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New Year's Eve Activities for Kids: 10 Ideas Before Bedtime
Ten New Year's Eve activities for kids aged 3 to 8, including a screen-free countdown to a real midnight somewhere else, all done by bedtime.
To celebrate New Year's Eve with little kids, pick a real midnight somewhere in the world that lands before their bedtime, count down to it together, then do the usual bath, story and bed. These ten New Year's Eve activities for kids aged 3 to 8 are built around that plan, and midnight arrives somewhere new every hour of the afternoon and evening.
How do you use these New Year's Eve activities for kids at home?
Start anywhere. The ideas are grouped by when they happen: before the countdown, the countdown itself, and after it. All suit children aged 3 to 8, and nothing needs buying beyond paper, a pen, a torch and a clock.
An early countdown is a New Year countdown timed to a real midnight in another country, so young children get the moment without staying up. Choose yours from the list below first, and the rest of the evening fits around it.
Minding the grandchildren while their parents go out? Every idea here works with one adult and a kitchen table.
What time is midnight around the world in UK time?
On 31 December, midnight reaches the Pacific at 10am UK time and moves west all day. These UK times come from the international time-zone database and stay the same each year, unless a country changes its clocks:
- 10am: Kiribati (Kiritimati), the first place into the new year
- 11am: New Zealand (Auckland)
- 1pm: Sydney
- 3pm: Tokyo
- 4pm: Hong Kong and Perth
- 5pm: Bangkok
- 6pm: Dhaka
- 6.30pm: India
- 7pm: Pakistan (Karachi)
- 8pm: Dubai
- 9pm: Istanbul and Nairobi
- 10pm: Athens and Cairo
- 11pm: Paris, Berlin and Madrid
- Midnight: London, Dublin and Edinburgh
As a suggestion rather than a rule: India or Pakistan suits a three-year-old, Dubai a five-year-old, and Istanbul a seven-year-old. You know your child's bedtime better than any list does.
What can kids do for the countdown itself?
A New Year's Eve countdown for kids doesn't need a screen. An early New Year's Eve countdown for kids works best when it's real: a time to watch for, numbers to shout, and a clear finish.
1. Count down to a real midnight
Pick a place from the list and find it on a map or a globe. Talk about it for a minute: how far away it is, whether anyone you know lives there. When the clock reaches its time, count the last ten seconds together and shout "Happy New Year". Good from age 4, and a seven-year-old can work out the times themselves.
2. A paper-chain countdown
Make one paper link for each hour between lunch and your chosen midnight, and tear one off on the hour. A three-year-old can do the tearing. A six-year-old can write on each link what happens next, from "hats" to "story". When the last link comes off, it's midnight somewhere.
3. Count down the poses on the mat
Start on pose 10 of the Sun Salutation mat and walk back down it, three slow breaths in each pose, landing on pose 1, mouse, as the clock reaches your midnight. It goes from standing, to folding, to hands and knees, to a curled-up rest. Three- and four-year-olds can start at 5. On Freedom Flow, count 5 to 1 and finish sitting.
4. A lights-down torch countdown
Switch the big light off for the last ten seconds and give everyone a torch. Count down with the torches under your chins, then switch the light back on at zero. It's simple, a little bit spooky, and needs no preparation at all, which makes it a good one for a grandparent on duty alone.
What can kids do before the countdown?
The hours before the countdown are for making things and burning off energy. Keep the loud, bouncy ideas in the afternoon and the quieter ones for later, so the evening winds down rather than up.
5. Hats and shakers
Fold paper into cones for party hats, staple them and let your child decorate. For shakers, put a handful of dried pasta or rice in a small lidded tub and tape the lid down firmly. Use them for the countdown, and for Big Ben's chimes later if anyone is still awake.
6. A "my year" drawing for a time capsule
Ask your child to draw the best thing that happened in the year that's ending, and one thing they'd like to do in the next. Seal both in an envelope marked "open next New Year's Eve". The second drawing is a gentle start on new year resolutions for kids, with no promise to keep.
7. An early dance party
Put music on in the afternoon or before tea and play freeze dance: everyone stops when the music stops. The NHS children's health service in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough says a little dance party can help, but that exercise directly before bedtime can make it harder for a child to calm down. So dance early.
