Celebrating New Years Eve with Your Kids

December 31, 2011 by

If you have young kids and you cannot get a babysitter on New Year’s Eve, you will likely not be hitting the nightclubs and dancing until the kids new years partybreak of dawn.

If you are planning a quiet evening in with your little ones, you can put together a great New Year’s Eve party that the whole family will enjoy! Here are some tips for celebrating New Year’s Eve with your kids:

Decorate the House Together

You and the kids can have a great time in the afternoon decorating your house for New Year’s Eve. String up lights around and set up candles to create a party atmosphere. You can staple together colorful strips of construction paper to make homemade garlands. Get some balloons from the dollar store and some little noise makers that the kids can play when the clock strikes midnight.

Prepare for Staying up Late

If your children are quite small, it might be difficult for them to last until midnight without falling asleep. To help them have enough energy to ring in the New Year when the clock strikes 12, put them down for a nap in the evening or the late afternoon.

Invite Other Kids

If your friends or relatives are going out for the night and you are planning on staying at home with the kids, why not offer to babysit their children as well. The party at your house will be more fun when your kids have a few friends to play with!

Try to keep in small so that it is still easy to manage. Make sure that you have lots of fun games and activities planned! Why not go in the backyard with flashlights to play games or watch the stars, or have a dance party?

New Year’s Goodie Bags

A fun idea to make your New Year’s Eve party memorable is to put together special treat bags for your kids that can only be opened on the stroke of midnight. They can have small toys, books, calendars, and other little gifts for the New Year in them.

If you are celebrating New Year’s with the kids, it doesn’t mean that you are missing out on the fun! On the contrary, you can create a very special New Year’s Eve that you and your kids will remember forever.

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Tips for Hosting a Fantastic New Years Party on a Budget

December 28, 2011 by

New Year’s Eve is a time to party and celebrate with friends, and you want to plan your own evening get-together so that you can count down to midnight in style. However, after the expenses of the holiday season you don’t have much left over to spend on throwing a big bash!

Don’t worry; you can still ring in the New Year with a great party on a low budget. New Years Party

Here are some tips for cutting down the costs of your celebration:

Plan Ahead

Many people make their plans for New Years at least a month in advance and sometimes more, so if you are planning on hosting a soiree this year make sure that you get your invites out as soon as possible.

Also, planning your party in advance will give you lots of time to comparison shop for the things that you need and wait for party supplies to go on sale which will save you money.

Keep it Simple

You don’t need to cook up a three course meal to impress your New Year’s Party guests. Instead, start your party later in the evening so that guests will have eaten dinner before they arrive, and provide a few finger foods and snacks instead.

Buy the budget versions of pretzels, potato chips, and dips and then place them in your nicest bowls so that they look fancy.

Also, your friends won’t mind if you ask them to bring a few snacks or drinks to contribute.

Buy Cheap Liquor

If you are making mixed drinks at your party, you don’t need to buy the most expensive top shelf liquor. You will not be able to taste the difference in quality when you add all of the other fruity ingredients.

You also don’t need to buy name brand sodas such as Coca Cola or Pepsi when the cheaper versions taste pretty much the same when mixed with alcohol.

You could also consider making up a batch of Sangria, which can be made with very cheap wine and still tastes delicious.

Make Your Own Decorations

You can create a fantastic look to your party with a little bit of creativity, and save money on expensive party decorations.

Try stringing up your Christmas lights around the room to provide interesting lighting, and use lots of candles for a fun atmosphere.

Ask your friends to email you their favorite photos of the last year, and print them out. Display them on the walls to show off the best moments of the last 12 months.

You could even tape a large piece of paper to the walls and provide colorful markers so that guests can write their hopes, dreams and resolutions for the New Year.

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Where to Hide Presents From Your Sneaky Kids

December 21, 2011 by

When your children know that there are Christmas presents in the house, they turn into little detectives leaving no stone unturned in their kid shaking presentsquest to figure out what they are getting this year.

However, you don’t want their curious prying eyes to ruin the surprise that you have planned for that special morning, so how can you hide the presents from your kids so that they will never find them?

Go High

If your kids are still quite little, you can use your height advantage to hide the gifts in a place that they will never look, such as the highest shelf in the closet. Push the gifts to the back and cover them with blankets or clothes.

Mobile Hiding Space

Why not try hiding the gifts in a duffel bag in the trunk of your car? If you don’t have teenage kids and you are the only one who drives the car, this is a great hiding place because you will always have the keys. When you are gone you won’t have to worry about sneaky kids because you will have the gifts with you!

Working Overtime

If you have an office with a locked door or a storage locker in your workplace, you can stash your secret treasures there. Your kids will likely never come into your workplace, so this is a perfect place! Just remember to take the gifts home on your last day before Christmas vacation!

Hide Them in Plain Sight

To really confuse your kids, you can hide their presents by wrapping them and putting them under the tree. However, so that they can’t determine what the gifts are by shaking them and weighing them, you will need to be clever and disguise them.

Wrap small gifts in larger boxes, and put heavy objects in to disguise the weight. Use oddly shaped boxes, and include things like jingle bells or rice that will make a sound when shaken. Your kids won’t be able to guess what the strange object is!

You can also leave off the names so that your kids don’t know which present is for whom, and simply write a secret code for yourself so that only you know.

Outsmart your kids this holiday season so that their burning curiosity won’t ruin the magical surprise!

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