How to host a kid-friendly New Year party

New Year may have been all about the boozy parties when you were in your teens and early twenties, but as your family grows and kids come onto the scene, you might need to rethink your usual New Year's Eve events to include some family-friendly games and food.

This is our ultimate guide to planning a New Year's Eve with kids, including some inspiration for food, party games, decoration ideas and themes, and creative crafts.

All of these ideas can be done either at home or at another person’s house, so find your favourites and give them a whirl this festive period to welcome in the New Year in style.

When New Year’s Eve becomes a family affair, the priorities for the evening become a little different.

Jumping from bar to bar and getting taxis home at 5 am aren’t as realistic when you have little ones in tow; we’ve got some party ideas you can try at home so you don’t need to worry about booking a taxi home or being the designated driver!

• Build a den with lots of pillows and blankets, so the kids can snuggle down for a sleep while the adults party on
• Put on the kids’ favourite Christmas film or set up a video game they can all play together
• Get the kids to join in with making some cheeseboards and mocktails that they can proudly serve to their friends and family
• Get the whole family involved with decorating the house
• Do a mock countdown if the kids are really small, so that they can have all the fun of joining in the countdown without having to stay up too late!
• If you’re having just an intimate New Year with your family, why not all get into your jammies and have a slumber party with sleeping bags in the living room and some toasted marshmallows over the cooker?

Before everyone arrives, get your kids involved in some New Year’s crafts for kids, from making some decorations for the party, which they can proudly show off, to getting all the other kids involved in making them when they arrive.

• Make clay stars and moons that can bake in the oven and then be painted – although make sure to let other parents know that paint might be involved if their kids want to join in the painting and decorating
• Print and cut out some stars and get all the kids who come to write a New Year’s wish to stick on your tree – washable ink pens are a must with really small children!
• Make a classic New Years tradition tasty by painting some Oreos with edible gold paint or foil to create edible good luck coins
• Paper chains – a great way to reuse some of your wrapping paper if you’re feeling particularly eco-conscious, cutting it into strips about 10 inches long and sticking together with kids’ glue.
• Another fun way to use up some leftover Christmas ribbon and decorations is to create little streamers, attached to wooden skewers that the kids can run around with

You could always just bung all of your leftover Christmas sweeties and edible treats into bowls and let the kids enjoy, but some healthier snacks will never go amiss, especially if you have friends who are a bit fussier about what goes in their kid’s mouth!

Try these New Year food ideas for kids to keep everyone happy (and use up those stocking oranges nobody has eaten yet):

• Gold glitter doughnuts – upgrade these sweet treats with some edible gold glitter and watch the kids laugh at their gold mouths in the mirror
• Countdown cupcakes – get crafty with some Oreos, frosting and edible marker pens to create cute little countdown clocks to stick on top of some chocolate cupcakes you’ve made in your classy new stand mixer from VonHaus
• Try making some New Year's drinks that all the family can enjoy, and make sure to include some plastic champagne glasses so the kids can join in the New Year’s toast at midnight
• Make some mini pizza bites with puff pastry cut into circles or squares and get all the kids to come in and decorate their own with plenty of toppings and cheese
• Get creative with cookie dough and get the kids to make some 2022 shaped cookies to munch on with all their friends

image courtesy of @thesuppafix

If there are going to be lots of kids at your house this year if you’re inviting family and friends around, you might want to organise a few party games to keep the kids entertained.

You can even get some of the older kids to watch over proceedings and be in the charge of the rules so that all the adults can enjoy each other’s company for a while. Here are some great kid’s party games you could try:

• Duck duck goose – a fun game for the kids and a good way to tire them out
• Pass the parcel – a great way to get rid of any unwanted presents you didn’t want in the house!
• Pin the tail on the Christmas donkey – Make sure to put this up on a wall you don’t mind potentially getting some holes in from over-enthusiastic pinning!
• Treasure hunt – A great way to hide some leftover Christmas chocolate around the house and keep the kids entertained for hours trying to find all the hidden treasure
• Sleeping lions – when the excitement is reaching fever pitch, a really good way to help the kids wind down a bit is to play sleeping lions, a game that involves lying as still as possible and pretending to be asleep

Get the kids some cute mason jar glasses from our barware collection to sip their mocktails or treat yourself to some new baking equipment to make the most of all the sticky fingers and happy faces.

Throw in one of our stylish cheeseboards and some fun music and you’ve got yourself a top-notch party!

Why not check out our blog for more party ideas and fun festive crafts?