8. A teatime toast
Pour something fizzy into the best glasses and let your child make a wish for the new year at the countdown. Pick a caffeine-free drink and check the label: the same NHS service advises avoiding caffeine after lunch, and points out that it's in fizzy drinks as well as energy drinks.
What can kids do after the countdown?
After the countdown, the best thing to do is very little. Go straight into the usual bedtime, and save one small new-year ritual for the morning, when everyone has slept.
9. One story, then bed at the usual time
Once the countdown is done, start the normal bedtime. The NHS's sleep tips for young children suggest a calming, predictable routine at the same time each night, and give "read only 1 story" as an example. If your child likes to stretch first, a few floor poses before bed can sit inside it.
10. Pose 1 on New Year's Day
New Year's Day is a bank holiday across the UK, and in Scotland 2 January is one too. Make the first thing of the year small: before breakfast, everyone does pose 1, mouse, for three slow breaths. Then pin the time-capsule envelope somewhere you'll find it next December.
How do you plan the evening around one countdown?
New Year's Eve ideas for kids work best as a short run of three or four, with the energetic one early and the quiet one last. Three illustrative plans:
- Age 3 to 4: paper chain from lunch, hats and shakers in the afternoon, the dance party before tea, then the mat countdown from 5 to India's midnight at 6.30pm, and one story.
- Age 5 to 6: the "my year" drawing after lunch, the dance party at 4pm, the toast at 7.45pm, then the full mat countdown from 10 to Dubai's midnight at 8pm, and bed.
- Age 7 to 8: work out the times from the list, the mat countdown from 8.55pm, and the torch countdown on the last ten seconds before Istanbul's midnight at 9pm. Whether anyone stays up for Big Ben is a family call.
The full countdown: follow the numbers from 10 down through the middle poses and the floppy rag doll fold, then down through dolphin, downward dog and cow on hands and knees, past 3, cat, to 1, mouse. Ten poses at three slow breaths each takes a few minutes, so start about five minutes before your chosen midnight.
Counting down needs a numbered list, and on a Yogi-Me mat it is already there: 15 poses, numbered and laser-engraved into the surface. A mat opened on Christmas Day gets its first big night on New Year's Eve, and at 183 x 61 cm a grandparent can do chair pose beside the child. Two or more are 10 per cent off for cousins counting down side by side, at £34.99 each with free UK delivery. Choose a kids' yoga mat in one of seven colours.
What if your child doesn't care about the new year?
Some children don't care about the new year at all, and some find the fuss too much. That's fine. Let them pick one thing from the list and leave the rest.
Others will want to stay up for the real midnight. There's no official age for that, and the first question below covers it. If neighbours' fireworks wake them later, gov.uk says the cut-off on New Year's Eve is 1am.
For the days either side, our things to do between Christmas and New Year and screen-free ideas for the rest of the holidays pick up where this list leaves off.
Frequently asked questions
What age can kids stay up for New Year?
There's no official age. The NHS's sleep tips for young children recommend a calming, predictable bedtime routine at the same time each night. You can keep that routine and count down to an earlier midnight somewhere else in the world, then decide about the real one when an older child asks. It's a family call either way.
Where can I find a New Year's Eve countdown for kids?
You can make one: a paper chain, a torch countdown or a walk down the numbered poses on a mat, timed to a real midnight elsewhere in the world. Recorded countdowns are easy to find online, but the NHS advises not letting young children look at laptops, tablets or phones in the 30 to 60 minutes before bed, which is when an early countdown usually happens.
Which country celebrates New Year first?
Kiribati is first. Its Line Islands, including Kiritimati, reach midnight at 10am UK time on 31 December. New Zealand follows at 11am and Sydney at 1pm. At the other end, American Samoa doesn't get there until 11am UK time on New Year's Day, so the new year takes more than a full day to travel round the world.
What time do fireworks have to stop on New Year's Eve?
1am. Gov.uk says fireworks must not be set off between 11pm and 7am, except on New Year's Eve, Diwali and Chinese New Year, when the cut-off is 1am, and on Bonfire Night, when it is midnight. Your council may have local rules as well, so it's worth checking if a neighbour's display is still going.
