21 Brilliant Ideas for Hosting the Ultimate Family New Year’s Eve Party

If you’re planning an at-home family New Year’s Eve party for 2021, you are in the right place!

Oh, 2021: while you were an improvement over 2020, we’re still so excited to send you off with an epic family New Year’s Eve party at home! 

No matter the ages and stages of your kids, you’ll find lots of ways to celebrate the beginning of 2022 as a family!

Let’s dive right in with the 21 brilliant ideas for hosting the Ultimate Family New Year’s Eve Party! 

1. Celebrate the New Year on your own time

You might think that you need to keep your kids up until midnight to have a proper family New Year’s Eve party for 2022. 

But who would want to start the new year with exhausted, whiny kiddos? 

No one, that’s who. 

Instead, you decide what time is “midnight” – or the start of the new year for your kids! 

If their bedtime is 8 pm, you may let them stay up a little later and have their own unofficial New Year’s Eve celebration at 8:30 or 9 pm. 

new years eve balloon countdown

Whatever time you choose will be important because you’ll be working backward from there to create your amazing family New Year’s Eve party for 2022!

So choose a time that works for you and your kids, and go from there. 

Free Printables for your family New Year’s Eve party

Before we get any further, you’ll want to take a look at all the family New Year’s Eve party resources in the Free Printables library here on Jen Bradley|MOMs!

You’ll find printables for:

  • New Year’s Eve word searches
  • scavenger hunt
  • 2021 time capsule pages
  • bingo boards
  • funny fill-in-the-blank
  • 2022 resolutions

Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that I may make a small commission if you click through or purchase at no cost to you. For more information, click here.

2. New Year’s Eve Balloon Countdown

To get your family New Year’s Eve party underway, you’ll want to start with some sort of countdown.

I love this awesome balloon countdown idea from Craftibilities!

Before you blow up the balloons, put a small slip of paper in the balloon with an activity written on it.

Then, blow up the balloon and write a time on it with a wide Sharpie marker. Better yet, attach a beautifully printed clock with the right time from the Ultimate New Years’ Eve Party printable pack available in my shop!

new years eve party at home for kids

How to customize your clocks:

To assign each balloon a time, decide when you want the party to begin, how many activities you want to do, and when you want the party to end (see tip #1 above!).

For example, there are 12 awesome games and activities for you in this article. You could choose to make 6 balloons – with 2 activities in each balloon. Or you could blow up 12 balloons and have one activity per balloon – and assign the times a bit closer together. It is totally up to you!

Great games for your family New Year’s Eve Party at home

These 12 fun games are divided into 2 main groups:

  • active minute to win it New Year’s Eve games
  • printable New Year’s Eve games for kids

We’ll take a look at the minute to win it New Year’s Eve games first!

Minute to Win It Games for New Year’s Eve

To play minute to win it games, you’ll need a one minute timer, good attitudes, and people who are ready to laugh!

3. (Cotton) Ball Drop

Supplies:
family new year's eve party minute to win it gameTo play:

Players put their hats upside down on the floor and then stand on a surface a few feet above their hat – a bench, sofa without cushions, etc will be perfect.

When the timer starts, players take one cotton ball at a time, hold it up near their nose and try to drop it into their upside down party hat.

The person who gets the most cotton balls in his or her hat is the winner!

4. Ring Out the Old

Supplies:

For this hilarious game, you’ll need

minute to win it new year's eve gamePreparation:

On the bottom of the kleenex box, make two parallel cuts just slightly longer than the ribbon near the center with an exact-o knife.

Then pull the ribbon through both cuts so the empty box is in the center of the ribbon. Fill the box with the ping pong balls.

To play:

Tie the ribbon around the waist of one player, with the kleenex box line up just above the player’s bottom.

The person then has one minute to shake all of the ping pong balls out of the box! Whomever does it fastest is the winner!

