Celebrating New Years Eve with Kids
I have absolutely no problem with people allowing their kids to stay up till Big Ben tolls. In fact, I’m jealous of those that can keep their kids up and then they sleep in the following morning. This would be a win win.
The Dilemma
However, this is not the case with my 7 year old daughter. If I keep her up late she still gets up at the same time. Then I have to deal with a tired grumpy child whilst nursing my own hangover.
So how could we ring in the New Year and avoid a disastrous New Year’s Day?
And the answer popped into my FB timeline.
I personally think it’s a genius idea, so I nicked it and this year we celebrated a Thai New Year which is at 5pm our time. It wasn’t particularly authentic but good fun.
What you will need to celebrate a Thai New Year
- Invite a couple friends around
- Pre-order a Thai Take-away
- Find a Countdown Clock Online for Bangkok
- Check out YouTube for video of previous years fireworks in Bangkok
- Download a version of Auld Lang Syne from iTunes
- Scour the house for things that are vaguely Thai, no one will notice that your elephant candle holders are actually African Elephants and not Asian ones and your table runner is from South America.
- Order silly little miniature Buddha figurines from Amazon, then research the meaning of the different ones with your kids.
- Slightly naughty but order a few Eco Friendly Chinese Lanterns and set them off with the kids and get them to make a wish for the coming year or to remember those who are no longer with us.
The beauty was, we did everything you would normally do on New Years but we all crashed by 10pm and we had a lovely New Years Day.
Next year I reckon we head to India.
Happy New Year and all the best in 2015
thats a fab idea and i wish i’d thought of that when mine were little, we saw new year in on the beach, while the 19yo was out with his mates, the only trouble was he came back to the hotel at 8am and woke us up, it just doesn’t get better
@chickenruby I know it was one of those ‘Why didn’t I think of that moments!’
Ah we used to do this a few years ago – it was lovely! These days the kids stay up, they eat first then go off to play the Wii or watch a film while we do the grown up food. Then we all get together for fireworks before the chimes. They are all knackered the next day, but it’s worth it for the fun and games and excitement I think