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New Year's Eve Fun, for the entire family!

by Cindy Barney    

Beginning Process – Start thinking about those friends with children that you are close to. Don’t over invite. You’ll need enough sleeping space, for those who do not live in your neighborhood. You’re going to have a slumber party!

In November, once you’ve decided on whom you would like to invite. Put together your invitations. These invitations may be purchased or you can make your own, according to theme. Over the year’s we have done several different themes. A fun one is “Cruise into 2003 with your friends and family”. Make your own invitation on the computer. Add a cruise ship to the invitation. Along with the following information:

*Where

*Date

*Time -put start time usually around 7:30 (with children involved) to New Year’s Day

*Ask for your guests to bring an appetizer of their choice and one breakfast item (you need to designate the breakfast item). You can use wording such as “Your ship’s Captain requests that you bring……”

*Also ask them to bring sleeping bags if needed for the children & adults. If you have enough bedrooms to house each family, you can let them know that. You could say “ each family will have their own room located on Deck B, for the evening.” Then people know what to bring and they will know how much privacy they will have.

*RSVP – It’s important to have a count – The RSVP date should be 3 weeks ahead, so you can do final touches on items and quantities.

Activities for the adults: Plan on at least two games – The below games are based on the cruise theme, you can adjust to fit any theme. 1) Imitation Game - play the game by cutting pictures from magazines For this theme you could call it “Cruising the Islands” - cut out pictures of wild animals. The pictures get taped to the persons back, without them knowing what they are. Then as a group walk around to each other and make one sound at a time as a clue, as to what the person is. Make sure they walk around and change people after every sound clue they growl out. It is a blast and it brings on all kind of animal behavior. 2) “Corny Lounge Acts” What cruise ship doesn’t have a lounge act. Mix up the couples at your party and give each new couple a tiny piece of paper with a corny lounge song on it. If they don’t know the song, they need to make something up with the words in it you gave them. They have to perform the song for 2 full minutes, which will seem forever to those of us that can’t sing. The best act will receive a token prize for each person that performed in it. 3) The third game could be the blackjack table, what cruise ship doesn’t have one of these. Set the first 5 people at the table and deal cards to them as in blackjack. The host is the dealer. Everyone plays one hand – the winners stay at the table, allowing new players to play. After everyone has had a chance to play – you can award a prize to the two top hand winning players. Prizes: I’ve always found it funny to give something humorous as a prize – Boxer shorts, yes I said boxer shorts, with funny sayings or pictures on them. This is a great example of a funny prize. Even the women can wear the boxers in the privacy of their own home. That sort of prize is a conversation piece on it’s own right.

A fun activity for everybody: Most party stores sell disco balls, inexpensively. You’ve got to have one. It’s a blast. Pre-pick the music that you would like to listen to. Hang it from the ceiling in a family room. Try to shine a couple spotlights on it from different angles and magically you have a cool room for the kids to dance in for a while – they will love it. And the parents will slowly migrate in there as the party gets going. Hang crepe streamers in this room.

Decorations: Decorate according to the theme you choose. For this specific theme pass out leis to your guests as they arrive, they will also receive a NYE top hat or tiara. Hang some paper palm trees from ceilings or attach to walls. Have plenty of decorative stirrers and for this theme fresh fruit cut up (sliced lemons, oranges, cherries-seedless) for in the drinks – even if you serve soda for the children, they will love all the fancy stuff in the glass. If you have funny photos of guests and their families, make copies of them in a collage form and hang them on the walls or make a special photo album of the copies. This is a great conversation piece. If you decide to have a drink area for the adults you could make up signs saying what beverages are available and hang them above. And lots of graphics to the signs, make it fun! Before the party, make up fun signs to designate where each family will be sleeping

Food Table/Toast Table: A great easy way to decorate the food table is to place a table cover over it. Wrap empty sturdy boxes with fun New Year’s Eve Metallic Gold and Silver or (themed) Tropical paper. Place the boxes so that they are in the center of the table and lay them so that they are at different heights and facing odd directions. Place food plates on these. It looks lovely and stacks the food at different heights for a fun creative table. Have themed party picks for the appetizer as they arrive. The toast table will be a special table you pick to have the your toasting beverage on and the champagne glasses. With the children (still awake) have something appropriate for them to drink and enough glasses (plastic would be easy). Cover the table with a coordinating cover put the beverages behind and line up the glasses to your liking. Add a bright colored or gold/silver party blower to each glass. It looks really fun during the party with these popping out of the center of each glass. Have noisemakers laying around both of the tables – enough for everyone.

Children’s Party – Designate a room in your house for the children. Decorate with balloons and crepe streamers. Have a card table set up decorated with a cover. Serve fun, easy children’s foods on it, example: cheese curls, popcorn, mini pizzas, mini hotdogs with toothpicks in them as appetizers – have small bowl of ketchup for them to dip in. Make the food age appropriate, little ones shouldn’t have toothpicks, use your best judgment on this. Add noisemakers to the table for each of the children and you can even put together simple, fun goody bags for each child. Have a CD boombox in the room, music always makes the party fun. Pick out some easy board games for the kids. If there is a child that is older than the others, put them in charge of the party and pay this child an appropriate amount to entertain the younger ones. Plus the children will probably want to dance in the “disco hall” for a while. The children’s party should end approx. 10pm. The parents can put the children in their designated rooms with a tv/vcr on this will block sound and help them sleep. The older children can stay up and play cards or games in the party room, their own special space.

New Year’s Day: Each guest will have brought breakfast foods for the next morning, to share. You decide in advance what they should bring. Put some of the dad’s in charge of breakfast. Before you go to bed the evening before, get the coffee maker ready. Clean up as much as you can, that night. It’s a nice feeling waking up and seeing a picked up house and not all the cups and plates still sitting around. It won’t take long and it will be well worth it.

Basic Items you will provide: You will need to make up two appetizers and your guests will bring the rest of the food. Supply a toasting drink & champagne glasses or plastic, appetizer and full size plates, napkins & cups, drink stirrers, party picks, noise makers and party blowers, themed decorations, hats, some computer time for the invitations and signs designating guests rooms and goody bags for children, if you decide. Have your camera ready – take lots of pictures. Decorate and prepare as much as possible the day before and the morning of. Take time for your self to rest, before the magical night. If you feel you would like to give a token of friendship gift as your guests leave. You could pass out the goody bags to the children and a small holiday plant or candle to the adults. Make a tag for around the gift that would say “Welcome to 2003” Sincerely, {your families name}. Use a big decorative red or gold ribbon to tie this on with.

This is such a fun easy party for the whole family. Your children, spouse and friends will remember this for a long time, be careful they may expect it every year! Enjoy your family and your New Year’s Eve.


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