Cleaning Up after a New Years Eve Party

Most people enjoy planning and attending New Years Eve parties but cleaning up after a New Years Eve party isn’t always high on most people’s lists of favorite activities. However, if you plan to host a New Years Eve party in your home you have to consider how you will clean up after the big event. This article will provide a few tips for cleaning up after a New Years Eve party and will offer some ways in which cleaning up after the party can be avoided.

One of the easiest ways to deal with cleaning up after a New Years Eve party is to plan on hiring a maid service to assist you in the cleanup process. You can hire them to show up later in the day on New Years so you have the opportunity to get some sleep after the party but before the cleanup crew arrives. This option is significantly more expensive than planning to clean up on your own but for those who are dreading the cleanup process it can be a very worthwhile expense.

Enlisting a few friends to assist you in cleaning up after your New Years Eve party can also make the process much simpler. Just having a few people stay to help you clean up can be very important because the extra people will ensure the clean up is completed much more quickly than it would be if you did all of the work by yourself. It can also make the work seem less tedious because your friends are with you. In fact it may almost seem like an extension of the party because you can continue to talk and socialize with your friends while you work.

Hosting the party at a restaurant or catering hall also makes the cleanup process quite simple. If you are planning to host your party in one of these locations anyway the cleanup process will be very simple. You may have some basic responsibilities associated with cleaning up and may also have the responsibility of ensuring your guests behave responsibly and do not destroy the property but otherwise the staff of the restaurant or catering hall will take care of the cleanup work and you will be free to leave at the conclusion of the party.

Although it is not ideal, it is possible that you will end up cleaning up after the party completely on your own. While most guests will offer to stay, you cannot count on them to do so. In the event that you are on your own for cleanup you have a couple of choices. You can either tackle the mess as soon as the last guest leaves or get some sleep before starting the cleanup process. Whichever you decide, you should try to at least make the cleanup fun. Try turning on some music to keep you company while you work and you may find the job is completed before you know it. You can also help to keep cleanup at a minimum by performing small cleaning tasks throughout the evening. This will take you away from the party for a short time during the evening but it will reduce the amount of work you have to do the following day. It will also keep the amount of work to be done from seeming too overwhelming.

Preparing Food for a New Years Eve Party

Preparing food for a New Years Eve party can be a great deal of fun or it can be a great deal of stress. It can even be a combination for the two. Those who are experienced at throwing parties may be able to plan a menu for their New Years Eve party and execute their plan with ease while still enjoying the party. However, those who do not have a great deal of experience hosting parties may have difficulty planning a menu and may feel a great deal of stress on the day of the party. In either case, it is wise to begin planning the food for your New Years Eve party in advance to ensure your guests enjoy the food at the party. This article will offer some tips for preparing food for a New Years Eve party.

Whether you are an accomplished chef or a novice cook, preparing food for a New Years Eve party can be quite a challenge. One of the first decisions you will have to make is what kind of food you will like to prepare for your guests. You may opt for offering a sit down dinner early in the evening and light snacks and desserts afterwards. Likewise you may opt to offer a dinner buffet early in the evening and snacks and desserts throughout the remainder of the evening. Alternately you may choose to skip dinner because the party will likely start late in the evening and simply offer an assortment of sweet and savory appetizers throughout the evening. Once you have selected one of these options you can make other decisions such as what types of foods to offer and how much food to prepare.

Regardless of the types of foods you decide to offer, you will also have to make decisions regarding the preparation of the food. The simplest, but also likely the most expensive, preparation option is to have the party catered. In this case you pay a caterer to prepare and deliver all of the food. They will also likely provide the methods for keeping the foods hot or cold if necessary. This is an excellent option for hosts who do not want to spend a great deal of time preparing food for the party and who do not want to have a great deal of responsibility related to food preparation on the evening of the party.

Another option for preparing food for your New Years Eve party is to prepare all of the food ahead of time. With a little research you will surely find a large number of recipes for items which can be prepared ahead of time. These recipes can include items which can be served chilled, room temperature or hot. For items which should be served hot, you will only have to worry about reheating the food on the night of the party. Preparing the majority of the food ahead of time is a great idea and will really help to enable the host to enjoy the festivities on the evening of the party.

Still another less popular option is to prepare all of the food during the party. This helps to ensure the food is all fresh and is served at the appropriate temperature but it is also a great deal of work for the host. The host will not likely have a great deal of time to socialize with the guests because she will likely spend a great deal of time busy with food preparation.

When planning a New Years Eve party, you can also consider hosting a potluck event. This greatly simplifies the food preparation process for the host. If you opt for a potluck, it is important for the host of the party to coordinate with the guests to determine who will bring what to the party. This is important because you do not want everyone to bring a dessert. Likewise you don’t want everyone to bring an entrée either. Ideally a couple of people will prepare entrees and the remainder of guests will bring side dishes, salads and desserts to the party.

New Years Eve Party Favors

If you are planning a New Years Eve party, you might be considering offering party favors to your guests. This is an excellent idea and can offer your guests a lovely memento of the party. Hosts of a New Years Eve party have a lot of options for favors. If the New Years Eve party has a theme, the host might consider offering a favor which goes with the theme of the party. If the New Years Eve party does not have a theme, the favor may be related to traditional symbols of the New Year or may be completely unrelated to the holiday season. This article will offer some advice for providing favors at a New Years Eve party including a few ideas for favors.

When hosting a New Years Eve party, it is important to decide whether or not your will give favors to your guests while you are still in the planning stages of the party. This is especially important if you are setting a strict budget for the New Years Eve party. Considering favors early in the planning process will help to ensure you budget properly and include enough money in the budget to purchase favors for all of your guests.

One idea for giving favors is to offer items which are traditionally associated with New Years Eve. Champagne glasses are popular choices for favors for a New Years Eve party. It is a nice touch to have the date of the party engraved on the glasses to make the favors more personal and to ensure the guests will always remember the party. Other favors which are considered appropriate for a New Years Eve party include clocks and top hats.

If you host a themed New Years Eve party, it is a good idea to give your guests a favor which is closely associated to the theme of the party. For example if you threw a New Years Eve party with a western theme you might consider giving the guests beer mugs instead of champagne glasses. For a New Years Eve party with a theme related to the ocean you could give guests seashells or sand sculptures as favors.

Another popular option for party favors at any party is candy. You can purchase candy in a variety of different shapes. You may opt for a shape which is appropriate for New Years Eve or a fun shape which is completely unrelated to the occasion.

A truly unique and fun idea for providing favors for a New Years Eve party is to ask each guest to bring a party favor to the New Years Eve party. The guests can either purchase a favor for the purpose of the party or they can bring a favor they received at another party. The favors can either be practically, whimsical, nostalgic or even silly. As the guests arrive you can collect the favors and place them at each place setting under an opaque cloth. Then as the guests are seated they can take turns unveiling their favor. The guest who provided the favor can either tell the true story of how they acquired the favor or they can make up the story about the favor. This way the favors also provide entertainment for the guests.

Decorating for a New Years Eve Party

Decorating for a New Years Eve party is a very important part of the party planning. A host may spend a great of time worrying about the food and beverages or the guest list but may not give adequate attention to the decorations. This is unfortunate because the decorations at a New Years Eve party can do a great deal to help set the atmosphere for a New Years Eve party. This article will offer some advice on decorating for a New Years Eve party including popular decorating ideas and tips for incorporating themes into the decorations.

One of the most common decorating ideas for a New Years Eve party is to incorporate Christmas or winter decorations into the party decorations. This is considered acceptable because of the proximity of New Years Eve to Christmas. Most people still have their Christmas decorations up and if they plan to host the New Years Eve party in their home it is understandable that the décor for the party will relate to Christmas. Decoration ideas may include a Christmas tree with ornaments, red bows, holly, silver candlesticks and pinecones. An assortment of pinecones in a glass bowl can make a great centerpiece for a New Years Eve party using Christmas decorations.