5. Ring in the New

Supplies:
new year's minute to win itPreparation:

Label the lunch bags with letters A-L. Place one jingle bell in one paper bag, two jingle bells in the next, three in the next, and so on until you have 12 jingle bells for the last bag.

Be sure to mix up the order of the letters as you fill the bags.

To play:

Line up the bags in alphabetical order on a table or on the floor.

The player has to shake each bag and arrange them in order based on the number of jingle bells he or she thinks is in each bag.

At the end of one minute, open each bag one by one and see if the bags were arranged correctly!

6. Face the (Cookie) Future

Supplies:

one cookie per player

To Play:

Each player tilts her head back and places the cookie on her forehead. Using only gravity and her face muscles, the player must move the cookie down her face toward her mouth.

The first person to get their cookie in their mouth without dropping it is the winner!

7. Don’t Look Back

Supplies:
don't look back new year's eve gameTo play:

Players divide into pairs. One team member kneels down on the ground facing away from their partner. The standing player takes 3 large steps backwards away from their partner.

The kneeling partner holds a top hat party hat upside down in his hands.

When the timer starts, the standing player takes several handfuls of cotton ball and throws them over the head of their partner, trying to land as many cotton balls in the party hat as possible.

The kneeling partner can move the hat around to catch as many cotton balls as he can!

8. Midnight Kiss Reveal

This is a fun group game for about five or six people at a time.

Supplies:
  • Hershey kisses
  • Flat surface, such as a baking tray

Game Preparation:

Write a number 12 on the bottom of a Hershey kiss. You’ll need at least one or two number 12’s for each person who will be playing the game. (If you have a lot of younger kids playing, go with two stickers per person!)

Arrange 30-40 regular (no 12 on the bottom) Hershey kisses on a large, flat surface such as a baking sheet. Place the Hershey kisses with the number 12 randomly on the surface as well. 

How to play:

Players take turns quickly picking up a Hershey kiss, turning it over, and checking it to see if it has a 12 on the bottom.

If there is no sticker, the person has to eat the Hershey kiss as quickly as possible.

If there is a 12 on the bottom, the person who picked it up gets to count it as one point!

The person with the most points collected at the end of one minute is the winner!

Printable games for your family New Year’s Eve party at home

Now let’s move on to the printable games!

Remember, you can click here to grab all of these games that are available for you in the Jen Bradley|MOMs Free Printable Resource Library!

9. New Year’s Eve word search

Word searches are both simple and fun!

You can either print one word search per person at the party and have everyone race against each other.

Or you can give a time limit and see who finishes before the time is up.

new years eve word search

Finally, if you have a group with a wide variety of ages, you may consider having teams or partnerships complete the word search together.

10. Funny fill in the blank

new year's eve mad libs printableFor this Mad Libs-style activity, gather everyone around and have them provide the words for the blanks.

It may help to give a quick review of nouns, verbs, and adjectives before you start!

When all the blanks are filled, clear your throat and read the entire story with as must drama as possible. You’ll probably have to pause and wait for people to stop laughing from time to time!

11. Your Year in Review

This is such a fun way to take a moment and think about all of the things that have happened in the past year.

If you have kids who are not able to write, adults and older kids can help them answer the questions – they’re all super simple.

 

12. New Year’s Eve photo scavenger hunt

The photo scavenger hunt is one of my favorite games for a family New Year’s Eve party!

new years eve scavenger hunt

Divide into teams of 4-5 people and give every team a copy of the scavenger hunt list.

Then set a timer for 7-10 minutes, and allow the groups to take photos of the items on the list. (Some of them can be acted out too!)

The group with the most (or funniest!) photos is the winner!

13. New Year’s Eve bingo

The New Year’s Eve bingo set (along with all of the other printable games here) is available for FREE in the Free Printables Library! It is the perfect game for a crowd of mixed ages.

With six different bingo cards, you may need to have kids partner up.

You can use M&Ms or these perfect colored plastic chips as bingo markers.

