Crafty Ways to Celebrate the New Year

Once the holidays have passed, it’s time to look forward to a new year. If you’re planning to spend this day at home with your family, I’ve rounded up some crafty ways to celebrate the new year. There are ideas for adults and kids alike! Be sure to bookmark this page and share it with your friends.

Crafty Ways to Celebrate the New Year

Although the world has pretty much returned to its regularly scheduled programming, you may still choose to stay home with your family (and friends). The ideas below are sure to inspire you to ring in the new year in crafty style.

Create a new year’s resolution station.

Everyone typically focuses on dreams, goals, and resolutions for the new year, which is why having printable new year’s resolution cards will come in handy. Kids and adults alike can fill these out and do a number of things with them. Either put them in envelopes or hang them on a board to see throughout the year. 

As each resolution is reached, pull it out of the card and/or take it off the board to notify that it’s complete!

Make a set of countdown bags.

If you have children in tow, staying up through midnight can be a task. Keep the focus off the clock and instead on building family memories with countdown bags. All you need are several brown paper bags, a permanent marker, and things to go in the bags.

You can put games, treats, toys, and the like which will be completed once the time on the bag has come. Choose times that are fifteen minutes, thirty minutes, or an hour apart. The idea is to keep everyone busy until midnight.

Design your own celebration activities to do at midnight.

There are many ways to “ring in” the new year with one of the most popular being watching the ball drop. In addition to that, you can create a few celebration activities of your own. One easy idea is to make a confetti bar. All you need are push-pop containers and ripped-up pieces of colorful paper.

Another idea is to make your balloon drop. This is easy to accomplish by blowing up a nice handful of colored balloons and putting them in a tarp that is then attached to the ceiling (or ceiling fan). At midnight pull the string and watch the balloons drop!

Set up new year’s inspired foods and beverages.

What’s a new years celebration without the food and drinks? Consider having a family dinner followed by a fruit and veggie bar for snacking throughout the night. Go all out with a child-friendly fondue bar, hot chocolate bar, and/or a cookie decorating station.

There are also lots of good luck foods and drinks that are common across many cultures. The Spanish believe in eating 12 grapes at the new year for luck and prosperity. Other cultures eat black eyed peas. Or, you can start a new tradition of your own!

Play minute-to-win-it games.

These types of games are meant to be played in short spurts of time. From word scramble to the cookie face game, there are lots of games you can play to help pass time. Here are over 20 game ideas you can use at your new years family gathering.

Make a family bucket list.

Leading up to the new year is the perfect time create a family-style bucket list. You can make this a big deal and use a large poster board, cutouts from magazines, printables from online, and the like. Have each family member contribute by adding their idea to the poster board.

Put this up in your home where it can be seen by everyone. Use it to plan family trips and activities throughout the new year. And don’t forget to mark them off the list as you complete them.

Final Thoughts

These crafty ways to celebrate the new year are sure to help you add unique fun to your family’s memory bank. Don’t forget to take pictures and add them to your family’s photo album. These pictures can also be used as gifts throughout the year. Do you have special new year celebration traditions? Let us know in the comments below!