Themes for a New Years Eve party do not have to follow any particular guidelines. These parties can be based on any theme which is preferred by the host of the party. However, when a theme is incorporated into the party planning it is expected that the décor for the evening will reflect the theme of the party. For example a New Years Eve party with a beach theme could feature sand sculptures as centerpieces, plates shaped like seashells, a decorative fishing net as a tablecloth or any other related items which may reflect the theme of the party.

Another fun idea for decorating at a New Years Eve party is to ask each guest to bring an item to contribute to the décor for the evening. This results in a rather eclectic assortment of items decorating the party space but it also greatly reduces the amount of time, energy and money the host has to spend on decorations for the party. It also created an opportunity for guests to get to know each other. During the course of the party the guests will have the opportunity to view all of the decorations on display and may wonder about where each item came from and if there is any significance to the item. Later in the evening the guests can each have the opportunity to talk about the item they brought and explain why it is significant to them and why they chose to bring this particular item. This is like an adult version of show and tell.

Finally in decorating for a New Years Eve party, it is important to ensure the decorations for the party contribute to the atmosphere but do not detract from the party in any way. The guests should notice and appreciate the décor for the evening but the decorations should not be the focal point of the evening. This is important because the focus of the evening should be on the food, the entertainment, the activities and guests socializing with each other and having a good time.

Games to Play during a New Years Eve Party

Many hosts spend a great amount of time planning the food and cocktails for their New Years Eve party and do not give as much consideration to the type of entertainment they plan to have at their New Years Eve party. This is unfortunately because New Years Eve parties offer a great opportunity to participate in some really fun games. New Years Eve parties tend to last longer than many other parties so traditional entertainment options such as dancing may not be enough to keep the guests entertained. One fun way to spice a New Years Eve party is by playing different games. This article will offer some fun ideas games to play at a New Years Eve party.

New Years Eve is a holiday which is synonymous with alcohol consumption. The popularity of alcohol consumption is the inspiration for one idea for a game to play on New Years Eve. You can play a game by giving each person a word which is likely to come up in casual conversation and writing that word on a nametag for each person to wear during the evening. Guests are required to carry a shot of a vodka at all times and if another guests catches them saying the word on their nametag they have to take their shot and then pick up another shot to carry in case they are caught again. This game is fun because it encourages guests to mingle as they attempt to think up ways to get other guests to try to say their word. The game can be made more difficult by placing the name tag on each person’s back so they cannot see the word but other guests can. This means the guest not only has to try to avoid saying the word but also has to figure out what the word is. When playing this game, care should be taken to avoid the game being the cause of the guest becoming inebriated. One way to do this is to put a limit on the number of shots a person can consume. They can take the sticker off once they reach their limit and the last person with a sticker is declared the winner and may be awarded a surprise.

Games which involve dancing are also very popular on New Years Eve. One game which is a lot of fun is similar to a game played by children. It involves periodically stopping the music while guests are dancing. Each time the music stops, the guests are supposed to freeze in one position. One person is designated as the judge and each time the music stops, the judge eliminates the last guest to freeze his position. The last guest remaining is declared the winner of the game.

A casino night is also very popular for a New Years Eve Party. The host can set up various tables for different games such as blackjack, Texas hold’em, keno and other popular card games. The host may also enlist guests to act as dealers at each of these tables. The hosts can either be dedicated for entire night or can rotate every couple of hours so all the guests have a chance to be both a player and a dealer. Giving each of the guests a set amount of poker chips can make the games even more fun, if you inform the guests they will be able to exchange their chips at the end of the evening for raffle tickets for a few prizes. This will encourage the guests to participate in the game and really try their best to win at the games.

The games listed above are rather original but depending on the size of the party, guests can also play standard board games. Trivial pursuit, monopoly and scrabble are popular options. These games can be played either as individuals or as teams. Additionally, they can be played once or in a tournament style. Games such as scrabble can even played with a holiday theme where guests are encouraged to use words which relate to New Years Eve.

Selecting Appetizers for a New Years Eve Party

When planning a New Years Eve party appetizers are one of the items the host spends a great deal of time considering. This is because appetizers, along with cocktails, are one of the most popular food options for a New Years Eve party. Unlike other parties which typically take place during a meal time, New Years Eve parties usually start later in the evening. This makes planning the food for the party a little more complicated. New Years Eve parties may start at around 8:00-9:00 or even later. This is too late to serve dinner but because the party will last at least until midnight it is too long of a time to expect your guest to go without any food. For this reason, most New Years Eve parties feature light food items such as appetizers or sandwiches.

When selecting appetizers for your New Years Eve, it is important to consider the number of guests you will have at your party. While it might be acceptable to allow 4-5 appetizers per person when the cocktail reception is held in conjunction with a dinner, this is not appropriate for a New Years Eve party. Considering the duration of the New Years Eve party, the lack of more substantial food and the alcohol consumption which is likely it is much more appropriate to allow for 12-15 appetizers per person. Considering this large number, you should plan on providing at least five different appetizers for your party to ensure your guests will get to taste a wide variety of items.

When selecting appetizers for your New Years Eve party it is also important to consider the set up of the party. If you will be providing tables and chairs for the guests, it is appropriate to include appetizers which require a fork to eat. However, if you will not be providing seating, it is more appropriate to only include appetizers which can easily be eaten with the hands. You should also consider how convenient the appetizers are to eat. There are many great appetizers which can be quite messy or require elaborate dipping sauces. These types of appetizers are not a great idea for a New Years Eve party where guests are likely to be dressed quite elegantly. Sticking to items which are easy to eat and do not result in a great deal of mess will be greatly appreciated by all of the guests.

It is also important to consider appetizers in a number of different categories when selecting appetizers for your New Years Eve party. In particular you might want to consider serving both sweet and savory appetizers. If you opt to provide both types of appetizers, you have the option of either offering both types of appetizers throughout the evening or offering the savory appetizers for the majority of the evening and then switching to sweet appetizers just before midnight when the New Years Eve party is likely to end within an hour or two. Whichever option you select it is important to plan the number of appetizer according to your distribution strategy. For example if you plan to only offer sweet appetizers in the last hour of two of the party, you should purchase or prepare less of these appetizers than the savory appetizers. However, if you will be distributing both types of appetizers throughout the evening you should purchase or prepare a more equal distribution of appetizers.

Finally, in selecting appetizers, it is also important to consider how the appetizers will be distributed. This is important because if you will have servers circulating with trays of appetizers you can prepare differently than if the appetizers will be left on a buffet table. Specifically if you plan to offer appetizers on a buffet table, you may wish to select mostly items which do not have to be eaten hot if you do not have a method of keeping these items warm. However, if the appetizers will be passed by servers you can serve hot items because the servers bring out only small portions at a time and the rest can be kept warm in the kitchen until needed.

Cocktails for a New Years Eve Party

In planning a New Years Eve party, one of the most exciting items is the selection of cocktails for the party. New Years Eve is a holiday which is largely associated with alcohol consumption. Those who attend these parties are likely to expect an array of interesting cocktails to celebrate the coming of the New Year and many hosts are more than willing to oblige their guests with an assortment of delicious and interesting cocktails.

When planning a New Years Eve party which will include children, it is important to plan on serving a wide variety of non alcoholic beverages in addition to the alcoholic cocktails for the adults. This is important because it will prevent the children from being envious of the interesting beverages the adults are drinking. It will also prevent the children from being curious about the drinks the adults are enjoying and attempting to sneak a taste of these beverages. Non alcoholic cocktails are also considered mocktails and can often be created to look just like the real beverages in a wide variety of colors, flavors and textures. Beverages such as the pina coloda, margarita and a variety of martinis can all be made in non alcoholic versions.

