Make New Year’s Eve Fun for Your Kids

New Year’s Eve is one of the most grown-up holidays, because there aren’t a lot of young kids who can stay up until midnight, or whose parents would want them to.

But that doesn’t mean the turning over of a new year can’t be fun for kids, too. Here are some great ideas for activities related to new year’s that you can do with your kids, for a noon year’s eve celebration or at any time during the days around new years.

Glued to My Crafts has a great roundup of new year’s activities for kids, including making celebratory gak, coloring pages, a wishing wand, shakers, firework crafts and edible party hats.

If you want to include the kids in the grown ups’ party or throw a party just for kids, Sunny Day Family has some ideas for games, treats and a fake countdown to midnight (and Netflix will have streaming countdowns again this year, so “midnight” can be any time you like).

And Making Time for Mommy has tips and ideas for a noon year’s eve party, where you celebrate in the morning and have your countdown at noon instead of midnight. This is still lots of fun for the kids and everyone gets to bed on time. Win-win.

Do you do anything special for new year’s with your kids? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo by pippalou, via Morguefile.]

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New Year's Activities for Kids

If you want to teach kids the basics of Hanukkah in the classroom or at home, the picture book Hanukkah by Lesléa Newman and illustrated by Rotem Teplow is a nice place to start.

The book explores the Jewish holiday through the eyes of Lior, a boy whose name means “my light” in Hebrew, which is appropriate for talking about the Festival of Lights.

The book goes through all the preparations the family does, including cleaning, setting the table and cleaning the menorah. It talks about what the menorah symbolizes and the Hanukkah story of the oil in the Holy Temple of Jerusalem lasting for eight days when it should have only been a one-day supply.

The meaning of the letters on the dreidel are also explored, in that when you are in Israel they have a different fourth word (the letters symbolize the Hebrew letters for “a great miracle happened there” or, in Israel, “a great miracle happened here”).

Because the story of Hanukkah involves oil, a lot of the foods that are eaten during the celebration are fried in oil, such as latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (fried jelly doughnuts). Other foods mentioned include challah, noodle kugel and sour cream and applesauce, which are served with the latkes. Family and friends drop by to share their food, light their menorahs together and play dreidel (the game is explained in the story). It also talks about how the candles are lit through the eight days and what happens at the end of Hanukkah.

The book includes Hanukkah blessings in English and Hebrew and talks about the lunar cycle of the Hebrew calendar, which is why Hanukkah is sometimes celebrated in November and sometimes in December. It also talks about why Jewish holidays are celebrated beginning at sunset rather than in the morning.

Other topics covered include Hanukkah greetings; how to spell Hanukkah; how to make an edible menorah and an tzedakah box (to collect money for charity); recipes for latkes and applesauce; and a more detailed story of Hanukkah than is included within the story of the book. There’s also a quiz to see how well you were paying attention.

This sweet little book is a quick read and a cute overview of the basics of Hanukkah and what the symbols, foods and games mean. It’s a great book for classrooms or at home for sharing basic knowledge.

About the book: 48 pages, hardcover. Published 2024 by words & pictures, suggested retail price $14.99.

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