How to Get the Kids Involved

If you are hosting a family get together with or  without a meal, it is a great idea to include the children in making the party arrangements and during the get together as well. They can help out in a number of ways but to make it interesting and fun for them and get some cheap labour for you I've outlined a few ideas that they can do.

One of the most common things to do in a new year is to bury a time capsule. This can vary from an individuals contribution to a whole cities' endeavour. The kids can gather containers that are suitable such as  coffee cans or cookie tins. They can use metal paint to decorate the tins or simply fill it with their items as is. It's a fun idea for the whole family to get into including making a small ceremony for the burying.

Noisemakers are de rigueur for a New Year's celebration and the kids can make their own. Simply decorate a can( a bean or tomato sauce can is good) with paint, stickers and other embellishments. Fill the can with beads and bells and then seal the can with a pie plate and tape. Top with bows and ribbons. It is absolutely okay to go over the top with this one!

Your kids can make a personalized calendar with your help, from artwork they have created and you scanned into the computer or a picture from your hard drive and edited with photoshop. Simply attach the photo to a cardboard backing and add on pages taken from another calendar. We all get calendars this time of the year so just remove the photos that came with it from the rest of the calendar and recycle or reuse them in another way.

Your kids can also help out with hosting duties. Have your children greet guests at the door, take their coats and show them where to put their boots. If this is to be a dinner party, they can escort the older guests to the table; boys escorting the ladies, girls helping the gentlemen. Being treated as an adult and being able to act as an adult does, helps to make the moment more special.

If there are other children present then they can introduce the children to each other and show them the activities planned for them. Have a room separate from the adults with snacks and drinks just for them. Plan games that mix it up with active fun and sit-still brain games. Have some fun and inexpensive little gifts to give out as prizes. See if you can either hire a babysitter for the night or rope in an older sibling or relative to keep an eye on the room, depending on the ages of the children present.

Above all, keep the night fun and exciting for the kids and not only will things go relatively smoothly for you but it will be a memory they can take with them forever.