In planning cocktails for a New Years Eve party, you should consider offering a wide variety of beverages throughout the night. This could include both hot, cold drinks and even frozen drinks. One of the most popular cocktail options for a New Years Eve party is punch which is served from a punch bowl. This festive cocktail is typically sweet and contains ingredients such as fruit juices, lemon lime soda and an array of alcoholic ingredients such as vodka and rum. Some hosts may even include champagne in the punch mixture. Adding a scoop or two of sherbet to the punch bowl also helps to cool the beverage and adds an additional layer of taste and texture to the mixture.

Another popular option of a New Years Eve party is to offer one signature cocktail throughout the evening. This can be an item such as a Martini created specifically for the occasion with a seasonal feeling. An eggnog martini is an example of a beverage which is a great deal of fun as well as appropriate for the season. Champagne cocktails are also appropriate for a New Years Eve party. You can create a simply champagne cocktail by combining champagne with sweet vermouth and grenadine.

Hot cocktails are also popular options for a New Years Eve party. Spiked coffees and hot chocolates are always popular but for a more festive cocktail consider creating drinks with a hot cider base. You can create a luxurious hot chocolate cocktail by combining a butterscotch flavored liqueur with rich hot chocolate. An example of a hot beverage which is also quite festive is a hot cider spiced with cranberry juice and rum. Although hot cocktails are extremely popular, most guests will likely only drink one or two hot cocktails during the evening. Conversely they are likely to consumer significantly more cold cocktails during the course of the evening. For this reason, it is recommended to provide both hot and cold cocktails during your New Years Eve party.

Regardless of the type of cocktails you decide to serve throughout the evening, it is customary to offer a champagne cocktail at midnight. You should begin distributing the champagne a few minutes before midnight to ensure everyone has their glass in hand to make a toast and take a sip of the bubbly champagne at midnight. Offering the champagne in an elegant glass and including a strawberry in the glass can create a more elegant presentation. You should also use a fine champagne. During the evening, you may have served alcohols which fit your budget, but it is worthwhile to splurge on a more expensive champagne for the toast at midnight.

Throwing a Potluck New Years Eve Party

If you are planning to host a New Years Eve party this year, you might want to consider making the party a pot luck event. Most people consider potlucks for picnics and parties for other occasions but a potluck is rarely considered when throwing a New Years Eve party. However, there are a number of advantages to hosting this type of event. Some of these advantages include reducing the amount of work required by the host of the party, ensuring the guests all enjoy some of the food provided and cutting down on the amount of leftovers the host has at the end of the evening. This article will examine the logistics of hosting a potluck New Years Eve party.

A potluck is a good idea for a fun New Years Eve party. Some hosts may be hesitant to ask their guests to contribute a dish for the party but there are a few ways to make the potluck a great deal of fun. One way to do this is by implementing a theme for the party. The host can take the responsibility for preparing the main course and then assign each guest to bring another part of the meal to the New Years Eve party with the stipulation that the dish they bring should fit with the theme of the party.

While a potluck New Years Eve party greatly reduces the responsibility of the host in terms of food preparation, it is important for the host to remember she is still responsible for coordinating the meal. The host should take care of ensuring all of the elements of the meal are provided. This is important for preventing each guest from bringing a dessert and none of the guests bringing savory items such as the main course, side dishes, salads or appetizers. One way the host can do this is to indicate on each guest’s invitation which type of dish they should bring. The guest may assign 2-3 people to bring side dishes and 4-5 people to bring appetizers, 4-5 people to bring side dishes, 4-5 people to bring salads and 2-3 people to bring desserts. This will help to ensure there is a variety of item in each category.

It is also important to consider food service when planning a New Years Eve party. This logistical matter is especially important if guests will be providing items which must be served hot. The host might want to consult with the guests to determine what they will be bringing to contribute to the New Years Eve party and how the food should be served. If it is necessary to serve the item hot, the host should plan ahead to make accommodations to reheat the item or keep the item hot if the guest arrives with the item still hot. This is important because dinner will not likely be served immediately when guests arrive.

Beverages should also be carefully considered when planning a potluck New Years Eve party. One way to deal with beverages is for the host to supply all of the beverages. This is a good solution because alcoholic cocktails are particularly popular for New Years Eve parties and the host may prefer to plan on providing a few signature cocktails throughout the evening and will want to ensure they have the ingredients necessary to create those categories. While the host may want to provide all of the alcoholic beverages, she may allow a few guests to bring non alcoholic beverages as their contribution to the pot luck.

Finally, when planning a New Years Eve potluck it is important to ensure guests are aware of any dietary restrictions which should be considered when making the food for the party. For example if the host is aware that several guests require special diets such as diets for diabetics or diets for those with high blood pressure she want to make sure guests who will be preparing food for the party are also aware of these restrictions. The host may also want to ensure at least one main dish item is vegetarian in case any of the guests do not eat meat.

Christmas Table Games

If you're getting everyone together for Christmas dinner, you want to provide some fun activities and games in addition to just the meal. Here are some good ideas to keep the crowd in the Christmas mood and keep them busy and diverted until the meal is ready.

Guess the dinner - Have all the people who are not working in the kitchen do a smell test and try to figure out what's on the menu for dinner. Sure, turkey or ham or roast beef might be an obvious choice and an easy one if they are traditional in your family, but what's the potato smell? Is it a hashed brown casserole, or baked potatoes? Are they mashed with sour cream or garlic? Are there brussel sprouts for dinner or squash, or both. The winner, or the person who most closely guesses the items on the menu, gets a taste test.

Board game fun - Bring out the most kid-like board game you have. This might be one that was just opened that morning or something you already have. Get the men in the house (not the boys, but grown men) to sit down on the floor and play the game. A great picture can be had when the fathers and grandfathers are on the living room rug playing Candyland or Chutes and Ladders. Better yet, bring out a princess game and enjoy watching the men get dressed up like princesses as the game goes on. As a secondary activity, pit the kids and dads against each other in a game of monopoly or cards. The kids can play with their dads on a team or the dads can play against the kids. Either way, it's sure to be fun.

Tablecloth - If the children are getting restless waiting for the meal, have them decorate the tablecloth. This isn't the time, then, to put great Aunt Martha's tablecloth on the table, but something inexpensive and yet not disposable. You can keep the tablecloth from year to year and enjoy watching the progression of the children's art through the tablecloth. Be sure to have them use permanent markers and have them date and sign it, if they are old enough. If they're not, date and sign it for them. You'll want that bit of information later.

Outdoor fun - Have a fun game of "toss the hat". Fill Santa's hat with some candy or other small items and try to toss the hat around without the items falling out. You can have a relay with Santa's hat where everyone wears Santa's hat, then hands it to the next person, who has to put it on and then take if off and then hand it to the next person. How about a rousing game of football, where the goal line is made of discarded Christmas ribbon? Or a game of soccer where the soccer ball is a rolled up ball of discarded Christmas paper.

Worst presents - Who has the best story about the worst present they ever got? Before dessert have everyone share their best of the worst stories. Be sure that you don't tell the story in front of the person who gave you the worst present! What was the most interesting present you ever got? Or the best handmade present? What was the best present that came this Christmas? Dessert isn't handed out until everyone shares a story, good or bad.

Where's Santa? - While eating dinner, have a fun activity going on that's sure to delight the children. Using a Santa hat, play a game of "where's Santa"? Surely he's back at the North Pole by now, right? Have someone start with the Santa hat and under the table, that person passes it to someone else. Everyone tries to decide where the hat is. Whoever has the hat (they can keep it in their lap while they eat) winks at someone else when they catch their eye. If someone gets winked at, they say, "Santa's lost!" and this continues, with the passing of the hat and the winking, until someone figures out where Santa is.

Christmas Day Games

Just because the gifts are opened and the paper strewn about the living room doesn't mean the fun of Christmas is over. Add some fun party games to Christmas day to extend the fun of Christmas.

