New Year's Eve Family Interview

I never really enjoyed New Year's Eve as a younger person, but a few years ago we found a way to make it a fun family holiday, and since then I've enjoyed it much more! Every year we have our own special tradition on New Year's Eve involving a series of easy, at home activities and treats. Each activity or treat is hidden within a paper bag. You can read more about our New Year's Eve Bags for the Whole Family here.

Last year, one of our activities involved a quick family interview. It became an instant hit with everyone, even Daddy. We liked it enough that this year I've created a new, cuter printable version that we can use again and share with others!

New Year's Eve Countdown Bracelets

We wrapped up our Christmas fun this weekend and started looking forward to the next big event: New Year's Eve. We'll most likely be home that evening but we're still looking forward to the fun of the night. As we look forward we're putting together a few new ideas to add to the festivities of the evening.

New Year's Eve Countdown Bracelets

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Last year we started the new tradition of New Year's Eve Bags for the Whole Family. We're hoping to continue that tradition this year. But we did start thinking this week about how we can prepare a little more for the coming night. Big Brother has been really engaged with the ideas of numbers and counting sequences lately so we put together these Countdown Bracelets. 

New Year's Eve Bags for the Whole Family

Making plans for New Year's Eve as a parent is definitely different than it was before kiddos. For us it's all about staying in and having fun at home. The last few years we've created some of our own traditions around celebrating New Year's Eve as a family, but this year I was looking to add to our traditions.

A quick Pinterest search for family themed New Year's Eve ideas came up with different variations of "Countdown Bags." Many of the ideas seemed good for bigger kiddos; I've tried to make this set more approachable to younger kids so the whole family can get involved. As a primary teacher, I love the idea of putting a clock on each bag so kids need to read the time, but I know our younger kids are not going to make it to midnight. I decided to label our bags from 10 to 1. This way we can do the bags as quickly as we need to, and hopefully, we can end our family celebration not too far away from their regular bedtimes.

Bag 10

Over the years I've added some fun hats and necklaces to our New Year's box, so Bag 10 contains some necklaces and a note which encourages to get dressed in our festive wear. 

Bag 9

Several years ago my husband and I started the tradition of only having appetizers for dinner on New Year's Eve, and we've continued that tradition with Big Brother too. Bag 9 contains special napkins and cups for our meal. 

Bag 8

Kids love balloons, even without helium. Bag 8 encourages us to have some fun with balloons. I know Little Brother will particularly love the blown up balloons. (Please note babies must be very closely watched with balloons as they are a choking hazard.)

Bag 7

We love to play games, and we're really enjoying this new card game we got for Christmas, so this set went into Bag 7. 

Bag 6

Another one of our New Year's Eve traditions as a family involves watching a movie. This year we're planning on renting something we haven't watched before on Amazon. To make it fun with the countdown bags, I created a "ticket."

Bag 5

Of course, every movie needs popcorn!

Bag 4

We always love glow sticks, but how neat are these glow stick wands I found at the dollar store?   

Bag 3

Even though we've had a lot of sweet treats lately, every New Year's Eve party needs a special drink. We'll be drinking root beer floats with these fun straws I've been saving from a Target trip this summer. 

Bag 2

We'll be getting close to the end, and therefore need a little confetti and streamers!

Bag 1

And no New Year's Eve celebration is complete without noise, so of course we'll end our night with some noise makers!

I'm really excited to see how these fun bags go over with the kiddos tomorrow. What are some traditions you have for celebrating New Year's Eve? 

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