Whether your New Year’s Eve will be spent in pajamas at home, or celebrating with others, the day is always a great chance to reflect on the year and also look to the future. If you are celebrating with children of any age, New Year’s Eve is a great day to create memories and have fun together. Below I have gathered some of the best New Year’s Eve ideas for families and kids.
From New Year’s Eve escape rooms and hands-on science experiments to crafts and printables, there is a huge variety to choose from.
I have started making notes and printing off all of the activities that I think my kids will enjoy next week. I like having New Year’s Eve themed activities on hand to keep kids involved and excited all day.
Whether you are celebrating with just your family this year, with others outside of your home, or celebrating with others virtually, there are lots of activities to choose from to fit your personal celebration.
If you are looking for activities to do as a family in the evening, or to make the celebrations last all day, this is a great collection to look through. Check out #1 for my top New Year’s Eve activity to do with families… and best of all it is FREE!
I hope that your New Year’s Eve is filled with everything that makes you happy and I wish you and your family all the best in 2022!
New Year’s Eve Ideas for Families and Kids
New Year’s Eve Escape Room
Escape rooms are great any time of year, but with this FREE New Year’s Eve escape room you can print it and have an exciting party game without having to buy any other materials.
This escape room can easily be set up in any house and can be played with the whole family or any group of people.
One of my favorite things after creating this escape room, was hearing from families that they had done it virtually with other families in each of their own homes.
Each group can print the puzzles and set them up in their house. Set the timer for one hour and see who finishes first. What a great way to celebrate! Click here for full activity.
New Year’s Eve Ideas for Families – Crafts + Art
Most children enjoy creating and doing crafts. Integrate some art into your celebration with these New Year’s Eve ideas for families and kids.
My kids would love making these! Have some fun creating a confetti popper to use for your count down on New Year’s Eve! Click here for how to make one.
Celebrate with fireworks with this fireworks craft for kids. Kids will love using paint and creating their fireworks using paper rolls! These turn out very beautifully. Click for full activity.
If you are looking for a party favor, these fortune cookies are a great choice. They are easy to make and fun to open! Click here for direction on how to make them.
If your kids get excited during the day before the countdown, this is a great STEAM art project to keep them busy!
This adorable Happy New Years Card would be a wonderful surprise to give out to family or friends on New Year’s Eve or on New Years day after the celebrations. Click for instructions.
Who doesn’t love to color? These printable New Years coloring pages are a great calming activity for children to do throughout the day or into the evening. Click for printables.
How beautiful is this wreath? If you have some crafty kids that you are celebrating New Year’s Eve with, they’ll love creating this wreath. Click here for activity.
If you are celebrating with little ones this year, this confetti craft is sure to be a hit. Kids love finger painting and you can stay with the New Years theme with this hand tracing, confetti dot art. Click for project description.
New Year’s Eve Printable Crafts + Art
If you are going to see fireworks, or your kids simply love fireworks, this printable is a great activity to celebrate before or after seeing them. Click for printable and activity.
If you have children that you are celebrating with, crafts are a great way to keep children engaged until the countdown. This thaumatrope, or spinning optical illusion, is a great craft with a New Year’s theme that kids are sure to play with throughout the day and evening! Click here for instructions and printable.
I love this idea! Download the free calendar for 2022 and have children create pictures or images for each month. This would make a beautiful gift for grandparents.
Multiple children can also work together to each create a month, or two, and you’ll end up with a great collaborative piece. Click for full description and printable.
What’s cooler than emojis this year? These paper toy kaleidoscopes would make a great craft for any kid who loves cool emojis. Click for activity.
New Year’s Eve Ideas for Kids – Games
Board games are always fun to play as a family. Add some New Year’s themed games with this collection of free New Year’s Eve games for families.
Try a game show themed party game on New Years that everyone will love playing. Guaranteed to get some laughs. Click here for full activity.
Why buy a board game to play on New Year’s Eve when you can print and play this “Best and Worst” game for free? Questions such as, “Best Movie that Came out” is a fun way to think about some of the highlights from the year. Click here for full activity.
We love playing charades! It is a great family game and usually includes lots of laughs. These cards all focus on the theme of celebrations. To download the cards and view the activity, click here.
A scavenger hunt is a great way to celebrate the new year. This free printable sheet works well with a small group or it can be done virtually between several households. Click here for full activity.
Everyone loves a great game of BINGO. Fill your day with a fun, hands-on activity with this free printable bingo game. Play as a family and use it for a fun way to talk about all of the different symbols of New Years. Click for activity.
Add some learning to your New Year’s celebration with this collection of New Year’s traditions from around the world. Click here for activities.
New Year’s Eve Ideas for Families – For Young Kids
If you are celebrating with young children, it can be hard to find New Year’s Eve Ideas for families that work for everyone. Below are a collection of fun, but simple activities you can try.
If you are looking for things for kids to do before the big day, or before the countdown, how about creating their own New Year’s hats? These free printables are fun for kids to design and color and the pompom is easy for kids to create. Click for instructions and printables.
Fireworks are exciting any time of year! Create your own fireworks in a jar to celebrate. This is a great science experiment for kids of all ages, and even young children will love them because the ‘fireworks’ are quiet, but still beautiful. Click here for experiment.