If you have a large gathering on Christmas day, have fun with the hat game. When they arrive, give everyone a Santa hat. These are inexpensive and can be purchased for $1 at the dollar store, or even less in bulk, if you plan ahead. As everyone goes about their business of getting food, chatting with others and the like, the room will look very festive with everyone wearing their Santa hats.

However, the object of this game is to not have your hat on. As people forget about the hats, the object is to get rid of your hat and not be the last one wearing a Santa hat. Inevitably there will be one person so wrapped up in a conversation or the buffet table, they forget to take off their hat and will be left the game's loser. This is a game that can be played again and again as you head forward with the day's festivities.

One fun memory game that kids particularly like is to make everyone pay careful attention to all the gifts that are opened on Christmas day. After the gifts are removed from the room (or you remove yourselves from the gift room) have everyone try and remember every single gift everyone got. Include stockings and any food gifts. Tell people they only have to remember the items that were opened that day, not any gifts they received and opened prior to Christmas day. This can be a fun game that's particularly popular with kids because they love to relive the gift magic. In addition, if they were so immersed with their own gifts they didn't notice anyone else's this is a good chance for them to educate themselves about what everyone got that day.

If you need a game to keep everyone busy before dinner, try the "guess me" game. Buy some large heavy socks, not low-rise, but the type that are worn outdoors in the winter that are thick and come at least to the calf. Put several items in the socks. Make sure identical items are in each sock. These items should be related to Christmas in some way. You might include a small ornament, scotch tape, a pinecone, a Hershey's kiss, and the like. Have each person feel the socks (having two socks just makes the game go faster, but you can play with just one sock), and write down their guesses about what's in the socks. Be sure to tell everyone how many items are in each sock. The winner gets, you guessed it, one of the socks!

If you have a bunch of wanna-be performers in your group on Christmas day, how about playing a little game of "Christmas Idol"? Set up a small table for the "judges" and have teams of 2 people (or individuals, if they want) sing a Christmas carol. Tell them to have a lot of fun with the song, and even add a Santa hat or other dress-up items if they wish. The winners can take home a CD of Christmas music. This game is particularly fun if just the children want to perform and be judged by the adults, or if, conversely, the adults perform and are judged by the children.

Music for a New Years Eve Party

If you are planning a New Years Eve party, one of the most important elements of the party planning is the music you plan to play at the party. Making preparations for the food, beverages, entertainment, decorations, favors and other elements of the party are all very important but the music at the party are critical to the success of the party and can help to determine whether or not the guests have a good time. This article will discuss some of the options for music at a New Years Eve party and will provide information on implementing these options.

Hiring a band is one very popular option for providing music for a New Years Eve party. However, there are some considerations which should be mulled over before deciding to hire a band. One of these important considerations is the amount of space required for the band to set up and perform. This is important especially if you are hosting the party in your home. Before signing a contract with a band, you should have a representative from the band visit the space and determine if there is enough room available. The noise ordinances should also be considered when hiring a band for a New Years Eve party. Again this is most important if you are hosting the party in your home. When hiring a band you should also consider whether or not the band will appeal to the majority of the guests at your New Years Eve party. This is especially important if you will have guests from a number of different generations at your party.

Another option for proving music at your New Years Eve party is to hire a DJ to perform at the party. This is a good idea because DJs typically play a wide variety of music and are skilled at reading the audience and determining which types of music will appeal to the audience. They are also typically good at encouraging audience participation. Again, it is important to consider noise ordinances when hiring a DJ to entertain at your New Years Eve party. Your DJ will likely be aware of these ordinances particularly if he works in the area often but you should still discuss this with the DJ before signing a contract to ensure he will comply with these regulations.

One inexpensive option for providing music for your guests at your New Years Eve party is to be your own DJ. If you have an extensive CD collection, you can insert a number of these into a disk changer and set the changer to play randomly. Changing the CDs throughout the night will keep the music fresh throughout the party. Another idea is to ask each guest to bring five of their own CDs to the party. Each guest can then take turns playing DJ for a half hour to an hour. This is a fun way to provide music for your guests and also helps to ensure each guest will hear some music they enjoy during the party. Still another option for providing your own music during your New Years Eve party is to set up a satellite radio system and attach it to speakers. You can set the satellite to a station featuring upbeat dance music or music which accompanies the theme of the New Years Eve party.

Still another inexpensive option for providing musical entertainment for your New Years Eve party is to rent a karaoke machine and encourage the guests to provide their own entertainment. Karaoke can be a great deal of fun especially for a group of guests who are willing to participate in the fun. If you have a theme for the New Years Eve party, you can provide songs for the karaoke machine which relate to the theme. If there is not a specific theme for the New Years Eve party, you can select a selection of songs which are likely to be popular with your guests.

Christmas Eve Games

You don't often think to play games on Christmas Eve, but playing a game or two can be a lot of fun.

One fun game is ideally suited for anxious children, but could also be for adults, if you want to add some fun for gift giving. For children, this is a way to make that "open one gift on Christmas Eve" rule a little more exciting and make it last a little longer.

You create a hunt with clues, so the children have to follow the clues to find their gift. Instead of the gift being under the tree, for example, you might put it somewhere else, but the children will follow clues to find it. For this game, you can use anything to write your clues on. You could use Christmas cards in their envelopes that you had extras of, you might cut out Christmas tree shapes for this, or you might want to use ornaments.

Whichever method you choose, write a clue on each of your items and leave those around the house. You start by handing each child the first clue. It might say, "you sleep here every night" and the children will run to their beds. On their pillow you have placed another clue that might say, "mom's eggs taste better with this" and the children head to the spice cabinet, where they find another clue on the salt. The final clue (and depending on the ages of your children and their tolerance, you might have only 5 clues for this game, or many more) will be the gift itself. To make it extra fun, have the gift be under the tree. Your children won't see that coming!

If you have a large gathering on Christmas Eve, try a circle game. Have everyone get in a circle and the first person will start with, "in my Christmas stocking there is an apple" and the next person will add, "in my Christmas stocking there is an apple and a boot". Each person will continue on, remembering the previous items and the adding one of their own, and all in alphabetical order. If you miss an item, you're out of the game and the winner is the person who successfully remembers all the stocking items over and over again each time they have to recite the items and add to the list.

Looking for a little physical activity on Christmas Eve? How about a rousing game of musical chairs using Christmas music? This one can be particularly fun if you use upbeat and well-known Christmas music. Use songs everyone knows and require they sing along and dance while they run around the chairs. This adds a fun element because you are likely to have at least one person who gets so caught up in the music and dancing they don't realize the music has stopped. This game is played like any traditional game of musical chairs with the loser being the one who doesn't get a chair when the music stops.

Since the big event on Christmas Eve is Santa's arrival, play a game of "where's Santa"? In this game, everyone sits in a circle and one person is chosen to be Rudolph. That person leaves the room for a minute. A Santa is chosen among those left in the room. Rudolph returns and begins hunting for Santa. Rudolph should stand in the center of the circle and try to figure out which person is Santa. Santa, meanwhile, winks at other people in the circle. If someone gets winked at, they yell, "ho ho ho".

Once Rudolph figures out where Santa is, another Rudolph and another Santa are chosen and the game continues.

By Christmas Eve, your Christmas cards have been on display for a few weeks, so maybe it's time to play a game with them. Have someone set up a laundry basket, or a gift box a few feet away (the distance depends on the age of your players and ability). Have them try to toss the cards into the box or basket. This sounds easy, but different cards of different weights and styles will react differently and can be harder than expected to get into the box or basket.

Christmas Games For Elementary Age Children

If you're planning a Christmas party for a group of elementary-age children, there are a myriad of really fun games you can include. Be sure to have lots of prizes and take lots of pictures because some of the games can be silly!

