Enjoy New Year’s Eve at home

Spending New Year’s Eve at home with your family is a fantastic opportunity to bond, have fun together and start the new year with your loved ones.

With all the possibilities for fun, food, drinks and activities, spending it at home can be a real treat.

1. Prepare a meal.

Considering that ordering takeaways on New Year’s Eve often costs more (since prices are usually increased for the holiday), this is a good excuse to splurge a little and make a family meal at home. Choose food that everyone enjoys but don’t have very often, like steak, chili, or lobster. This family meal can become a New Year’s Eve tradition. You could also consider making a meal out of appetisers, which could create a more casual dinner setup, and the kids will enjoy picking and choosing different kinds of food. Cheese fondue is another fun dinner idea for New Year’s Eve as it will require everyone to sit and eat together. You can take turns dipping your food into the cheese and tell stories from the past year as you eat.

2. Make fun snacks and desserts.

Consider making cookies, toffee, or other desserts together as a family and eat throughout New Year’s Eve night. Marshmallow countdown skewers are another fun dessert idea. Each marshmallow has two or three numbers drawn on with edible ink, and you can eat the marshmallows as you count down to midnight. A fun idea for New Year’s Eve kid-friendly drinks are milk and cookie toasts. The kids can join in on the New Year’s toasts by clinking their milk glasses together and eating their cookies as they toast.

3. Make some holiday drinks and mocktails.

Kids will love having hot cocoa, fruity fizzy drinks and sparkling grape juice on New Year’s Eve. You can even make other mocktails like strawberry-kiwi spritzers, cranberry sparklers and peppermint drinks. Be sure to use plastic champagne flutes or other plastic adult-like glasses to make the kids feel really special. Adults can make their own specialty drinks, or stick with classic champagne. If you or family members are starting to feel tired, consider making some fun coffee drinks with and without alcohol.

4. Have fun throughout the night.

Bring out board games, card games, electronic games and even group video games to play as you wait for the clock to strike midnight. You could make up game tournaments, or try to play all the games at least once during the night. Pop in a movie you already have at home or rent a movie that you all have been wanting to see. Watching a movie can be just one aspect of your New Year’s Eve plans, or you can turn it into a movie marathon. During this time you can eat and drink different snacks that you have prepared for the night.

5. Make countdown bags to open every hour.

Fill small bags with different snacks and goodies to open at every hour leading up to midnight. You can make as many bags as you want, depending on how early you want to start opening them. Some ideas for bag fillers include disposable cameras, activity tags (watch a movie, eat ice cream, play a game, etc), craft kits and sweets.

6. Make your own party hats using paper and string, and decorate them supplies.

You can also make your own New Year’s Eve noisemakers by putting rice, confetti and glitter inside empty water bottles. Simply twist on the cap and shake to loudly bring in the New Year. Consider making a balloon drop for when the clock strikes midnight by blowing up balloons, and create netting around an overhead fan with some tape and wrapping paper or fabric. Place all the balloons inside the netting, and release the balloons whenever you plan to ring in the New Year.

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