Get the camera ready! Kids will love dressing up and playing with these photo props. The photos you get will be great to look back on after the celebrations. Click for these New Year’s Eve printables and activity.
If you have young kids that don’t stay up until midnight, but you still want to include them in the celebrations, this ball drop craft is an easy way to do it. Click for activity idea.
New Years for Young Children Print and Play
If you are looking for a game to play on New Years, this memory match game is an easy way to keep the New Year’s theme. For printables and activity, click here.
I’ve already printed this and have it ready for my kids and our New Years celebrations. The countdown to midnight can be looooong with kids, but this countdown clock is a simple way to keep kids busy and excited each hour. Click for activity.
Add a few small prizes to this New Year’s Eve free printable game. Even young children will love playing with this smaller ‘YEAR’ card filled with New Year’s pictures. Click for printables.
This is such a great idea for little ones on New Years. These printable playdough mats are an easy way to involve young children in the festivities while keeping them busy and having fun! These pages are also a great idea for classroom use. Click for printables and activity description.
New Year’s Eve Ideas for Families – Print and Fill In
I always enjoy doing writing, or printable activities with my kids on New Years because it gives us something to look back on after the festivities are over. Check out the collection below of printable, New Year’s themed pages for kids, and families to fill in.
Creating a time capsule is a great way to look back over the year and record memories and special things about everyone. It is also a fun idea to create one each year and then open the following New Years to compare the changes and be reminded of old memories. Free All About Me printable included. Click here to view activity.
It’s easy to fill the day with fun activities for kids and families. Kids will love searching and finding all of the words in this New Year’s Eve word search. Click for printable and activity.
Not quite sure what your plans are for New Year’s Eve yet? This set of printables are perfect to have on hand if you have children involved in your celebration. Click for printables.
Involve kids of all ages in reflecting on the past year and thinking about the future. This is a great activity even for New Years morning. Even young children can draw a few simple ideas on the free printable page. Click for download and activity.
Printable Challenge
From Balloons to Resolution, can you think of a New Years word for each letter of the alphabet? Make it a challenge for children and families, by adding a time limit and prizes! Click for printable.
New Year’s Eve is a great opportunity to get kids to think about doing for others and spreading kindness. These printable activity sheets are perfect for home, or even in the classroom. For printable, click here.
This New Years survey would be a great addition to a time capsule or something to bring out each year and look back on. Have children, and adults answer questions about themselves and keep record of their year. This is great if you have little ones. Click for activity and printable.
Keep kids busy all New Year’s Eve long with this printable ‘New Year Interview’ page. Whether kids fill it out for themselves, or they interview others, it is a great way to reflect on the year and it makes a great keepsake. Click here for printable and activity.
If you could sum up your goals and aspirations for the upcoming year into one word, what would it be? This activity challenges children and adults to focus in on their priorities. Free printables available. Click here.
New Year’s Eve Activities to Reflect on the Year
Adults often make resolutions and reflect on the past, however, New Years is a great time to also involve children in this conversation and reflections. It is always interesting to hear kid’s thoughts on their year and aspirations.
New Year’s Eve is a great time to look back on the year you’ve had and remember the highlights. These printable questions are a great way to hear others memories and learn about things that were important to them from the past year. For free printabe questions, click here.
Remember the year and special moments with these free printable cards. The cards are great conversation starters for kids and families. Click here for full activity.
New Year’s Eve is a great time to look to the future and think about goals, plans and resolutions. Include children in the conversation with these ‘2022 Goals’ printables. Click here for activity.
Whatever the age of the kids, and families, you spend New Year’s Eve with, creating a vision board together is a great way to think about goals and aspirations for the upcoming year. Click for activity.
New Year’s Eve Activity Ideas
If you are simply looking for a fun activity do with with a small group, or kids, below are some fun New Year’s Eve ideas for families and fun activities to try – from movies to science experiments. I hope that you find something to add to your day.
There are lots of great movies to watch during the holidays, but if you are looking for some movies to watch on New Year’s Eve, check out this list of 28 of the best New Year’s Eve movies! Click here for full activity.
A scavenger hunt is a great way to get kids moving and having fun on New Years. Print these New Year’s Eve scavenger hunt sheets and keep kids busy searching for each of the New Years themed items. Click here for the full activity.
Add some science to your New Years celebration with this simple fireworks experiment. Kids of all ages will love this experiment and it is easy to create. Click here for the experiment.
Whether you choose one or a collection of the ideas shown above, I hope that you have some inspiration for a great New Year’s Eve party.
If you have a bunch of ideas that you are interested in, a fun option is to blow up the same number of balloons as activities you chose. Inside each balloon print one of the activities on a piece of paper.
Each hour let children choose a balloon to pop. Once popped they will discover a different activity to do for (roughly) the hour.
I wish all of you a wonderful New Years and I hope that 2022 is your best year yet!
Free Printables for New Years and More!
If you are looking for the printable New Year’s Eve escape room that you can simply print and play, click the image below.
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More Hands-On Teaching Ideas
If you are looking for more activities to do with kids at home, or at school, below are a collection of my most popular, and favorite learning activities.
From science experiments and escape room puzzles to STEM challenges and party ideas, there are lots to keep kids busy, and learning.
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