Crafts for New Year's Eve for Six and Younger
Though they may not stay awake long enough to watch the ball drop into Times Square, young children still pick up on the excitement of New Year’s Eve. For children 6 years old and younger, the festive time is a good excuse to introduce some easy crafts that can inform as well as entertain. Does this Spark an idea?
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Party Crafts
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No young child can resist a good noisemaker, and New Year’s Eve is an apt occasion to make some noise. Your child can help create a rattling toy out of paper plates glued together with a handful of dried beans between them. Have your child rip colorful strips of tissue paper to attach to the edge of the plates; this will create a flying fringe when the noisemaker is shaken. A wooden spoon, painted in festive gold or silver, makes a “pot banger” that your child can decorate with ribbons and bells.
Worldwide Celebration Crafts
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Introduce the concept of differentiated time by displaying a world map. When New Year’s Eve begins or ends in different countries, help your child locate the country on the map, and push in a colorful pin. You can also teach her to shout “Happy New Year” in different languages. You can help celebrate Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) in the autumn by putting together a plate of apple slices to dip into honey, representing a sweet new year. Later in the winter, celebrate Chinese New Year by crafting a Chinese dragon from egg carton cups cut apart, decorated, then strung together with ribbon.
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Costume Crafts
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Costuming a toddler as the archetypical “Baby New Year” may make for a treasured (if slightly embarrassing) photo that becomes part of the family album. If your child tolerates the diapered-and-sashed look, you can carry the theme forward with a crown cut from an upside-down visor. Glue cut-out numbers representing the new year to the brim, and attach aluminum-foil stars. Let your Baby New Year sprinkle on the glitter.
Food Crafts
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Combine the fun of confetti with the joy of snacking with a craft that mixes marshmallows, gumdrops and popcorn. Melt the marshmallows in margarine on the stovetop, then carefully add the mixture to the candy and popcorn. Let your child form the cooled ingredients into balls, then let the confetti sit on wax paper until hardened.
A head of cabbage can be the basis of your own Times Square ball. Stick frilly-topped toothpicks into small cheese cubes, and have your child push the decorations right into the cabbage. Some shaped aluminum foil creates a base.
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