If you are a single parent chances are while all everyone else is out on the town celebrating you are at home with the kiddos. It’s time to start a new tradition. Have a New Years Eve party with the kids. If you have other single parent friends then you can all get together and celebrate with the kids.
Have a little party, make sherbet punch and lots of finger foods. Make a Happy New year banner and hang it up. As part of the party have the kids make noisemakers and streamers. Toilet paper rolls filled with dried beans and stapled closed make great noisemakers. Let the kids decorate them with sticker and markers. Paper towel rolls with crepe papers streamers are fun to make as well. Don’t forget to make silly hats to wear and take lots of pictures.
Play games, twister is always fun for kids. You can also do things to get the kids thinking about the coming year. Take index cards and ask everyone what new thing they would like to learn in the coming year. Write it on the card with the person’s name and the date, it will be fun to look at them next year and see how good they are at what they wanted to learn.
Make resolutions as a family, what good would your family like to do in the coming year. You can volunteer at a soup kitchen, collect canned food, make fleece blankets for the homeless shelter. You may be surprised at the things the kids come up with. Make sure that you talk about the promise of a new year and what it can bring, explain to kids that new years eve is like wishing on a star, except that these wishes are things they are going to make happen.
Let them stay up late, make noise at midnight and dream about what the future holds. This may turn out to be your best New Years yet.