If you’re in the tiny-roommates phase of life, your New Year’s Eve probably looks a lot less like popping champagne at midnight and a lot more like hoping no one wakes up crying before midnight. But welcoming a new year with kids doesn’t mean you have to skip the celebration.

Here are a few low-lift, high-delight ways to ring in the year with your littles (and actually enjoy it).

1. The 9:00 PM “Midnight”

West Coasters, this one’s for you. Ring in the new year with your littles and New York City while watching the ball drop, and still get everyone in bed by 9:30pm. If your kids are old enough to tell time, adjusting the clock should buy you a few more years of early celebrations. 

A few ways to make it festive:

• Hand out hats, mini noisemakers, and rolls of bubble wrap for a kid-approved “fireworks” stomp session.
  
• Bonus points: Hang the hats and noisemakers right on the Christmas tree to replace the ornaments you’re totally done putting back into storage boxes for the year.
  
• Advanced parents only: Sparkle confetti. It will find its way into every crevice of your home. You will still see a rogue piece in April. But the cool-parent points? Immeasurable. And honestly, nothing says “new year, clean start” like a January 1 deep vacuum.
  
  

2. The Stuffy Countdown

About an hour before bedtime (aka 6 pm), have your kids gather every single stuffed animal they own. Yes, all of them. Then do a dramatic, lights-low, “10…9…8…” countdown and have them toss the stuffies in the air at “midnight.” Be sure to capture it on video each year for future viewing entertainment.

If you’re feeling extra fun, finish with a sparkling grape juice toast. Tiny clinks, big mems!

3. The Hourly Envelope Adventure

Write down a list of simple games or activities (think: freeze dance, charades, karaoke with wooden spoons, decorating cookies, playing “restaurant,” or making a time capsule page for next year). Put each activity in an envelope and open one every hour leading up to “midnight.”

Cute ways to display them:

• Clip envelopes to the Christmas tree
  
• Or tuck little slips of paper into balloons and pop one every hour (if balloon pops don’t spike your cortisol)
  
  

Keep the whole evening easy with finger foods you can graze on as you go. And if your kids can hang all the way to actual midnight? Swing open the front door and enthusiastically bang pots and pans like a family of joyful raccoons (no guarantees your neighbors will be equally joyful though).

4. The Festive-but-Low-Effort Spread

Not everything has to be Pinterest-level. A plate of snacks can become a “NYE Feast” with the right wording. Think:

• Mini charcuterie plates for littles
  
• Bite-size desserts
  
• A “fancy drink bar” with juices, berries, and fun straws
  
• Anything on a toothpick (instant charisma)
  
  

5. The Cozy Reset

If the night is feeling more “soft pants” than “party hats,” lean into it. Do a family movie marathon with blankets everywhere, build a fort, light a candle that smells like a fresh start, and call it a night early. Midnight hits just the same even if you’re asleep for it.

6. The Mini Vision Board

For bigger kids, set out magazines, safe scissors, stickers, crayons, and glue. Ask them to pick things they want to try, learn, or do next year. Keep expectations low and the creativity high—a resolution to eat more ice cream and see more dump trucks? Perfect. 

7. The “Goodbye, Old Year” Walk

Bundle up and take a quick family walk around the block before bedtime. Ask everyone to share one good thing from the past year and one thing they hope for in the next. Short, sweet, and the kind of tradition that sticks.

However You Celebrate…

New Year’s with little ones won’t have the glam of years past, but it’s got something better: the celebration of another year of wonder and growth. After all, these are the years with the earliest midnights and the best memories.

Wishing you a very Happy New Year from our 6 pm countdowns to yours! 
- The Solly Team