Added: 12/16/2005 |
Enjoying the New Year Holidays With Your ChildrenThe New Year holidays mark the ending of the current year and the beginning of a brand new one. Children, the younger ones especially, may not totally understand this concept of time, but they do understand that things are changing, and that this change is being celebrated by those around them. For this reason, the New Year holidays are a perfect time to get together as a family and dream of, plan for, and discuss all the things you want to accomplish during the course of the next year. The children will probably want to chime in as well with some dreams and plans of their own.
The traditional New Years holiday celebration is quote often an alcohol laden affair that is more adult oriented than family friendly. If you wish to include your children, then the booze will have to go by the wayside. As a matter of fact, in order to truly include the children, why not have some non-alcoholic sparking cider on hand for them to enjoy? You may still have your glass of champagne at midnight, but at least the children will have something similar to toast you with!
For a family friendly New Year holidays party, consider how many children will be arriving and what their ages are. Younger children will most likely not be able to make it to midnight, and so you will want to have some sleeping bags and pillows ready to go for little sleepy party goers. This is also a good time to contemplate which kinds of party games you will have at your home.
No New Years holiday party would be complete without the decorations and the food. If you really want to involve the little ones, wait until they arrive and then have them help you decorate the house. Some of the harder to put up decorations you can hang ahead of time, and perhaps also a few easy ones, just to get the young guests in the mood, and to make the party theme easier for them to understand. Once the home is decorated, you will undoubtedly have some hungry guests on your hands. The perfect food for children is the finger food variety, and there are a large number of options available to you. Since the festivities of the New Year holidays tend to go late into the night, a sit down meal may not work well. Instead, a snack buffet with chicken nuggets, pizza slices, and vegetables and dipping sauce will provide great, and healthy, food choices for small and large appetites. Similarly, juice boxes will be great thirst quenchers, and you will not have to worry about spilled juices on the carpet, as you would if you were to serve juice or soda in cups.
Most children will probably not make it to midnight, so if you can, take advantage of the televised New Year's Eve celebrations that are held in an earlier time zone. The children will get the full feeling of the New Year holidays without the bleary eyed crankiness that will set in about an hour after their usual bedtime is reached. Furthermore, this set up with allow the adults to toast to the actual New Year and have their own little party as well, once the children are nicely tucked in. If you don't have an earlier time zone you can celebrate, consider watching online the celebrations from around the world. This will provide you with the freedom to schedule to begin the next year at your house as early as needed to ensure that all involved will have a great time! So go ahead, party with your kids! They'll love to be included.
Article comments:
No comments for this article yet. Post your comment now!
