For many people, ringing in the new year at midnight is the most common way to celebrate New Year’s Eve. For families, however, staying up that late can be hard for kids. And let’s face it, it can be difficult for the parents, too — they may be tired and want to snuggle up early themselves, or they might be looking forward to toasting with grownups after the children go to bed.
Amelia Reising, founder and executive director of Adventure! Children’s Museum at Valley River Center, says there’s no reason to leave children out of New Year’s altogether: This year, she says, consider a “Noon Year” party instead.
“Celebrating at noon instead of midnight is great for young kids,” Reising explains. Start with a countdown to noon rather than midnight. And when the clock strikes 12, the options are wide open for what happens next.
“Originally, we started with a recycled confetti toss,” Reising says of the museum’s own annual “Noon Year” celebrations, “then a balloon drop, and then last year a bubble party.”
Other activities include photos, a resolution board, party crackers, dance music, and paper hats. Outside the museum celebration, at home, Reising says her family often bakes a pirate-themed cake and then eats hors d’oeuvres for dinner while they watch a nostalgic movie.
When it comes time to plan, Reising turns to Pinterest for Adventure! “Noon Year” party inspiration. Reising suggests searching for DIY homemade pom pom shooters, with instructions for how to build them. A homemade balloon drop when the clock strikes noon is another easy and affordable option, made from a bed sheet attached to the ceiling, filled with store-bought balloons.
Other ideas include New Year’s themed bingo and biodegradable homemade tree-leaf confetti — collecting leaves is the perfect daytime holiday family activity.
But New Year’s parties for kids are, after all, for the kids, so in addition to Reising’s good advice, we spoke to some actual children about what they might like to do at a New Year’s celebration just for them.
“Oooh, a scavenger hunt would be good,” says Amalia Snider, 8, a third-grader at Adams Elementary in South Eugene. “There’s things you’re trying to look for. You get to find things, and that would be fun,” she adds. Scavenger hunts were also popular with Harrison Trent, 6, another Adams Elementary student. “You have to find something, and the thing that you find, you get to keep,” Harrison suggests.
Balloon drops also topped the list of the grade-school crowd we surveyed. “There’s balloons, and they drop! If you’re standing right there, they drop on you,” Amalia says.
Another popular choice was, perhaps unsurprisingly, bubbles. “I like the bubble machine because it’s bubbles!” Amalia says. “You can pop them and play with them. Pop pop pop pop,” she added.
Harrison and his brother Apollo Trent, who is 10 and also goes to Adams, seconded Amalia’s bubble choice. “I love popping bubbles and just running into bubbles,” Apollo says. “A balloon drop seems really fun because they could be dropped on us,” he added.
Homemade pom pom shooters also ranked high on Amalia and Harrison’s preferred New Year’s party activities. “You can shoot, and they won’t hurt you,” Amalia says. “They’re really soft and fuzzy, and they don’t really weigh anything.”
Harrison says he’d pick pom pom shooters “because I can shoot them at people and do trick shots.” As for Apollo, he’d pick paper plate party hats, simply because “I love making hats.”
If you have kids who are older but still can’t make it all the way to midnight, consider celebrating New Year’s Eve at 9 p.m., which is midnight East Coast time. This “mock midnight” approach allows kids to participate in the festivities without staying up too late. Families can create a festive atmosphere with decorations, party hats, noisemakers, pom poms, and bubbles, just like the kids above suggested.
Reising says no matter what activity you choose, “what I’d recommend most is to keep your planning and the main event low-stress. You want to start the new year off on the right foot: special, not stressful.”
She adds, “Kids mostly want things to feel special, so parents don’t have to go over the top — unless they want to!”
