5 Fun Ways to Spend New Year's Eve at Home with Family

#1 Dress up your tree and make wishes upon the New Year!
If you plan to stay home for New Year's Eve like many Americans, then why not make your home more festive?  Your Christmas tree is probably still up, so give it a quick, easy makeover!  With an Oh! New Year's Tree kit, you can join characters Mack and Mae Holiday and give your tree a brand new look in just minutes.  Then, have fun making wishes upon the New Year and storing them in the collectible Wish Holder ornament!  Lasting memories for family and friends!  Just wait until next holiday season when you re-discover the wishes and see if any of them came true.

#2 Dress up yourself as if you were going out and have a "mocktail" reception.
Kids get a kick out of any kind of party, so create some fun drinks and snacks and turn up the tunes!  We used to do this when my kids were small and we were too tired to go out for the night.  Kids and parents can stay in their slippers, but put dresses and ties on for the party!  And then, make your own midnight - the earlier the better - so you can put the kiddos to bed.  The two of you can gaze at your New Years tree and watch the ball drop at midnight in New York City!  And maybe someday, you’ll even watch the Rockefeller tree get decked out for New Year’s Eve, too!

#3 Play games, but not just the usual ones.
Go for some old-fashioned fun with charades.  Kids love to act things out, so give them some fun categories like movies, tv shows and sports.  Watching the kids, and then the kids watching the parents act out the words is entertaining for all.  After you’re done with charades, use a post-it to put the name of a famous person or character taped to each person’s back.  Then, during the night, keep asking questions of the other guests to figure out which famous person you are!

#4 Spend the evening with friends and close family who also have kids.
The adults can catch up after a busy holiday season and the kids are happy to run around with cousins and other kids!  Serve finger appetizers for the kids and pick up some easy frozen Trader Joe’s or Costco apps for adults.  Keep it simple and set an early time to celebrate the New Year so that everyone can get home in time to put the kids to bed before a New Year’s Eve meltdown.

#5 Don’t want to host for the entire night?
Suggest a block party and rotate with 3 or 4 other families.  The kids will have fun moving from house to house for changes of scenery.  And each house can break up the night with different courses - drinks and hats at the 1st house;  appetizers, pizza and noisemakers at the 2nd house; dessert, New Year’s Tree and “midnight’ poppers at the final houses!