To get the kids moving around, start with the "fill the stocking" game. In this game, create teams so there are at least 3 people and no more than perhaps 6 people on each team. Have a stocking for each team. Place the stockings on the wall and have also a bowl of candy and spoons. The first person on each team will put the spoon in their mouth (backwards, so the bowl of the spoon is sticking out) and get some candy out of the bowl. Still holding their spoon in their mouth, they must walk or run to the stocking on the wall and get the candy in the stocking. They run back to the line and the next child has a turn (each child should have his or her on spoon). The game continues until the candy bowl is empty.

The obvious prize for the stocking game is a big bowl of candy!

Another active game is an "unwrap the game" relay. Provide two piles presents at one end of the room (these can be presents with real teats inside, or "dummy" wrapped presents). The children are divided into two teams and a relay is created. One person runs to the stack of gifts, unwraps it, throws away the paper and runs back. Then the next child in line runs up, unwraps a gift, throws away the paper and runs back. If the paper lands outside the trash can, the child must run back and put it back in the trashcan before returning to the line and allowing another person to take a turn.

If these to games are played first the kids might want a little rest. Now's the time to play a sit-down Christmas party game, like "remember this". Get a large cookie sheet or baking tray and fill it with Christmas-themed items. You might include an ornament, a candy cane, a Santa hat, garland, ribbon, etc. There should be at least 20 items on the tray. Give each child about 20 seconds to look at the items, then cover the tray and remove it from sight. Give the children another 20-30 seconds to remember everything they saw on the tray. Have them quickly write don their guesses. The prize is for whoever remembers the most items!

Another good sit down game and one that's also a learning game is a word find game. Provide children with a list of Christmas words and have them find other words within those words. For example, if one word is "reindeer" they might find in, deer, red, den, and so on. Longer words are best, so think of words like Christmas, snowballs, poinsettia, holly berry and the like).

Children love games that involve sitting in a circle and having fun that way. Here's a "circle" game children are sure to love. This tests their ability to remember little details about other people, like their voice. Have handy a sleigh, either one cut out of cardboard or a small one purchased a gift or dollar store. Blindfold one child and have another child hold the sleigh. The child with the sleigh calls out to the blindfolded child something like this:

Santa, where's your sleigh?
Someone's come and taken it away.
Who has it? Who?

The blindfolded child has to guess who has the sleigh. Give the child 3 chances to get it right before giving the sleigh and blindfold to other children.

For another sit down game, give each child a piece of paper and a pencil. Tell them to close their eyes and then tell them what to draw. Give them the shapes, but don't tell them exactly what they are trying to draw (though most children will figure it out). So, first tell them to draw three circles, with the largest being on the bottom and the smallest on the top. Then tell them to draw dots for eyes, and buttons for a coat. Keep going until you have described a snowman. Then have the children open their eyes to see what they have actually drawn. Award a prize for the drawing that most closely resembles a snowman.

Christmas Party Games Young Children

When planning Christmas games for young children, the options are endless. Make sure you provide room to run, do a little planning and the kids are sure to have a good time.

Let's start with a few relay race ideas. Begin with a candy cane relay. Give each team 4 candy canes (and be sure to have a few more in case some break) and have the child who's running hold the candy canes between their fingers, with the crooked part of the cane hanging over their fingers. But tell them not to use their thumbs. The canes should be just carefully perched between their fingers.

The children run to their teammate, exchange the candy canes (again, only using fingers), and that teammate runs to the other end and does the same. The game is over when only one team still has candy canes that haven't dropped on the floor.

Another fun relay that kids love is pass the ornament. In this game, each team gets one ornament (a lightweight, basic thin glass one is fine) and a straw. They must blow through the straw to get the ornament down the line, then the next child blows on their straw to get the ornament back down the line. Make sure each child has a fresh straw, as you don't want everyone to get sick.

This next simple relay game can be played with just about anything that signifies Christmas. You could have the children pass a Santa hat (perhaps requiring them to wear the hat as they run down the line) or have them wear Christmas socks that they then have to take off and get to the next child during the relay.

"Santa Says" is a fun game that all children will know how to play because it's just like "Simon Says". Before playing it, confirm that each child is familiar with "Simon Says" and then create a series of orders from "Santa", like "Santa says, touch your toes", "Santa says bend your knees" and so on. But sometimes leave the "Santa says" part off and trick the children. Always a popular game!

Young children love the "freeze dance" which is often played in preschool and kindergarten. Only in this game, you create a Christmas freeze dance: here you play some Christmas music, let the children do a little dance, then turn the music off and the children must "freeze". If there will be several sit-down games played at the party, this is a great way to let the children use some energy before they have to sit down and focus on the other games.

Young children can play the "clue" game as long as the questions are kept to their knowledge of various things surrounding Christmas. The game is played like this: the teacher gives a series of clues about something Christmas related and keeps giving clues until someone shouts out the answer. It might go something like this:

Answer: Santa's sleigh
Clue: I'm thinking of something big
Clue: It helps Santa on Christmas Eve
Clue: It holds a lot of presents
Clue: It's very fast

You keep giving clues until he children figure out the answer. Since these are young children, don't give clues that are too difficult or beyond their knowledge.

Kids love toss games, so why not create a snowball toss game at Frosty's belly? Get or make a large cardboard cutout of Frosty the Snowman and cut a hole in his stomach. You can create snowballs out of several things. Take plastic bags and put mini marshmallows inside, or use Styrofoam balls. If you use the latter, don't make the children throw the "snowballs" very far since the Styrofoam won't go that far. Have the children stand a distance back from Frosty (you can determine this depending on the age of the children and space you have available) and have them toss the snowballs into Frosty's tummy. First one to get all 3 snowballs in the tummy wins a prize!

Last Minute Christmas Shopping

If you are like most people you do the majority of your Christmas shopping at the last minute. Visit any mall or shopping center in the final days before Christmas and you are likely to find parking lots that are filled to capacity and stores that are literally filled with shoppers who are still searching for the perfect Christmas gift for their friends or family members. As it gets closer and closer to Christmas the crowds tend to get more and more restless and the search for the perfect gift becomes a search for an acceptable gift. Although Christmas falls at the end of the year and people have a whole year to prepare for this joyous occasion, most people leave their shopping until the last minute every year despite New Year’s resolutions to get the Christmas shopping done early. This article will discuss a few different types of last minute Christmas shoppers. There are those who do their Christmas shopping at the last minute out of necessity, those who do it because they have procrastinated and those who do it because they find it to be exciting.

People become last minute Christmas shoppers for a number of reasons. Perhaps the most innocent last minute shoppers are those who shop at the last minute out of necessity. Consider college students who typically end the semester around mid to late December. Many of these students are living on campus without access to a car. This can make Christmas shopping quite difficult but when you combine this living situation with the fact that they have finals to take at the end of semester, Christmas shopping becomes downright impossible. Finals often account for as much as 50% of a college student’s grade and it is understandable that they would have to spend the early part of December studying, the middle of the month taking their finals and then wind up last minute Christmas shopping almost immediately after their last final.

Other last minute Christmas shoppers include those who are just born procrastinators. They may go to stores every weekend in October or November. This could be an excellent opportunity for them to get their Christmas shopping done early but instead they wind up window shopping or purchasing items for themselves. While they are aware the Christmas season is approaching, they don’t feel compelled to start shopping until the absolute last minute. When this happens they find themselves in the unfortunate position of fighting the crowds in a last minute Christmas shopping frenzy.

Finally, there are others who are last minute Christmas shoppers simply because this is when they prefer to do their Christmas shopping. Some of these shoppers see shopping at the last minute as a challenge. They know they are short on time but are confident they will be able to find great gifts for everyone on their Christmas list this year. Other shoppers who intentionally wait until the last minute to do their Christmas shopping may do so because they enjoy the excitement of the crowds. Although last minute Christmas shopping can be stressful it is often exciting. Those who enjoy this excitement love shopping at the last minute because it gives them a sense of energy they wouldn’t feel if they were shopping for Christmas presents in October.

