Family friendly New Year's
By ERIN ESMONT for Smart
When I was child, we ushered in New Year’s with a small family party at home, just the five of us. My mother made Chex Mix in the oven (this was before it came in bags at the store). She served us a kid-friendly version of an adult beverage, fizzy 7-Up in a clear plastic cup with two maraschino cherries.
We’d eat pork and sauerkraut for good health in the New Year. We’d watch the countdown on TV and shout, “10-9-8-7,” then rush onto the porch at midnight with our pots and pans and bang them like crazy to keep the evil spirits away.
Fast forward three decades, click on the Internet, and you’ll find several sites offering an array of party supplies, craft ideas, games and activities, and theme-tinged foods.
New Year’s parties today can be as simple or as elaborate as your imagination and budget will allow.
Dana Kohler’s gatherings fall on the low-key side. She’s been hosting New Year’s Eve parties for the past four years, ever since her mom decided she was done being the family’s party hostess.
Kohler, 24, of Red Lion enjoys the role. She said she tends to make her Halloween parties more kid-centered, but on New Year’s Eve it’s really an adult party. She’s single with no kids of her own, but her relatives and friends bring their children.
She serves deli sandwiches and a vegetable tray, among other finger-food offerings. She has on hand some LEGOs, a “Wheels on the Bus” game (“I have to hear that song a million times when they play it”) and toys from her nephew to occupy the handful of guests ranging in age from 2 to 7.
She doesn’t make a point to cater to the children. “The kids usually go off and play with toys,” she said.
Still, everyone has fun, and it’s family and friends together welcoming a new year.
Barbara Quance, event coordinator for Michaels Arts and Craft store in Springettsbury Township, said there are many creative ways to involve children in the spirit of the event.
The party hostess can set out hands-on fun that requires no adult supervision — coloring pages with New Year’s Eve themes (www.apples4theteacher.com) and crayons for the youngest set, Model Magic to shape into 2008, or foam decorations and cup holders for kids to personalize.
Or, the older children can create simple scrapbooks taking a look back at 2007. Ask the kids to bring photos or printouts of their favorite photos from the last year. Page protector sheets can serve as the scrapbook pages, and card stock can be slid into the page protector as background. Provide some stickers and stamps and glue sticks.
Another idea, she said, would be to have the kids write up their resolutions and make resolution booklets with illustrations.
For those who want to merge kid and adult activities and are willing to expand their budgets, check out M&P Amusement, 658 W. Market St., York. While most of the business caters to hobbyists and arcades, it does rent some of the units for corporate events and, on occasion, residential parties.
A pinball machine or table-sized Ms. Pacman video game rents for $100 to $300 a day, depending on location and delivery, said Eugene Goodman, vice president.
Smart party ideas• Make your own noisemakers: Take an 8-ounce or 20-ounce plastic bottle, cleaned out and dried, and fill with beans. Attach streamers and ribbons and shake, shake, shake.
• Make your own banners: Use a long roll of paper, no-mess paints and/or markers.
• Make your own ball to drop at midnight: Take a New Year’s Eve-themed pinata, if available, or use one shaped like a ball. Fill it with candy or small trinkets, put it at the highest point in the room, lower each hour, until revelers are ready to give it a whack at midnight.
• Hourly goody sacks: Take colored paper sacks and fill each with a fun surprise the kids can open each hour until midnight. On the outside of each bag, glue a clock cutout with paper hands and set the clock for the time they are to open each bag. Fill the inside with 2008 glasses, glow-in-the-dark necklaces, party poppers and other crowd-pleasing treats.
• Light Limbo: Use flashlights instead of a pole for players to dance and bend under.
• Have a New Year’s Eve-themed dress-up contest: Have everyone supply clothing that could be turned into a timed game featuring characters such as Father Time and the New Year’s baby, or a location such as Times Square.
• The Name Game: Have every guest write names of people who’ve been influential in the past year on several scraps of paper. Put the names in a hat. Divide guests into teams (pairing adults with older kids). One team quizzes another with clues about the name until the answer is guessed correctly in under 2 minutes.
• Sing-along: Print out the words to “Auld Lang Syne” and have everyone sing it after the midnight.
• Make up your own Mad Libs-inspired toast: Share it with the group at midnight
• Relay races: Try this twist on a regular relay — the Swinging Hose Game. Take a pair of panty hose and wrap one leg around your waist and tie it. Drop an orange in the other leg until it is low to the ground. (If too low, hike up hose around waist.) Place a golf ball on the floor, and challenge an opponent to see who can get their golf ball over the finish line first using the orange.
• A twist on board games — Take pieces and rules from several popular games and merge them into a new, made-up game.
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