I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Yes, I know it’s not 2012, but today I’m re-sharing my family’s favorite New Year’s tradition, our New Year’s tree! My kids look forward to this and eagerly await the morning they wake up to find our Christmas tree transformed. Check out all of the details below and consider starting a fun new tradition with your own family!
***2016 UPDATE*** We love this tradition so much that we actually decided to create a fun little printable pack all about it! It includes 40 pages of exclusive, never-before-seen New Year’s Eve recipes, beautiful printables for your very own NYE tree, photo booth printables, and tons of great party game ideas! Get it here for $7.99!
Original post:
It’s no secret that I’m a holiday-junkie. I love fun family traditions and my little family has been creating a lot of our own. But one holiday that we haven’t really done much for is New Years. Partially because my kids are so young that a holiday centered around staying up late hasn’t been of much interest and my husband and I have been total party poopers the past few years and usually end up watching the ball drop on tv and then hitting the sack. The other reason is that I go a little crazy for Christmas so I’m usually still winding down from that by December 31! But every year I read my sister-in-law Emily’s family blog and see her fun New Years tradition. She fills balloons with money and “fortunes” or New Years wishes, ties them to the un-decorated Christmas tree and their family celebrates by popping them at midnight. Or “midnight” (whenever you decide that happens 😉 Each year I think, “ooh, I’m totally going to remember that for next year.” And then I do remember. About a week after New Years when she blogs about it again. Doh! So this year I actually remembered to ask her about it, and as I was decorating my own New Years tree I thought some of you guys might like the idea too so we’re bloggin’. Because that’s what I do 🙂
I usually leave my Christmas tree up until after the New Year anyway, so I love the idea of taking off all of the ornaments and giving it a quick makeover. I did mine after my kids were in bed last night and they were SO shocked and excited when they woke up and saw our tree this morning. They freaked out even more when they realized there was money inside the balloons. I ran to the party supply store yesterday and spent about $10 on cheap New Years party stuff.
We had to have some noise makers (even though I have three sons and they were pretty much born with built-in noise makers)
And big funny glasses are a must
I know my boys will LOVE these crackers; you can get them pretty cheap at party stores
and anything else you want.
I already had a bunch of balloons, from making another one of these…
My sister-in-law slips little wishes for the New Year in her balloons. I started thinking of some and then while I totally had writer’s block after only a few (I know, I’m pathetic) I spotted a little book of jokes my boys got for Christmas. I thought those would be fun, so I put silly one-liners in all the balloons (What do you get when you cross a kangaroo and an African Elephant? Big holes all over Australia!) Just cut them into little strips and roll them up and slip them right in there. If you want to print off the silly ones I used, click here. 2012 Edit: This year I asked YOU all for jokes and you came through like champs! I literally sat up forever reading every single one of them and laughing my eyeballs out. Head over to our facebook page and read through the post, it’s hilarious. (What kind of cheese is not yours? Nacho cheese!) Someone else just commented that it would be fun to insert favorite family memories from the past year. I thought that was a great idea too.
I also put some coins in the balloons. Guess where I got the coins? My kids’ piggy banks. Don’t judge. My kids are little and their banks are totally loaded. They get 99% of their haul from 3 places:
1. Around the house (and therefore belonging originally to me)
2. From the change dish in my car (again, mine)
3. From a straight-up raid of my wallet. (Um, yes, for sure mine.)
Therefore it’s not bad parenting, it’s actually more like the circle of life.
I even put $1 bills in a few of them, which my kids will freak out about. Because if there’s anything they’ve learned in their young years, it’s that they should be collecting the “green money”.
I am actually very surprised at how much the opening of a latex balloon can fit. You could actually fit little trinkets in there, but after Christmas the last thing my kids need is more trinkets. So we’ll settle for jokes and money! Confetti sounds like a natural choice too- but only if you enjoy vacuuming up confetti for the next 5 years of your life. I hate confetti.