Family Fun Christmas Activities

Family is at the core of the Christmas season, so creating fun memories with your family is always at the top of the must-do list this time of year.

What fun activities can you incorporate into your family life that makes Christmas memorable and fun? Plenty, really. There are the traditional and the things a little bit out of the box.

Think back to your childhood and Christmas time in your house. Are there particular memories that are clearer than others? Those are likely the traditions your parents created for you and your siblings. Trying to create traditions in your own home with your own children is one way to make Christmas fun, exciting and memorable. Perhaps it's decorating cookies, or making gingerbread houses. Maybe when you were younger your mom always had something yummy smelling coming from the kitchen. You can create the same tradition by simply keeping potpourri warmed and smelling nice, if you don't have the time to bake frequently.

If you want to do a fun family activity in the kitchen, but baking's not your thing, you can make a variety of other gift items in your kitchen. The kids love making chocolate and candy covered pretzel sticks, and you can pair those with homemade hot cocoa mix to give as gifts.

Be sure to incorporate music into your family's traditions. How about some family fun singing Christmas carols or creating your own family music CD? Record your family singing Christmas carols and use that CD as your music CD for the holidays. If you all are particularly talented, you could make these look pretty and give them as gifts.

Many families like to cut down their own Christmas tree. This is a really fun family activity that can add a lot to the Christmas season. Christmas tree farms are located just about everywhere. Check into a local grower's group for locations. You simply show up, grab a saw (this is mom or dad's job) and go hunting. Depending on the location of the tree farm, you might walk only a short distance, or you might have to hike up and down hills and far into the farm's reaches to find just the right tree.

To add even more fun to this activity, create another family tradition that will annually go with the tree cutting. It can be as simple as also having lunch (at the same place each year) and picking up candy to eat in the car on the way home. You might also add a shopping excursion to the day; after the tree is safe at home in a bucket of water, you might all go shopping as a family for some new ornaments.

Other fun family activities can include annual visits to certain places in your community. Does your town have an annual "Christmas tree lane" where all the homes on one street decorate (sometimes in an over the top fashion) for the holidays? You can make a tradition of driving down the street each year, or walking the entire street, if the weather allows. Walking gives the kids a chance to see some of the details of the various décor items.

Many children think hot cocoa is an essential part of the Christmas season. If that's the case with yours, you could start a fun family activity each year where you make a big batch of hot cocoa mix at the start of the season. Let the kids have a small cup each night before bed during the month of December and closer to Christmas, add special items to the hot cocoa, like mini marshmallows one night and whipped cream another. Be sure to leave this family-made hot cocoa for Santa on Christmas Eve!

At a certain age, children enjoy decorating their room for the holidays. One fun family Christmas activity is to encourage this decoration by letting the kids shop for items to put in their rooms and letting them do the decorating. Be sure to take a picture of them in their decorated room each year. They'll enjoy looking at the pictures year after year.

Planning a Vegetarian New Years Eve Party

If you are already in the process of planning a New Years Eve party you might want to consider making the event a vegetarian event. There are a number of reasons why you might want to plan a vegetarian New Years Eve party. This article will take a look at some of these reasons and will also examine some of the unique aspects of planning a vegetarian New Years Eve party to assists hosts who plan to throw this type of event in planning a successful party.

One of the most popular reasons a host might decide to host a vegetarian event is because she herself is a vegetarian and she wants to share some of her favorite recipes with her friends even if they are not all vegetarians. Although a vegetarian may also opt to serve both vegetarian and meat based items at the party and simply not consume any meat herself, when she opts to exclude meat from the party it is usually for the purpose of sharing something that is important to her with her guests.

Another reason a host might opt to throw a vegetarian New Years Eve party is to save money on the costs of food. Hosting a party, especially for a large number of people can be quite expensive especially if you plan to serve expensive dishes containing meat. One way to cut down on the cost of the party is to substitute hearty vegetarian dishes in place of the more expensive meat dishes. If well prepared, most guests will not even miss the presence of the meat.

Still another reason a host might decide to throw a vegetarian New Years Eve party is the exclusion of meat may fit in well with the theme of the party. With a number of diets currently popular, a host may opt to throw a party based on the principles of a particular diet such as the raw diet which focuses on consuming uncooked foods such as fruits, vegetables, grains and nuts.

Regardless of the reason for throwing a vegetarian New Years Eve party, the guest does have to do a certain amount of planning and preparation to ensure the event is completely vegetarian. One way to do this is to consult vegetarian cookbooks to search for recipes which will make a good edition to the party menu. When selecting these recipes, it is important to follow each recipe carefully and not make any substitutions. This is important because items you may substitute into the recipes may contain animal products. Making these substitutions will result in your dishes not being completely vegetarian.

Alternately another way to provide a vegetarian menu is to make the event a potluck. This is especially a good idea if the majority of the guests are also vegetarians because they likely already have a number of vegetarian recipes to share. However, if most of the guests are not vegetarians, they may have difficulty deciding what to bring and may also inadvertently include ingredients with animal products in the food.

Another important thing to keep in mind when planning a vegetarian New Years Eve party is that it is important to make sure the guests are aware of your intentions. This is especially important if the event is going to be a potluck. However, it is also courtesy even if you will be preparing all of the food so the guests know what to expect when they attend the party.

Family Christmas Gift Exchange Games

It used to be that families had no rules about gift buying. Everyone bought for everyone else, and gifts were exchanged when the family all got together somewhere during the Christmas season.

These days, it's more common for people to draw a name out of a hat or get assigned a person to buy for. Or the family creates a type of "white elephant" exchange instead of having family members buy for individuals in particular. So, what many families need is a fun way to exchange the gifts, whether they be for a specific person or whether they are 'white elephant" type gifts.

If the family members drew names, there are several fun things you can do. The gifts can be hidden and clues given as to the location of the gifts. So, if you arrive at grandma's house with your gift for Aunt Martha, you might tuck her gift into a kitchen cabinet. Then you'd create a series of clue as to here it is. You might say, "Cinnamon lurks here" or "it's the hub of the home, but not always the home of the hub".

The clues can be silly or deadly serious. They can be designed so someone will know where to find their present in just minutes, or designed so that it takes a series of clues to get someone right to their gift. If the group is small or the house particularly large, and the participants have the time you can always create a hunt where more than one tip is left and one tip leads to another, which leads to another until the gift is finally found.

Why should the kids have all the fun? Create some fun gift exchange ideas for adults. Whether the family is doing a name draw and exchanging regular gifts or not, you can have some good family fun with a white elephant gift exchange. How about a themed white elephant gift exchange? If the family is into fishing, you could create that as a theme. Everyone must bring a gift related to fishing (this could be anything from sporting goods items, to a singing bass that goes on the wall). It could be a hand held electronic fishing game or a board game with fishing as a theme.

In that same vein, you could create a "cooking" white elephant exchange or a camping themed gift exchange. Again, it's more about what will please members of the family than anything. Then create some fun games for the exchange itself. Perhaps everyone draws a number and gets to pick their gifts from the pile in the middle based on their number. Perhaps you begin the game that way, but then also people to 'steal' someone else's gift if they choose.

You can require that the gift recipient shakes a gift, studies a gift and makes a good, educated guess as to its contents before opening it. If they are right, they can "steal" someone else's gift, but if they are wrong, they keep theirs. Add to the silliness factor by playing a card game and dictating that people can't get their gift and open it until they win a hand in the card game (ideally something fairly quick like poker or rummy).

The idea behind any family gift exchange should be enjoying each other's company and enjoying the Christmas spirit. As long as it's fun and engaging, there's no reason why the adults in the family can't have some fun games for exchanging gifts just the kids might.

