New Year’s Eve was fun before I had kids, like when I rang in the new year in New Orleans wearing a formal dress and being entertained by a 12 piece jazz band. That was a blast! It was a different life then and I’m not even going to bother trying to remember what year that was.
After we started having children, getting a sitter on the busiest going-out night of the year was never even considered. So we’ve made our own traditions and we have our own fun at home.
Ringing in the new year on France time, at 6:00, works perfect with young children. It’s a great opportunity to discuss timezones with your kids and there are several websites you can use to watch a count down.
On timeanddate.com they have countdowns listed from around the world. And hey, you can pick another timezone if the 6:00 one doesn’t work for you! I love the beauty of that.
TVnewsradio.com will be streaming New Year’s Eve celebrations from around the world, including Paris via CNN LIVE.
For a real version, in French visit parisrama.com.
On About.com Paris Travel you can read, and share with your kids, about some of the customs and happenings of a Parisian New Year’s celebration.
We plan on having some fun while we celebrate at home, watching our computer! We made crowns this year for us to wear for the countdown. We’ll turn on some music, hang some fabric banners and bring up some instruments (tambourines, drums, bells, harmonicas…whatever) from the basement for the countdown. There will be sparkling juice for the girls and French wine for mom and dad. And then, a normal bedtime for the kids!
Last year on New Year’s Day we started a new tradition, of having family art time after dinner while we all talked about our resolutions and plans for the new year. We used paper and pastels to draw out all our hopes and dreams (err, sort of)! This was so much fun that I wrote down everything we said, and sewed a book out of it using printer fabric paper. I suppose you could say this was my form of art.
On New Year’s Day we’ll have a dinner with some traditional fare – black eyed peas and kale (instead of collard greens) – as well as some stuff I know the kids will like since this is supposed to be fun for them. Meaning, I’ll save the new recipes and mega veggie meals for another day.
Cheers! See ya next year.
