Last year my husband had to work 6pm to 6am on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. I decided to make it a fun party for the kids like my mom used to do for my brother, sister and I every year. The only difference is that my mom bought candy, rented a movie, bought frozen pizzas and popcorn and left us with a babysitter while her and my dad always went out to celebrate with friends.
Since I wasn’t going out and I WAS the babysitter I also wanted to make it an easy evening on myself where there was something constantly keeping the kids busy. I had seen balloon countdown ideas on Pinterest and decided that would be the perfect way to keep the kids busy and give me chances to surprise them with little games and activities.
I blew up six balloons and stuck small bells and a tag into each balloon – we were literally RINGING in the New Year! The balloons started at 6pm and the last one was for 12pm. Each tag had an activity or game written on it.
New Year Balloon Countdown Ideas
Pop a balloon each hour to reveal an activity. Here are some of the activities we did this year.
- Movie and popcorn
- Silly string fight
- Pots and pans band – (go outside and bang on pots and pans with wooden spoons – something I did as a kid)
- Sparklers
- Make a toast – we toasted with sparkling raspberry mocktails
- Ring in the New Year! – we watched the ball drop on TV and used our noisemakers.
There are tons of ways to create big memories with your kids that don’t involve a lot of money or extravagant parties. Doing the balloon countdown is definitely something we are going to do again in years to come.