Adult Christmas Games

Not all Christmas games have to be for children, or have to be serious. Good gracious, adults like to let their hair down and have a good, silly time too. Here are several games to get you started.

If this is a group that's not afraid of looking silly, here's just the game. Provide a pair of pantyhose for each team and a total of 8 balloons. When the game begins, the team should begin blowing up the balloons and the inflated balloons have to be put into the legs of the pantyhose. To make this game fair, the teams should be of equal number and the pantyhose not a petite size.

The game ends when someone gets all their balloons into the legs of the pantyhose, "wears" the antlers and sings the first verse of "Jingle Bells". Be sure to make everyone finish the game, however, so you can get a great picture of everyone in his or her pantyhose antlers.

For a fun relay-type game, how about making a Santa beard? Make a big bowl of cotton balls and get a container of Vaseline. Put some Vaseline on the chins of each member of each team (ideally, 2 teams of about 5 people each). The first players in line run to the bowl of cotton balls and sticks their chin in trying to get as many to stick to the Vaseline as possible. They run to the back of their line, so the next player can have a turn.

When everyone on a team has a beard, that team wins. As with the other game, be sure to take lots of pictures of everyone wearing their Santa beards. Also have plenty of towels and water to get the Vaseline off.

This next game is great for a smaller group of people who are open to a more quiet game. This is about packing Santa's bag. You start by saying, "I packed Santa's bag and in it I put pajamas." The next person continues with, "I packed Santa's bag and in it I put pajamas, and toilet paper." Each person continues, each time adding a new item, but also listing the items that were added before. You are out of the game when you miss an item. Someone could be sitting outside the game keeping a list of all the items so if the game goes on for a bit, you will know if someone misses an item.

If you're having a Christmas party for adults, why not offer up a fun game that's sure to remind them of a childhood favorite? Create a Christmas scavenger hunt. You will tell people to create teams (about 4 people per team is adequate, but you might want to have larger or smaller teams depending on the size of your party). Make a list of items they need to return with.

If you choose to keep the searching local, either at your home or in the neighborhood, include items like a miniature light string, a piece of holly, a leave off a poinsettia plant, and the like. If you choose to have guests traipse all over town for items, you can have even more fun. You might require them to purchase a holly-decorated box of tissue, or have them provide photo proof that they went down your city's Christmas Tree Lane. Whatever it is, be creative and enjoy the process. People love this game, not only because it reminds them of childhood, but it helps people get to know other party guests they might know that well and it's a game that gets people working together, which can always be fun.

Everyone enjoys Hershey's kisses at Christmas. Divide your group into two teams and have two bowls of Hershey's kisses at the other end of the room. Give each team one set of oversized mittens or gloves. The first person in line runs to the bowl of kisses, and has to unwrap the kiss while wearing the over sized mittens/gloves and pop the kiss into their mouth. They run back, tag the next person in line, and exchange the mittens/gloves and the next person runs forward to get a chocolate kiss. The winning team is the one in which all members have enjoyed a kiss first.

Non Alcoholic New Years Eve Party Planning

For many people New Years Eve and alcohol are synonymous. Many people simply cannot image a New Years Eve party without alcohol but each year many people opt to host a non alcoholic New Years Eve party. There are number of reasons why an individual or group might decide to host a non alcoholic New Years Eve party. These reasons might include a large number of minors at the party, religious preferences, previous tragedies involving alcohol or simply lifestyle preferences. Whatever the reason for hosting a non alcoholic New Years Eve party, it is important to plan your party carefully to ensure it is a great deal of fun for everyone who attends.

If you plan on hosting a non alcoholic New Years Eve party you should make it clear from the early stages that the event will not include alcohol. One way to do this is to include a statement on the invitation specifying that alcohol will not be made available during the party and that you would appreciate it if guests do not bring their own alcohol. Additionally, you may include a statement specifying the reason why the even is non alcoholic but you are not obligated to do so. In the case of parties involving minors it may seem redundant to specifically state there will be no alcohol at the party but it is not exactly an unnecessary step. Although minors are not permitted to drink, unfortunately many of them find ways to sneak alcohol into parties. Furthermore some parents even permit this outrageous behavior. Including a statement specifying the New Years Eve party will help to reassure the other guests and their parents that alcohol consumption will not be allowed or tolerated.

When planning a non alcoholic New Years Eve party, you still have to worry about the type of beverages you will serve to your guests. It is not reasonable to expect your guests to not drink any beverages during the evening so you should provide a wide variety of non alcoholic beverages for their consumption during the party. Some beverage ideas include sodas, water and juices. Additionally, you might want to consider serving drinks known as mocktails. These drinks can be made in a variety of styles, colors and flavors and are essentially non alcoholic versions of popular cocktails such as martinis, pina coladas and margaritas.

Although the beverages choices as a non alcoholic New Years Eve party may be one of the most important planning issues the host has to take care of it is certainly not the only party planning issue the host faces. It is important to note other items such as food and entertainment will also have to be addressed.

Regardless of the type of beverages you are offering to your guests, you will also have to plan on serving them some type of food as well during your New Years Eve party. Although this is true of any party, it is especially important to consider for a New Years Eve party because these parties typically last significantly longer than other types of parties. Popular food options for a New Years Eve party include serving a sit down dinner, offer a dinner buffet which is open throughout the night or simply offering appetizers and sandwiches throughout the evening. Still another option is to offer a breakfast buffet in the early morning for the guests.

Entertainment is another factor to consider when planning a non alcoholic New Years Eve party. Music is one of the traditional entertainment elements often used for this type of party. Whether you hire a band, hire a DJ or play your own music, including music and a place for guests to dance is an excellent entertainment idea. You might also consider hiring a comedian to do a short performance or a group of actors to put on a show to entertain your guests.

Dress Santa Game

If you are willing to put a little time and energy into a Christmas game, this one is surefire hit. It's called "dress Santa" and it's funny and silly and worth having a camera round to record the fun. You might even want a camcorder as well.

Here's how it works. Create a dress-up box with a Santa costume and other items that Santa might or might not wear. You want to have a full-bore Santa costume, so you can either rent one or purchase one if you think it will get used years after. They can be found for around $100 or maybe a little less if you buy one at a costume shop that's used.

You'll put the Santa suit in a large suitcase or trunk. Be sure you have as many Santa items as possible; for example, you want to have a pair of boots, gloves, a big belt, etc. Then in the trunk or suitcase, mix in other items, like jewelry, hats, socks, shoes and feather boas. It's probably obvious where this is going.

At the Christmas party, someone volunteers to play the game. Ideally, you'll have several volunteers so you can time people and award a prize for fastest or most interesting, or whatever works based for your party.

The chosen person gets blindfolded and stripped down to their bare essentials. No, it's not that kind of game, but if a woman is wearing a sweater over a T-shirt and shoes, the shoes and the sweater can be removed, so she has less on her to begin with. Once the person is blindfolded, begin timing them. Tell them they must dress Santa as quickly as possible in his Santa suit only, nothing else. To spice up the game and make it more interesting, be sure to include some items in the trunk that might feel like Santa items, but aren't. For example, you'll have Santa's black gloves in the trunk, but also include a pair or two of garden gloves, and Santa has a belt, but you could include other belts as well. Be sure to include several hats (even a princess hat, which might feel like a Santa hat to a disoriented participant).

Once Santa is dressed, stop the timer and take the blindfold off. Everyone can get a good laugh at the result. Santa might have his suit on, but he might also be wearing a robe. Or he might be in his suit, but with garden gloves, a rhinestone belt and a princess hat. Be sure to take pictures of your good sport and move to the next participant. It's better if the other players aren't in the room, since many might remember the various items in the trunk and make mental notes about what to ignore and what to use.

