New Year's Eve Hour-by-Hour Countdown Activity for Kids

I have never attempted to let my daughter stay up until the New Year before. I am actually contemplating it this year, so I am armed and ready with an activity that will keep her entertained through all the hours until the ball drops.

I made this fun poster with a little punch out circle for each hour leading up to midnight – kind of like an advent calendar for New Year’s Eve.

Each hour we have either an interesting question to discuss or an activity to do as a family. This is easy to put together with things you most likely have on hand. Just save a few empty toilet paper rolls and you are set!

You will need:

a large piece of poster board
colored tissue paper
glitter cardstock (optional)
empty cardboard toilet paper or paper towel rolls
scissors
pen & marker
glue gun (not shown)

Directions:

start by cutting 12 circular holes in your poster board a little bit smaller than your toilet paper rolls (or more or less depending on how many house you would like this to last)
cut out 12 circles from your tissue paper a little bit bigger than your toilet paper rolls
glue a tissue paper piece over each hole in your poster board
cut the toilet paper rolls into pieces between 1 and 2 inches long (depending on how much you want to put in them)
using a glue gun, glue each piece of toilet paper roll onto the back of the poster board over each hole
write your questions / activities on small pieces of card stock or paper
cut the remaining tissue paper into confetti
place one question / activity sheet and confetti into each toilet paper roll
using hot glue, glue a piece of card stock or paper over the top of each toilet paper roll
freehand cut the numbers 2015 from the glitter card stock to decorate the front of the poster board (or just write it on with marker)
label each cut out with a time leading up to when you will celebrate the new year
hang and decorate however you wish

I’m loving how this turned out and am so excited for New Year’s eve! I tried to include a mix of thought provoking questions and fun activities to keep everyone entertained and having a good time.

Some of the questions that I included:

What is your favorite memory from 2014?
What accomplishment are you most proud of from 2014?
What was your biggest challenge in 2014?
What are you most looking forward to in 2015?
What would you like to do more of in 2015?
What is one thing that you would like to learn in 2015?

Some of the activities I included:

Write out your new years resolution(s) and draw a picture of what it looks like to you (or fill out the resolutions & year in review printable)
Go for the last walk outside of 2014
Plan a trip you would like to go on in 2015
Time for a special treat! (cookies, ice cream, maybe a little of both?)
play a board game
clean up time (hey, I can dream, right?)

If you don’t plan to stay up until midnight (or don’t want your kids up that late!) you could easily readjust the times to go from 8am to 8pm, or even just include less circle cutouts. You could do all questions, all activities, add a few little candies in with the papers and confetti, or forget the questions and activities all together and just have a little treat in each cutout.