(The little two went to bed around 8:00 PM and the older two hung in there until midnight.)ġ:00 PM – Start Harry Potter Movie (This was super random and a mistake on my part. You can do whatever activities you want as you countdown to midnight (or fake midnight, for younger kids).Īs a jumping-off point, here are the countdown activities we did last year, when my boys were 8, 6, 3, and 10 months: The control freak in me prefers to know what activity comes next.) New Year’s Eve Countdown Activity Ideas for the Balloons (Also worth noting – if you don’t do the countdown balloons in order, you can’t control what activities come up and when. I do not like to live dangerously, so we don’t do this. Then, let the kids throw darts until they pop (or at least hit) one of the balloons. Don’t number them, just hang up the necessary number. You could arrange your countdown activities in a row just as easily, especially if you’re not doing twelve hours or you don’t care about the clock-like appearance.Ī fun little twist, if you like to live dangerously, is to let the kids play darts with the countdown balloons. It seems like someone’s always learning to tell time around here, so that’s a helpful bit of reinforcement. I like to do mine in a circle, like the numbers on the clock. There’s no sense in ringing in the new year with tears and a bloody nose… Hang up the New Year’s countdown balloons Switch and rotate as often as necessary for the number of kids you have. One kid gets to pop the balloon, the other gets to read the activity. Seriously though, I recommend taking turns. (… Guess which one happens in our house….?) If you have readers in your house, you can watch your kids attack one another trying to get to the paper first. You can read it to your kids if they don’t read yet. When you pop the balloon at the hour mark, the activity paper will come flying out. Once you inflate the balloon and tie it off, the little activity paper will be inside the balloon. Then, insert that paper into the balloon before you inflate it. Write down the planned activities on a piece of paper. (Or, if your kids are too young to stay up all the way until midnight, you need a balloon for every hour until they go to bed.) Decide what countdown activities you want to include Whatever time you decide to start, you need a balloon for every hour until midnight. Of course, if you’re kids are already whining, “I’m bored!” at 10 AM, you could always start it earlier. If you just don’t feel like being the circus master of entertainment so early, you can start it later. If you have to work, you can start it later. I figured at least starting the countdown early might cut down on that. We decided to start at noon, because my kids spend all day, every day asking me to entertain them anyway. Setting up your New Year’s Eve Countdown Balloons Decide what time you want your New Year’s Eve countdown activities to start. Pop the balloon, do the activity, repeat until midnight. Our New Year’s Eve Countdown Balloons! (It wasn’t the most elegant arrangement, but it worked perfectly!)Įach balloon contains a special countdown activity for the kids to do. If you don’t trust them, pop the hourly balloon yourself. Every hour, on the hour, let one of your kids pop a balloon, assuming you trust them with a safety pin or sharp point. Set up your balloons and arrange them in a clock-like circle. How the New Year’s Eve Countdown Activity Balloons Work (in short) We already did a lot of kids’ activities on New Year’s Eve in years prior, but I decided to kick it up a notch by putting together a balloon clock of New Year’s Eve countdown activities for my kids. I wanted to make the holidays extra special and fun because the kids had given up so much with schools and activities shut down. With the Hot Mess Express that was 2020, we did alllllll the holiday things around here. BUT… since the kids love New Years’s Eve, and two of mine are old enough to actually stay up the whole time, I’ve tried to embrace it. With four kids, I’m pretty much perpetually exhausted and love to hit my bed before 10:00 PM. As an adult, I could take or leave New Year’s Eve. From staying up late, to the snacks, to the special New Year’s Eve countdown activities we do with them each year – they love it all! My kids LOVE everything about New Year’s Eve.
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