6 Tips for a Kid-Friendly New Year's Eve Party

You might feel a little overwhelmed trying to entertain a group of kids on New Year's Eve. Don't worry! Kids are easier to please than you think. Here are 6 easy ways to have a great New Year's Eve party with kids.

Tip #1 Let the kids make noise

This is the one night of the year when it's acceptable and even encouraged to make a lot of noise. So turn your "shh"-ers off and let the kids be loud for a change. Party 411 suggests a New Year's Eve parade of banging pots and pans and sounding off noisemakers. Find more suggestions from Party 411 on their website.

Tip #2 Use Sparkling Juice

If you want your kids to have the fun of toasting the New Year, but without the alcohol, try using Welch's Sparkling red or white grape juice. It will be a fun treat for the kids, and a great way to celebrate New Year's Eve with the whole family.

Tip #3 Make your own noisemakers

Kids love crafts, and these crafts can be used later on in the night. New Year's Eve noisemakers are easy to create. Empty toilet paper rolls can be turned into kazoos by rubber banding tissue to one end and poking a hole in the side of the roll. Give the kids time to decorate their kazoos with markers or crayons. Kids Party Fun.com also suggests putting corn, beans or beads in plastic bottles to use as rattles. Kids can also make their own New Year's Eve confetti from leftover Christmas wrapping paper and newspapers.

Tip #4 Encourage Creativity

Kids love to play make-believe, so encourage this for New Year's Eve. Challenge them to create skits about what they think 2009 will be like (they're a lot more optimistic than we are). Kids Party Fun.com has some fantastic, creative, New Year's Eve activities, like making New Year's resolutions and time capsules.

Tip #5 Keep food low in sugar

Sure, it's a celebration, but if the kids eat too much sugar on New Year's Eve, they'll be bouncing off the walls one minute and crashing the next. Try to keep snacks light in sugar. Goldfish crackers, apples and caramel dip, and raisins are all great, kid-friendly alternatives. Also try to keep drinks caffeine free and low in sugar.

Tip #6 It's ok to end early

With little ones, there's no real reason to keep them up until midnight to ring in the New Year. Don't feel bad about counting down to say, 8pm, or 9:30, and throwing all the confetti then. The kids will probably enjoy it more then they would staying up all the way to midnight, at which point they would be too tired to have much fun. Besides, if the kids call it quits early, that leaves you a little time for your own New Year's Eve fun.