Napa’s Guide To A Festive & Kid-Friendly NYE 2024
Looking for things to do and ways to celebrate New Year’s Eve 2024 with kids around Napa and beyond? Well look no further! Celebrating New Year’s Eve with kids can feel like a challenge when you’re faced with making the decision between meeting bedtime schedules and anticipating a NYE countdown at midnight to officially ring in the new year. We’re here to let you know you no longer have to sacrifice one for the other! We want to shake up those traditional party perceptions and help you build a festive New Year’s Eve celebration that’s family friendly and 100% kid-approved.
The two biggest NYE myths we hear recited year-after-year are: that you must stay up until midnight and that New Year’s Eve parties aren’t for kids. Pffft! There’s no reason you should let these outdated rules of engagement dictate how you and your family celebrate the new year. After all, celebrating the new year is all about creating a shared tradition with your loved ones, reflecting on the year past, and considering your hopes and wishes for the year ahead.
Here’s our go-to guide to turn up the fun with the whole family this 2024 New Year’s Eve!
Pick a time of day and tune into a local stream from around the world
It’s simple: your family countdown should work for your family. By adopting a different timezone to celebrate along with, you can have all the excitement of NYE festivities without compromising those oh-so-important food and sleep schedules. There are many different live streaming webcams around the world that you can turn on and watch right from your living room. Our go-to is EarthCam.com which is a fantastic resource that features a number of locations around the world, giving you the chance to ring in 2025 live from another timezone - or even another continent.
Because of our location in the world, Napa is one of the last time-zones to reach 2025. This is great news because we can choose to celebrate a countdown almost any hour of the day - or heck, even EVERY hour of the day.
Here are some featured locations to get you started by location and NYE timezone conversion:
Queenstown, New Zealand - NYE (local) / 3 am (Napa)
Seoul, South Korea - NYE (local) / 7 am (Napa)
Pattaya, Thailand - NYE (local) / 9 am (Napa)
Tbilisi, Georgia - NYE (local) / 12 noon (Napa)
Pointe de Flacq, Mauritius - NYE (local) / 12 noon (Napa)
Cape Town, South Africa - NYE (local) / 2 pm (Napa)
Tamariu, Spain - NYE (local) / 3 pm (Napa)
Budapest, Hungary - NYE (local) / 3 pm (Napa)
Amsterdam, Netherlands - NYE (local) / 3 pm (Napa)
Dublin, Ireland - NYE (local) / 4 pm (Napa)
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil - NYE (local) / 7 pm (Napa)
Times Square, NY, USA - NYE (local) / 9 pm (Napa)
Negril, Jamaica - NYE (local) / 9 pm (Napa)
Washington DC, USA - NYE (local) / 9 pm (Napa)
Niagra Falls, Canada - NYE (local) / 9 pm (Napa)
Toronto, Canada - NYE (local) / 9 pm (Napa)
Saranac Lake, NY, USA - NYE (local) / 9 pm (Napa)
Chicago, USA - NYE (local) / 10 pm (Napa)
New Orleans, USA - NYE (local) / 10 pm (Napa)
Las Vegas, USA - NYE (local) / 12 midnight (Napa)
Seattle, USA - NYE (local) / 12 midnight (Napa)
San Diego, USA - NYE (local) / 12 midnight (Napa)
San Francisco, USA - NYE (local) / 12 midnight (Napa)
Honolulu, USA - NYE (local) / 2 am (Napa)
EarthCam’s coverage in Times Square begins with a special at 3 pm PT and the countdown itself starting at 7 pm PT.
Decide how you and the family want to celebrate
Now that you’ve picked your timezone you can focus in on the details. What are the favorite ways to celebrate in your home: Noise makers? Party poppers? A dance party with crazy hats? Whatever it is, this is the time to go all in on the F-U-N!
You can pick up festive supplies locally at stores like Target, Dollar Tree, Walmart, Marshalls, or Michaels. For those feeling crafty, here are a few DIY links if you prefer to make something at home:
Easy DIY Pompom Party Popper by Red Ted Art
Noise Makers by Our Happy Tribe
Have you been hearing about DIY balloon drop ideas non-stop like we have? We promise they’re not hard to make and raise that FUN factor up several notches. You can find hundreds of different ways to build one (with varying levels of difficulty), but to fast-track you here’s one that requires minimal supplies - and minimal effort - win/win!
If making it to dark isn’t out of the question for your party plans then adding glowsticks to the mix is a great way to turn up the excitement even further and get some extra silly moves out of your little dancers. You can pick them up at any of the stores mentioned earlier in this post or via the Amazon link added above.
Next up: Turn on your favorite Spotify playlist and dance the afternoon or evening away!
Creating New Family Traditions
The best part about family traditions is that you can start them any time. For those of us who don’t already have generations old traditions to mark the year’s end, we compiled some ideas to consider introducing to your family this year and starting some fresh, new traditions!
Get Dressed Up: Sometimes just the simple act of getting in some funny or fancy clothes is enough to change things up and freshen up perspective. Don’t have anything in your closet? Try stopping by your local thrift shops for some festive hats, sequins, satin, and frills. Our favorite haunts include: CP Thrift, Napa Discovery Shop, Consign & Design
Fill a New Year’s Time Capsule: Creating a time capsul every New Year’s Eve can be a great way to spend quality time together and reflect upon the year. You might be suprised at some of the sweet memories that are recalled! The gist is this: each year you’ll open up the previous year’s collection to see what everyone thought their future selves might be delighted by, and you can also spen part of the night frefilling the capsul for the following year. Don’t worry, this can be stored in a box in a closet somewhere … no digging or burrying required.
Watch Countdowns Around the World: We love tuning in and taking the opportunity to talk about different places around the world, what they’re like, what foods and traditions they celebrate - and what better way to start that topic off than by joining in on their NYE countdown live feed?! The great news about being so far west is there are so many opportunities to watch countries around the world ring in their new year throughout the day.
Try a New Cuisine for the New Year: Start a new family tradition by trying a new cuisine each New Year’s Eve. You can order takeout for a quick and easy way to sample something new, or pick a new recipe and give the dish a whirl. Even incorporating something simple like a new dessert could a fun way to explore and celebrate together.
Host a Family Game Night: Rather it’s renting a new game from the library or playing a family favorite at the dining table, this is a wonderful way to spend time together and enjoy eachother’s company as the new year rings in.
Have a New Year’s Slumber Party: Why not?! Get those sleeping bags out and maybe a favorite movie and sleep side-by-side in your livingroom for a change of pace. If you have younger kids in the house they’ll go crazy for this silly-sounding idea! Bonus points if you can build a fort or tent to snuggle in.
How ever you decide to celebrate just remember the most important part is slowing down and taking the time to enjoy the little moments together. Happy New Year’s to our sweet Napa community - Cheers!
Looking for kid-friendly events, classes, and camps in and around Napa?
Check out our Events page to view the interactive calendar and see what’s coming up this week as well as our Camps page to see what programs are still accepting enrollments/drop-ins this break.