Just tie the balloons to the tree and add in any other decorations you want. If your tree is real, and really dried out I suppose you’ll have to be careful with the prickly needles and your balloons! This one is artificial (total embarrassment from this Seattle girl!) so it’s no problem. If you’re worried about your balloons popping, I recommend under-filling them with air so they’re nice and squishy. That should help.
(If you still have lights on your tree, either leave them off, or just make sure not to put balloons or paper stuff right on the lights; especially the old-school kind that get pretty hot. You should also leave any sort of popper that actually has some little firework-y thing in them off.) The bonus is that you’re really not making more work for yourself since everyone will grab stuff off the tree on New Years Eve, therefore cleaning it all up for you!
When you’re ready to count down to the new year, grab the party off the tree and pop the balloons at midnight! (Or 7pm if your kids can’t tell time yet, like mine 🙂 Read jokes or fortunes, collect the booty, and call it a year.
Here’s our tree that will be ringing in 2013!
If you like this idea- Pin it and help spread the word before New Years!
Questions & Reviews
Well, I’m reading this post on New Year’s Day, so I’m late to the game. I, too, have little children and have been anxious to develop traditions they’ll fondly remember. I will be using this next year. My husband’s deployed this year, and after a lot of Christmas activities, baking, celebrating, I was pretty worn out, but this would be easy enough to pull off. I may just go to a hotel like some of your other readers mentioned.
Just wanted to leave a comment and say thank you! I am using this idea tonight!
After reading your blog for 2+ years, buying your wonderful cookbook (which I use at LEAST once a week), and feeding my family your delicous recipes more times than I can count, I just barely made the connection that you’re Nate’s sister. Nate was my husbands roommate at BYU, and my husband (Sam Payne) knew Emily as well. SO CRAZY!
My family started a tradition years ago of trying “weird” food on New Year’s Eve. We’ll go to a specialty store like Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods and find various foods we’ve never had before. We usually try to get mostly things that actually look good, but we’ll often find one or two that seem truly “weird”. We’ll put it all out to snack on while we play games, watch movies, etc.
I loooove this idea!! I pinned it to my New Years Board, and am also sharing it in a New Years – Things to Try post on my crafty blog. I had come across the idea somewhere else, but with no pictures. Your post is fab – we get to see the process and the finished tree. Love it!!
When my kids were little and we did have a real tree, on New Years eve we would take down all decorations. Then we took pine cones, from around our home, put peanut butter on them. Then the kids would roll the pine cones in birdseed and leftover nuts (from holiday baking). Then we would take the tree out into the woods and leave it for the birds or small animals for the winter. Then on bad weather thru the holidays the kids would fix additional pine cones and when they could go hiking into the woods and leave more treats.
My daughter and grandson just finished decorating our New Year’s Eve tree. It looks divine! However, I forgot to tell her to put stuff inside the balloons…oops.
Great Idea!! “Im thinking I will do this next year!!..
What a fabulous idea! I love the ‘changing’ of the decorations on the tree. Makes it fresh and fun for the kids to participate!! Thanks for sharing this!! :O)
Awww, I’m so flattered by this! My kids look forward to the balloon popping every year. . . we can’t wait!
We started going to a local hotel with a pool probably about 6 or 7 yrs ago on New Year’s Eve. Across the street is a Pizza Hut. So we walk across the street for supper and breakfast is free at the hotel. This year, we’re taking one of my 8 yr old daughter’s classmates. I have been looking for some little games and/or favors & these are some great ideas!! Thank you!
love it!!!!!! I’m going to do this!
Love Cheese!! I grew up with grandparents from Switzerland where good cheese plates as just as important as good bread!! Thanks for the tips and pairing ideas.
One of the things we do at midnight is eat jelly donuts! There is one special donut that has mustard inside … The person that bites into the mustard donut is set to have great luck for the following year. But they don’t have to eat the mustard donut- they can exchange it for a tasty jelly donut 🙂
Another tradition for New Years is a family game night where kids play games in one room and have a sleepover and grown ups play group games in the living room! It’s a great way to have a kid friendly party and for kids to feel like it is a special day! They also love the idea of trying to stay up until. Midnight, which doesn’t actually happen 🙂
What a cute idea!!! My kids are 20 months and 4 years, and I’m desperately searching for New Year’s Traditions (as well as Christmas ones) to start with my young family…we never did many traditional things when I was a child, so I want to make sure I do it with my own kids! I really think this is super fun! Also like the other comment about sleeping under the tree! LOL!