14. New Year’s resolutions

new year's resolutions pageThis is another great page to fill out on New Year’s Eve!

If you have family guests arriving at different times, you may have this available for the first people to fill out as others show up.

Also, make sure everyone puts their name on their page so they can take these home with them!

Additional activities for your family New Year’s Eve party for 2021

Here are a few more ideas to make your family New Year’s Eve party extra special and memorable:

15. Create a New Year’s tree

During the day of New Year’s Eve, have your kids help you take off all the Christmas ornaments from your Christmas tree.

Then allow them to drape all kinds of gold and silver metallic streamers all over the tree.

This gold and silver star garland would also be a perfect addition to your New Year’s tree!

16. Balloon drop

This seems like a complicated activity to put together, but it was WAY easier than we anticipated! 

New Years Eve balloon drop

And the kids absolutely LOVED it! 

Here are the instructions we recommend in this easy DIY video from a fellow mom, Amy Rowland!

This pack of gold, white, and black balloons is exactly what you’d need to coordinate with all of the other elements of your family New Year’s Eve party!

17. Pots and pans celebration

No matter what time your family is celebrating the New Year, grab a few pots and pans and some wooden spoons and make some noise!!

Especially if you are celebrating earlier in the night, your neighbors most likely won’t mind, right?!

18. New Year’s Eve dance party

After the balloons have come down and the pots and pans celebration is concluded, crank up some favorite tunes and let the kids have a dance party!

new years eve dance party

No better way to get the last wiggles out and send the year out in style!

(P.S. Add an inexpensive disco light like this for extra effect!)

 

Amazing food for your family New Year’s Eve party

To round out your amazing family New Year’s Eve party for 2021, here are some amazing party food ideas your kiddos are sure to love!

19. Clock cupcakes

This adorable cupcake clock from The Soccer Mom Blog is perfect for a small family party! (photo credit: The Soccer Mom Blog)

20. 2022 breadsticks

breadsticks for family new year's eve partyThese fun-shaped breadsticks will be a huge hit with your kids. You can either make them with crescent rolls or your own favorite bread dough. (photo credit: Pillsbury)

21. Cookies and milk New Year’s Eve toast

These colorful plastic champagne flutes would be the perfect splash of color for a cookies and milk toast right after your family’s “midnight!” (Photo credit: Style Me Pretty)

 

 

Final thoughts on hosting the ultimate Family New Year’s Eve party for 2022:

Are you feeling motivated and excited to host an epic family New Year’s party at home for 2022?

There’s no doubt this has been another tough year for everyone – so let’s send it out on the best note possible and look forward to the hope a new year always brings!

Happy New Year, mama!

Related articles about family celebrations and traditions:

13 Awesome Christmas Traditions for Families You Must Try

5 Cheap, Easy, and Meaningful Birthday Ideas for Kids

9 Awesome Thanksgiving Day Activities for Kids and Toddlers

Will you be hosting your own family New Year’s Eve party at home for 2022?

21 Brilliant Ideas for Hosting the Ultimate Family New Year\'s Eve Party21 Brilliant Ideas for Hosting the Ultimate Family New Year\'s Eve Party21 Brilliant Ideas for Hosting the Ultimate Family New Year\'s Eve Party21 Brilliant Ideas for Hosting the Ultimate Family New Year\'s Eve Party21 Brilliant Ideas for Hosting the Ultimate Family New Year\'s Eve Party

Jen Bradley, the founder of Jen Bradley|MOMs

Hi there! I’m Jen and I’m so glad you’re here. I am a mom who believes that meaningful connections with our families can happen in small and simple ways. Read More …

 

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7 thoughts on “21 Brilliant Ideas for Hosting the Ultimate Family New Year’s Eve Party”

  1. Due to this covid-19, I am planning for an in house party at my house. And I got some amazing ideas from your post, so thank you for sharing these brilliant ideas with us! I will bookmark this for later. Keep sharing.

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