New Year’s Eve is right around the corner. If you don't have plans to go out, we have some ideas to celebrate New Year's Eve at home and create some new family & friend traditions! Make a Time Box: Add photos, news stories, report cards, trinkets, pages from a journal, or letters that you have collected over the year. Choose items that mean something special to you. ? Seal the box, and set it to open 5 or 10 years from now. ? If you do this every year, you will have a fun family keepsake, and the ritual will be something you look forward to each year as you open your Time Box and see how you have grown-up.
Glamour Shots: Gather your friends and take some glam photos. Dress up, be casual, but have a blast posing and playing. Instead of posting on Facebook or Tumblr, go old school and print them out and put in frames. ? You can have ready-made frames, or buy some to paint and decorate with your friends. You can easily find decorations at craft stores, such as scrapbooking items, to funk-ify a plain frame. Paint the year (or use store-bought numbers) and get together each year to create set of "growing up with friends".
Dance-off: Invite a big group of friends over and play a dance game on a Wii or Xbox. It's always entertaining to sit back and watch. ? Or jump in the fun and wiggle your way into the new year! ? Dance for fun, or compete with each other, but it will be a blast because your friends can pick their favorite songs, and everyone can join the fun by dancing or watching! ? Be sure to have plenty of snacks on hand for dance breaks.
Chill: Stay home with your family and just hang out! ? There's nothing like a nice night in with the family. It sounds like it could be boring, but sometimes the best nights are the nights spent in sweatpants just chilling. You could either play games, watch a special movie, watch fireworks in your city or on t.v., or watch the ball drop in Times Square with a glass of sparkling juice. Or, start a yearly tradition of writing down New Year's resolutions to review each year. Resolutions are one of our favorite traditions and are especially amusing when you can see what you resolved 10 years ago! We love seeing how everyone's resolutions change year to year.
Board and Bake: Have your closest girlfriends get together, and tell them to bring their favorite board games. Some of our favorites are Apples to Apples and Twister, but any games are fun with friends. We like to combine board games with some holiday cooking... of treats! ? Making cakes, cookies, pies, or cake pops with friends gives you a break from games and a treat for everyone to enjoy and take home with them.
No matter what you decide to do, create a festive atmosphere by setting up a party room. Silver balloons, or disco balls, add a sparkly vibe to the room. Pick a color theme (black and silver are always classic) and coordinate all your paper products for snacks and drinks and decorations. ? It's the little touches that make an evening special, even when you are staying home with friends and family! ? Wishing you a festive, happy, healthy New Year!