about your objectives and will be more likely to meet and exceed them
It doesn’t matter if you’re spending New Year with friends or having a quiet night in, get the family together and write down everything you want to do in the coming year. From holidays to achievements, this is a great New Year's Eve idea for kids as it can help teach them about commitment and managing expectations whilst also being a fun activity to do for mum and dad. Pin it up somewhere obvious and by the time you get to June, see how many you’ve done!
Kaleidoscope House has a karaoke and dance floor - perfect for a family-friendly New Year's Eve
Get the karaoke out!
Karaoke is a firm party favourite when celebrations are in order. It's easy, everybody can have a go as there are always songs that you know, and best of all, it doesn't matter if you can sing (in fact, it can be more fun if you can't hold a tune!).
Not only is it great entertainment, but karaoke is also a perfect evening activity for groups of all ages, making it the ideal New Year's Eve idea for families. While the grown-ups may need that second glass of bubbles before getting a little competitive, the children will just love putting on a show. And before you know it, there's a queue for the microphone!
Take this chance to educate the kids on some real music, not like the noise they listen to today! And in return, you might find yourself being taught the latest dance craze ... and then giggled at when you inevitably get it wrong.
Think up some party games
You don't want to be stuck for something to do, especially if you've promised the little ones they can stay up until past midnight! And that's why you're going to need some New Year's party games for kids.
Having everybody together is the perfect opportunity to refresh some old classics. Hide and seek is always a firm favourite, as well as Pictionary, charades, Jenga or something more energetic like Twister.
If you want to get creative and think a little bit outside the box then try these on for size:
- Indoor scavenger hunt – create some clues, maybe even draw up a map and go on a quest all over the house for that elusive treasure
- Cereal box game – a game suited to the young and/or quite flexible, this game will no doubt get you laughing and competitive in equal measure
- The Santa hat/oven gloves game – you'll need a spare gift for this one, but the frantic pace of this exciting game will leave everyone wanting more
If you need somewhere fantastic to throw a party with some of these games, then check out our stylish party houses to rent this New Year’s Eve.
The home cinema room at The Glass House - Polruan
Set up a movie night
Spend quality time together by having a movie evening. Enjoy the old family favourites like Home Alone or Mary Poppins, or catch the latest blockbuster. Throw in a bucket of popcorn and duvets on the sofa and you’ve got the perfect New Year’s night in!
To give it that extra special feel, consider investing in a projector and a screen (it could be a Christmas gift to yourselves!). You could even dress up in your Sunday best to give the evening all the glitz and glamour of a red carpet night.
Make a time capsule
What better way to communicate with your future self than a time capsule? You could even ask yourself if you kept those resolutions you made! But seriously, a time capsule can be a very fulfilling and illuminating thing to do on New Year's Eve with the kids. You can find out what things are important to your children at this stage in their lives, and even if it isn't immediately gratifying from the child's point of view, it can teach an important lesson about delayed rewards.
There are two ways of doing your time capsule. You can collect memories from the year gone by and keep them safe in a box to open up the following year – you’ll have a lovely time reminiscing over everything, and seeing if you still feel the same way as you did 12 months ago. Or you can do it traditionally: bury your capsule in the ground for future archaeologists to discover, or make a family pact to open it in ten, 20 or 30 years!
A few ideas for the contents of your time capsule include:
- Cut-outs from magazines of the fashion trends they like/celebrities they're into
- A newspaper from their birthday
- Photos from the past year
- A note to your future self
- Predictions for the coming year
- Your favourite current recipes
- If you have more than one child, get them to write letters to each other
Have a fancy dress night
Fancy dress is a great idea for any day of the week, let alone a New Year's idea for kids. Literally hours can be whiled away by children when they enter their own imaginary worlds, leaving you to get as involved as you want. If you need a bit of time to prepare that next tray of canapes, then open up the fancy dress box and the kids are away!