After the Santas are done with their dressing and the requisite pictures have been taken, decide on a winner. Is the winner the Santa who dressed in 45 seconds, or the one that wore the garden gloves, princess hat and rhinestone belt combination? It's a tough call, but a winner must be crowned, so to speak. You can award prizes (Santa hats filled with candy are fun) or you can keep this all in fun and let the good sports know the fun is in the silly playing.

Planning a Themed New Years Eve Party

If you are planning a New Years Eve party, you might also be considering having a specific theme for your party. While a theme is not a necessary part of a New Years Eve party or any party but it can make any party significantly more fun and interesting. Planning a themed New Years Eve party is a great deal of fun but it is also significantly more complicated than planning a party without a theme just because there is more coordination involved in the planning process and in trying to ensure all of the elements of the party fit within the theme. This article will discuss the process of planning a New Years Eve party with a theme and will offer samples of appropriate themes and how they can be applied.

When planning a themed New Years Eve party the host has the option to incorporate the theme as much or as little as they wish. Examples of items which can be incorporated into the theme are invitations, decorations, food, beverages, music, entertainment and even the guests’ attire. Guests who attend the party have the option of fully taking advantage of the theme and dressing or acting in a particular character during the event or simply attending the party and enjoy the atmosphere, food, beverages and entertainment provided by the host.

Themes for New Years Eve parties can be any theme the host selects and does not have to relate to the holiday at all. One example of an unrelated theme is a Western theme. The host can set the team by sending out cowboy hate shaped invitations encouraging guests to dress appropriately for a country hoe down. Once the guests receive the invitation, they will have an understanding of the theme of the party. If themed parties are not popular with your circle of friends you might want to follow up the invitations with a personal call encouraging your guests to dress according to the theme and assuring them you will be dressing similarly. I planning the entertainment for your party you can consider hiring a country western band to host the party. You might even hire a line dance instructor for an hour or two to offer group line dancing classes to the guests. In incorporating the theme of the party in the decorations, you can purchase hay bales to place around the room and use colored handkerchiefs for napkins. The food at your party should also incorporate your theme. If you are offering a sit down dinner, chili is a good choice. Stew would also be a good option. If you plan to have appetizers, you can create theme related appetizers by giving traditional appetizers unique names. You might refer to mini bagel pizzas as wagon wheels or mini egg rolls as hay bales. For beverages you can serve ice cold beer in glass mugs.

An example of a more elegant theme for a New Years Eve party might include a red carpet extravaganza where guests are encouraged to dress like their favorite movie star from any era. Alternately the theme could be limited to a specific era with guests expected to dress like stars from the appropriate era. This is a good idea for a New Years Eve party theme because many guests like to dress in their most elegant clothing and this would give them the opportunity to dress to impress. The theme for a New Years Eve party with this theme might be an invitation in the shape of an elegant silver star inviting guests to join you on the red carpet for the premier of the New Year. In decorating for this event, the host should include a red carpet in their entryway and may want to use a series of motion detected strobe lights to mimic the flashbulbs of paparazzi lining the red carpet of movie premiers. This will serve to immediately get the guests in the spirit of the party. Entertainment for the party might include giving out New Years Eve awards to the guests in a series of different categories and allowing guests to give a short speech as they receive their award.

Christmas Tree Activities

Decorating the Christmas tree is an event that most members of any family look forward to. It not only is a time to reflect and remember where the various ornaments came from or who made them, it is also an exciting time that really brings Christmas right into the home.

There are a variety of activities you can incorporate into bring the Christmas tree into your home. Some families enjoy singing "Oh Christmas Tree" as the tree is brought into the home. Make a fun activity of this whereby everyone has to come up with an original verse to the song (since few know the actual words). This can keep everyone entertained while someone else works to get the tree standing up straight.

Once the tree is in a stand and ready to be decorated, make a game out of the ornaments. Put all the homemade ornaments aside and work with those first. Start with the first family member and ask them who made the ornament, where did it come from? Once the details are out of the way, ask the crafter (likely a child) if they remember making the ornament. If you're the parent, tell the child what you thought when you first saw the ornament. This is fun, since it reminds children that the things they make and bring home are meaningful to the parents.

There is always one ornament that is just ugly, or plain silly. Play "hot potato" with that ornament. Whoever gets stuck with the ugly ornament has to say one nice thing about it, such as "well, there's a lot of glitter on it and that's pretty", or "Dougie made it, so I like it". It's a silly way to remind children to find good in everything. It might even remind them that things are just things. This is a good lesson for this time of year.

Some people use an advent calendar to count down the days until Christmas, and this is how it's traditionally done, but there is one fun activity sure to be a hit with children. Similar to the concept in Germany (where the advent calendar originated) this involves providing one small gift for children every day until Christmas. In Germany, it's only done for several days before Christmas, but you can do it for the 24 days of the month until Christmas arrives.

Buy tiny handled gift bags at the craft store. Buy 1 for each of your children. Have the children decorate the bags, and on each of the 24 bags, have them place a number as well, 1 through 24. As you decorate the tree, find space for each of these little bags. Because they have handles, they can hang right on the tree like an ornament, or you can tie ribbon on the handles so they have a more graceful swing. Each night, fill the right bag with a tiny prize or gift. So if it's the night of December 14, you'll take bag #15 (all the bags with earlier numbers will be gone) and put some little trinket in it. It might be a piece of candy, a tiny ornament for your child's own tree, a tiny car or small eraser. The idea here is that it's a small gift, but come morning, that's the first activity your children will engage in - discovering what little treat you left for them the night before.

Fun Office Christmas Activities

Just because you're stuck in an office all day doesn't mean Christmas fun can't extend to your workplace. Depending on the environment at your work, it's definitely possible to mix holiday fun with work.

One obvious choice for some fun at the office during the holidays is to have a party. You could have several, in fact. How about a cookie exchange party? Plan to do this at lunchtime one day, and during that block of time, everyone brings several dozen cookies they have made. You have to set a particular number of cookies everyone brings. Because once everyone has an empty plate, they go around the table picking up cookies that look good to them and place them on their empty paper plate. If everyone brought 3 dozen cookies, say, then everyone gets to take home 3 dozen cookies. This is not a particularly unique idea, but one that brings a bit of fun into the workplace.

Keeping in mind whether or not the public visits your workplace, you might choose to decorate. Why not have a Christmas tree decorating event? Everyone brings 6 ornaments and as a group activity, everyone decorates the tree. This is a good way to build team spirit and decorate your workplace at the same time.

Don't forget to institute a "secret Santa" event at work, where you secretly buy gifts for someone and have some type of gift exchange. But what about a "Santa's helper" activity? Someone in the group has to begin this on the sly. Essentially, this first person (the only one in the know about how the whole thing began) puts together a little gift. Ideally, it's a basket with a few gift items in it. They might be decorative items, or baked goods or even bath items. Attach a card saying that "Santa's helper" dropped by and brought these items. Now the person who received the "helper's" gift must put together a little something for someone else and - again on the sly - deliver it to the next person. It continues until everyone has received a visit from "Santa's helper".

Nothing brings people together like a group activity designed to help others. What if your officemates came up with an activity designed to help people less fortunate at the holidays? You might adopt a local family and everyone in the office purchases items for that family. You might choose to purchase Christmas trees for needy families. If the public visits your office often, you might even begin a "sharing" tree and people can bring items to put under the tree for needy families or children. As a group activity, the office workers can then deliver these items to the needy.

The particularly festive office might want to have someone come in and do a cooking demonstration. If there are enough people interested, you can hire a cook or baker to come into your office on your lunch hour and do a demonstration or class. Say you want to bake but don't know what to bake this year. A baker can come in and demonstrate cookies or other goodies you might not have thought to make. Or someone can come in with ideas and samples for the perfect Christmas meal. These ideas are perfect for the environment where people work many hours and are quite busy but still want to do their regular cooking and baking each year.