New Years Traditions

Sounds like SO MUCH FUN!!!! I love the sparkling grape juice idea in the fancy glasses. Don'thave tons to add. Maybe you can get some disposable cameras for them to use - then you can have them capture the memories! My kids always like the "freeze dancing" game. Dance, until the music stops then you stop. Good of all ages. Have a great time and Happy (and better) 2012 to you!

We always have party hats and horns. We make a lot of noise at midnight. Up until then we play games (like charades), eat snacks. We always watch the Ball Drop. Some good music playing. Why not have your plastic champagne glasses with white grape juice. Make a toast!

For some weird reason my brother runs outside in his underwear at the stroke of midnight. Even when it is snowing. The younger boys strip to their boxers and follow........ not sure what is up with that, but they get a kick out of it.

love it! Several years ago now (my big kids are 12, 11 and 9), I let the kids stay up and tried to explain the whole toast and kiss at midnight. Midnight rolled around and my son was all confused cause he didn't know where his peanut butter toast and hershey kiss was. :) It's still our midnight snack on new years eve. Along with lots of tv and board games, and just family time.

Cute! Because our children are too young to stay up to midnight, we do things a little different, but still fun. The last couple years we celebrate happy "noon" year at a local children's recreational center where they have a little party, games, and then at 11:55 everyone gathers in one area to do the ''noon'' year count down, and when the clock strikes noon a net releases balloons and confetti, and the kids all jump around. It's cute. However, it's usually a mad house, but on a weekday. THIS year it's on a Saturday and I know that place is going to be bursting at the seams. I don't want to fight that kind of crowd when I have 1 son wanting to go one way, and another smaller son that I don't want to get trampled, but thinks he's big enough to go with his brother. So we'll skip that place this year...
What we WILL do: we have a nice sit down dinner together (not as big as Thanksgiving or Christmas, but special anyway---this year will be shrimp creole, crusty french bread, and a bourbon soaked bread pudding. My husband has wine and since I don't like it, I have the sparkling grape juice with the kids. The adults get the wine glasses but I do regular plastic tumblers for the kids......I don't think it'd be "bad" to do plastic champagne glasses, but I prefer not to just because that way the kids can differentiate between "grown up drinks" and "kid drinks". I wouldn't want them drinking wine or champagne by "accident" later. My husband has this thing he does every year where he goes to our immediate neighbors and even to our house (he rings the doorbell and my son can open the door) where he delivers the NYE gift: a little piece of cake (that you may have a full belly), a piece of real coal (that you may have warmth), and a $1 coin (that you may have prosperity). We wrap ours up and put it in the freezer for the year. I make a photo album showing the highlights of the whole year every year, and we look through it and "reflecting", laughing, etc while waiting for dinner to finish up. We like to play games (guessing games, follow the leader or "guess who" types of games, singing games, charades) and wear hats, mardi gras beads, silly ties, dance (I like someone else's idea of incorporating freeze dance into the dance time), etc. We're not "supposed" to do fireworks here, but inevitably someone down the road will and we'll slip out and walk down the way and watch them a little. If the weather is good we'll go in the backyard and let the kids hold sparklers with supervision and sing some songs, roast marshmallows on the grill for s'mores. We give thanks for the good things in the past year, share a couple things we're looking forward to in the new year, if we have resolutions or whatever. Then we do our countdown at 9pm (the latest I can stomach my youngest staying up, lol) and then we can throw balloons around, blow horns (we got some vuvuzelas during the last World Cup, and I know the neighbors will love us with those things blowing, LOL), and then say "nite-nite" to the old year and head for bed.
Jeremy said he's down with going to bed early too and joining me on my annual tradition of watching the sun rise on the new year and making it a family thing this year. We will double check the sunrise time for Sunday so we can set our alarm. Get up in time to make a thermos of cocoa and marshmallows and blankets, then get out to the beach in time to see the sun rise over the ocean on the first day of the new year. It's always been my "thing" alone, but I'd be happy to have the family join me on the beach that morning. Then back home for our traditional breakfast: husband fixes strawberry french toast, bacon, OJ for the boys and mimosas for us. Then church, communion, and NAPS when we come home. :)
Another idea we enjoyed as kids: a backyard campout! Roasting hotdogs and marshmallows, playing flashlight games, etc....that was always a lot of fun.

Our New Year's tradition includes all of our friends, plus their kids, and we have a big pajama party!