If you’re getting some friends over, you could always set a fancy dress theme. The little ones will love dressing up no matter what but it can be pretty fun for the adults too! Sort out themed games, i.e. if you’re having a Mexican night, combine the dress code with Mexican food and pinata whacking.
Fancy dress can help break the ice as well. If you're having over old friends or family members you don't often get to see, then it can be daunting for the little ones to meet these people and their children too. Dressing everyone up and making it visually fun paves the way for a social evening with lots of laughter.
Let the children be involved
Your little ones will love staying up to watch the new year arrive and will feel so grown up. Let them join in the midnight toast with sparkling apple juice. If you’re all drinking cocktails, make the kids non-alcoholic versions and decorate them with straws and umbrellas.
Consider encouraging them to have an afternoon nap (easier said than done!). You could take them out in the morning for a brisk winter walk to tire them out and then once they've had a nap, they're more likely to make it all the way to midnight.
Be aware of your plans for New Year's Day, as children with play hangovers are not going to be much fun, especially if you're visiting family.
One idea is having a mini celebration before midnight but later than their normal bedtime. Give them a non-alcoholic tipple, count in the new year and sing Auld Lang Syne like you normally would. This way, they get to have their much-needed beauty sleep and you get well-behaved children the next day!
Have a sleepover
One way to make New Year’s Eve special is to make it a little bit different. If you’ve got friends over with kids, why not let all the little ones enjoy one giant sleepover? Chances are they’ll keep you up way past midnight anyway, plus you might want to let your friends sleepover too. In any event, it's New Year’s Day tomorrow and a pyjama day is completely acceptable!
Set up the children's bedroom as snuggly as you can, maybe even erect a teepee to give the effect of a fun campout, arrange a movie on a tablet or TV and prepare some (not too sugary) snacks for them to indulge in. You'll probably not hear a peep out of them and they'll forever remember the fun they had with their bestie at New Year.
Our cottages with play facilities and games rooms might be just the ticket for fun with friends over the New Year period.
Cottages with play facilities
Make some New Year’s crafts
There are so many great art and craft ideas available to you and so many hours in the day that if you find yourselves at a loose end and fancy being creative, you’re in luck.
Are you ready? Ok, here goes:
This is but a handful of the options available to you, so grab the glue and scissors and get crafting!
Go to a fireworks display
At this time of year, you’d be hard-pressed not to find a fireworks display close to your holiday cottage. Some will be free and some will charge an entrance fee. Some will be more suited to families so make sure you do your research before committing. Also, you might need to pre-book to avoid the venue telling you they’re at capacity.
So, wrap the kids up warm, including some gloves in case they want to handle sparklers, grab yourselves a hot chocolate and a hotdog from the grill and stand back and admire the rockets, whistlers and peonies with the requisite oohs and ahhs.
If you’re looking for somewhere to stay that centres around an impressive fireworks display and an overall great New Year’s Eve night, read our blog on the top New Year’s Eve destinations in the UK.
Look for family-friendly activities around the UK
Perhaps you want to make a whole day of it and enjoy every precious moment with the kids before the year comes to a close. Or maybe you want to usher in the new year as a family and spend some quality time together on 1 January. If that's the case, then there are plenty of daytime activities to be had on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
Why not spend New Year’s Day ice skating or visiting the theatre to catch a festive show? Take a trip to the beach to blow off the cobwebs with the dog, have a movie marathon or just stick on Classic FM and all read your books in the same room.
If you're looking to start the year as you mean to go on, you could always give back to the community by volunteering – take part in a beach clean, donate gifts to a shelter or cook and serve food at a shelter. It can be an uplifting experience and a shared family moment that will live long in your memory.
Self-catering New Year's Eve cottages
We hope that these New Year's Eve ideas for families have inspired you to do something different this year, with the kids included. If you’re searching for a comfortable cottage to spend the New Year period in, look no further.
Get everyone together in a cottage that will fit the whole family: a place perfect for games, parties and festive feasting! Browse our range of family-friendly cottages for a New Year family break – there’s sure to be something to suit groups of all kinds!
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