Celebrating New Year's Eve with Teenagers - Sweet Shoppe Mom

Now that your teenagers are old enough to stay up to midnight, how should we celebrate the New Year?

When the kids are younger, many of us celebrated at 9 pm (or earlier) and put the kids to bed. A few noisemakers and they were happy. Now the kids are old enough to stay up until midnight or later….many of us parents will crash before our teens. So how to celebrate to keep them from retreating to their rooms??

Make sure to check out our list of 15 things to do to prepare for the new year.

New Year’s Eve Fun with Teenagers

Celebrate with an NYE party at home. This may be your immediate family. Or you may have your teens invite a few friends over. This is one night of the year, I really want my kid to celebrate at home. Too many drunk people on the streets. I also would trust him going to a party where the parents are also hosting their own friends with all the alcohol around and the adults may not be focused on the teens.

Adding a note for 2020. Depending on where you live and if you have a ‘social bubble’ this is another reason to limit your party to immediate family.

Dress in your fancy clothes even if staying at home. Or at least choose something sparkly or stick with black, silver, and white. Add in some fun NYE hats and noisemakers and you’re set.

Make Chocolate Fondue Chocolate fondue is a fun festive dessert when shared with family and friends. So easy to make and serve with a bunch of foods for dipping – strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, pretzels, Rice Krispie treats, brownies, pound cake.

Sparkly Mocktails. We love to make mocktails when kids come over. Sparkling apple cider plus a few other juices. Or Italian sodas with Torani syrups are also a fun option.

Make New Year’s resolutions. Give everyone their own envelope, seal them, and tuck them away. Pull them out in July so everyone can see how they’re doing.

Selfie Station. Turn a wall into a place for fun NYE photos. Hang up a gold background and fill a basket with some fun props (hats, boas, glasses, photobooth cutout props)

Sparklers and Fire Works Depending on regulations where you live, ring in the new year with sparklers and fire works.

Marathon game night Pull out some favorite board games for an evening of games.

Minute to Win It game competition Everyone loves some good competition. Pick a few ‘minute to win it’ games for a fun and hilarious evening. Make a crazy trophy for the winner and make it a yearly tradition to pass it on to the winner each year.

New Year’s Day fun with teenagers

Eat lucky food. There are a lot of traditions for food to be eaten after midnight or New Year’s Day to bring luck or money in the new year. Some of eaten to represent money to bring prosperity for the new year.

Southern tradition of Black-eyed peas and collard greens. The peas for good luck and the greens for money.

Lentils are eaten after midnight for good luck

Pickled Herring. The silver color symbolizes money.

The German tradition of Pork and sauerkraut for good luck

Asian tradition of eating noodles. Long noodles represent a long life.

Plan your new year. New Year’s day is a great time to plan out the year for your family. Get everyone’s input about what family activities everyone wants to do, where to vacation, and new things to try.

Sunrise hike. Start the new year with a healthy and inspiration sunrise hike (if you can get your teens up, lol)

Bucket Lists. This is a great time for everyone to write or update their bucket lists. I have a bucket list and a separate travel bucket list. In the past year, you may have things to cross off or your priorities may have changed. When planning your year, refer to bucket lists so you can make some progress on your goals.

An alternative to a Bucket List is to do a list of things you want to accomplish by a certain age. January is a great time to check on your list to make sure you’re on track.

20 by 20

30 by 30

40 by 40

50 by 50

‘2021′ pancakes. Themed pancakes for breakfast are so fun for birthdays and holidays. Continue the tradition with New Year pancakes making 4 number pancakes.

Visions Boards Get a bunch of poster boards, a stack of magazines, scissors, and glue and have everyone make their vision boards for the year. It’s a great opportunity to teach teenagers about making plans and goals to strive for.

Polar Bear Plunge Teens like to do crazy things so this might be a hit. Head to your local beach, lake, or even back yard and take part in this New Year’s Day tradition by jumping in the freezing cold water.