How to have a fun New Year's Eve with your children?

Many parents ask how to celebrate the New Year with their children. And this is correct, because the holiday on the night of December 31 to January 1 is associated with magic and fairy tales that do not appear out of nowhere. You need to create a New Year's mood. Your parents used to do this, putting on a cotton beard and a red robe, and then giving gifts under the guise of Santa Claus. Now it's your turn.

Ideas

Fortunately, today there are many options for celebrating the New Year - from home gatherings to show programs in entertainment venues. During the holiday, you can attend performances, invite animators, or hold interesting competitions yourself.

In many ways, the feeling of magic depends on the surroundings. New Year's decorations, a Christmas tree, the smells of tangerines and pine needles create a festive mood.

Things to consider before trying one of the ideas:

• Children's age. With children under 3 years old, it is better to spend the New Year at home so that you can safely send them to bed at 9 o’clock. Congratulations to Santa Claus and gifts will be enough. If the child is diligent, you can attend the performance. With children 4–7 years old, it will be interesting to go to New Year's festivities, which are held in city parks, to the circus, to the theater, and to a children's cafe. Children aged 8–12 years old will enjoy sports activities - skiing, skating, sledding. Teenagers will probably want to be alone with their own company. Give them a separate room at home or go together to an establishment with an interesting show program.
• Financial opportunities. Much about New Year's celebrations depends on the amount you are willing to spend. If your budget is limited, then you should spend the holiday at home or invite yourself to visit. With unlimited possibilities, you can afford animators, a party in a cafe, or even a New Year's Eve in another country. Travel agents will offer you a lot of New Year's tours - “The Magic of the Baltic Sea” (by ferry), “Lapland - Santa lives here!”, “New Year's Bavaria - Festival of Emotions” and others.
• Number of invitees. To prevent children from getting bored, you can invite relatives and friends - brothers, sisters, classmates. Having fun together is much better than alone. However, in this case, you need to carefully consider the holiday scenario. Children, left to their own devices, usually begin to play around a lot and play pranks.

At home

New Year is called a family holiday, so most people prefer to celebrate it at home, with their family. It’s cozy in a home environment, you don’t have to go anywhere or rush. You can organize a holiday to suit your taste.

To have a fun and unforgettable New Year's Eve with your children, don't forget about these 7 components of a perfect holiday:

1. Invite animators - Father Frost and Snow Maiden. Or ask someone you know to dress up in them and congratulate the children.
2. Put on carnival costumes - bunny, fox, astrologer, pirate, fairy-tale characters. The more diverse they are, the more fun the holiday will be.
3. Don't forget the sparklers. Sparkling sticks create a New Year's mood.
4. New Year's menu. Come up with it together with your children and let them participate, if not in cooking, then in decorating the dishes. Arrange salads in a herringbone pattern, bake gingerbread cookies and decorate.It is these little things that make a holiday.
5. You can go out with teenagers to set off fireworks and set off firecrackers. But it is worth remembering about safety.
6. Crafts. Make Christmas decorations for the Christmas tree with your children, and let everyone take their craft home. The toy will remind you of the holiday for many years.
7. Competitions. Hold interesting competitions. At the end of each, give the winners prizes - small toys and sweets.

Away

Perhaps the least expensive idea for celebrating the New Year with children is to celebrate it at a party. To implement it you need:

1. Choose with whom you would like to spend New Year's Eve (with grandparents, with family friends). It would be better if there were other children there.
2. Arrange to celebrate together.
3. Offer your help - take on part of the cooking yourself or come up with a holiday scenario.
4. Prepare gifts.

In the cafe

Many entertainment establishments hold parties on New Year's Eve - they invite Santa Claus, various artists, and come up with a show program. If your children are 13–15 or older, they will probably prefer celebrating in a cafe to gatherings at home.

To celebrate the New Year with children in a cafe:

1. Choose an establishment closer to home if you do not have your own transport. Getting back on New Year's Eve can be challenging. Taxi services are usually overloaded on this holiday.
2. Find out about the entertainment program in advance. A New Year's striptease from Santa Claus will probably be superfluous for children.
3. Make your reservations 2-3 weeks in advance. If you don't do this, you risk being left without places.
4. Read reviews of the cafe online, paying special attention to the food. Dishes must be fresh and of high quality.It was also not enough to get poisoned on holidays, when most hospitals are closed.

Dress up with your children in beautiful carnival outfits and have fun celebrating the holiday. A huge advantage of celebrating in a cafe is that you don’t have to clean up and wash the dishes for the guests, or think about how to entertain everyone.

Fun competitions

It's not difficult to entertain children. All you have to do is dress up in the costumes of fairy-tale characters and get used to the role. You can put on a performance - a fairy tale (“Teremok”, “Morozko”), rewriting and learning the words from the book. Or you can come up with your own original script with competitions.

• "Catch Santa Claus's mitten." Children stand in a circle and, accompanied by cheerful music, take turns passing the mittens to each other. When the music ends, the one holding the mitten is out of the game.
• "Guess the riddles." New Year's rhymes are read to the children, and whoever guesses first what they are talking about receives a mini-prize.
• "The most beautiful snowflake." Participants in the game are given white paper and scissors. You need to cut out the most beautiful snowflake in 3 minutes. The winner is determined by voting. Children vote themselves (you cannot vote for yourself).
• "The fastest". Children stand in a circle and dance in a circle to the music. In the center are slippers, one for all participants except one. Whoever does not have time to put on his shoes and is left without a slipper when the music stops is out of the game.

The aromas of citrus fruits, fir trees, New Year's music and blinking garlands create an atmosphere of magic. You can prepare for the New Year with your children yourself or hire professionals for this. Feel the anticipation of a miracle. And the fairy tale will really come - not only to children, but also to adults.