My mom always did a New Years tree…I always loved that. We never had MONEY in the balloons, though! Wow…that is a cool idea. And I’m laughing that you raided your kids’ piggy banks! Totally hilarious! I may raid my kiddo’s gumball machine pennies…the gumball machine is in his room and stocked with m&m’s…and guess who supplies those pennies? ME!
Happy New Year to you both! I just ordered your calendar and it should be delivered tomorrow!!! Yay! So excited for you to be in my kitchen EVERY day!
I love leaving my tree up until after the kids start school again. I may have to adjust it and do this idea. That way I can feel a little more justified in my leaving the tree up–just onto the next holiday.
Thanks for posting this.
This is a cute idea! We have a party every year with only adults (Christmas is full of family fun and NYE is the one night we can all get together and have some grown up fun). Before everyone comes (not usually until 8:30 or 9) we have a party with our kids, let them eat tonnes of junk and have a dance party and drink Martinelli’s . The older girls get to watch a movie on the portable DVD player in our room and the 2 littles go to bed. It is fun for all but I love the die of incorporating the tree into our night. It is such a cute idea and I already bought a tonne of fun stuff, just need the balloons!
My daughter’s family (in AZ) with 4 kids have a “Burping Contest” at “Midnight”. (When the kids were younger, “Midnight” was MUCH earlier — but they’re on to the whole clock thing now). They drink root beer or ginger ale and see who can burp the loudest or longest, which determines who will have the best luck. This is so much fun that last year they included their 3 boy-cousins in Louisiana via Skype. The 2 year old in LA won, hands down!!!
Super fun idea!!! We have a traditional New Year’s Eve party with a whole group of us that went to school together. It’s an adults only party (unless someone has a new baby…which someone always does!) and we all bring food to eat. We sip hot chocolate and soda (not together) play ping-pong, darts, board games…whatever we can find to do! At midnight, we watch the ball drop, kiss our sweethearts, and keep partying until we only have enough ‘awake’ left to drive home!
This is a fantastic idea! Love!
I love this idea. Thank you so much for sharing your family’s traditions – both old and new.
What a fun idea, we leave our tree up till 12th night because it’s also our sons birthday and he’ll be six but i may give some thought to your ideas and include them. I don’t ‘do’ new year it usually leaves me in tears or tired but it may just work if we’re gonna be home infront of the box. Seasons Greetings 🙂
An idea!!.. “Change your Christmas Tree into Your Son’s Birthday Stuff!!…
You are such a cool mom. Will you adopt me? 😉 I will tuck this idea away for some future year for when there are kiddos home on New Years.
That is so cute!
What a fun idea! Thanks for sharing it. I just pinned it too!
This is such a fun idea!
I love the holidays too! We celebrate with some extended family, for dinner we eat appetizers (so I am excited for Thursday’s ideas) and decorate the house. Since my kids are little and have a hard time staying up, we have a New York New Years and celebrate it at our 9:00pm, which is midnight New York’s time. We watch the New York ball drop, have our own balloon drop, blowers, sparklers left over from the 4th of July. It is just a fun night.
This is such a GREAT idea! I’ve never heard of anything like it. Thanks for sharing!!!
I absolutely love this idea! My kids are usually at Grandma’s for New Year’s, but this could totally work on another day (the day they go back to school, maybe?)
When I was a little girl, I used to have a New Year’s Eve party with my Grandma. As I got older, I would make decorations and buy special food. We’d watch tv and then, when it came on, we’d watch the New Year’s special with Dick Clark. Those are some of the best memories I have of my Grandma and I miss her the most at this time of year.
Ryan Seacrest just isn’t the same 🙁