With the New Year fast approaching, people are frequently talking about their plans and intentions. Among the topics debated is what to do with children on this traditionally festive, yet rambunctious evening. Party411.com is finding that, overall, people want to be with their families on New Year's Eve.

Regardless of whether you prefer to spend New Year’s eve with children or without, there is still plenty of time to make arrangements for a home gathering. If you plan to have children around, here are a few tips for entertaining and amusing kids:

• Keep things simple, or kids may get overwhelmed and frustrated. In general, kids just want to have fun and go at their own pace.

• Let things flow naturally. It is all right for kids to make their own decisions about participating in structured activities, so long as they are acting appropriately.

• Set the mood for children by giving them freedom and choices with boundaries. Make them feel welcome...introduce kids to each other who are not previously acquainted and encourage them to include everyone in their activities.

• Have an initial activity for kids upon their arrival and they will much calmer later. For example, cover a table with white paper and let them decorate it with their own markers, crayons, stickers and other art supplies.

• The young ones won't be able to stay up until midnight so have your "countdown" earlier (say, 9:00). If the kids stay awake, have a countdown every hour until midnight. It's fun, easy, not so complicated that you miss "adult" time, and not so structured as to bore the kids.

• New Year's Eve Scramble: Write a bunch of different words on a piece of paper that have to do with New Year's Eve and scramble the letters. The person who guesses the most words correctly wins a prize.

• Predict the Future: Throughout the party, present a magazine picture to each table of kids. These pictures should show something from the past year, such as a winning football game, a new toy, a political event, etc. Each table of kids must make a prediction for the next year, based on the picture. For example: The Yankees will win the pennant, Bill Clinton will become a rock star, the president will be a woman, and so on. Keep providing pictures after each course for the kids' predictions.

• Some other fun ideas that will keep the kids busy for hours until the clock strikes midnight are to have them create their own time capsule, strike a piñata, make New Year's resolutions (and guess whose resolutions they are), decorate cookies, and have a huge indoor treasure hunt with clues.

Happy Holidays and Have fun, from Party411 and The Party Girl

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