A Family Friendly New Year’s Eve Tradition

Posted by Dec 4, 2017 Book Based Activities, Books, Family Fun, Holidays, Learning

I am a huge fan of the holiday season, and I get really sad when it’s time to take down the decorations and turn off the Christmas music. New Year’s Eve is the last  big hurrah of the season, but it’s often difficult to find ways to celebrate the holiday with the whole family. Today I’m excited to introduce you to an awesome book and gift set which gives you a new family friendly New Year’s tradition to help your family make New Year’s Eve into it’s own fun holiday!

Updated December 2020: This year, it is even more important to find New Years traditions for families that can make the holiday special even when we are apart. This New Years children’s book and decorating kit are the perfect answer for a socially distant New Year’s celebration.

Standard Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.  I may receive a commission from purchases you make through the links in this post. I received a copy of this gift set in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I have fond memories of movie marathons and snack foods as we counted down to the New Year as kids, and in recent years I have started keeping a memories jar for the year, which we read from on New Years Day. All of these family friendly New Year’s traditions were fun and memorable, but i was so excited to be introduced to Oh! New Year’s Tree.

Starting a New Tradition

The Oh! New Year’s Tree gift set includes a beautiful story book by Angela Sartori and illustrated by Alexandra Ball, which introduces you to Mack and Mae. The adorable brother and sister duo are sad when the Christmas holiday is over, so they decide to surprise their parents by adding to their Christmas tree and turning it into a New Year’s Tree! In addition to the streamers and party hat that now adorn their tree, they also fill a special ornament with their wishes for the new year. The rhyming text and colorful illustrations make this a fun book to read aloud. Kids will recognize the sadness that Mack and Mae feel about the holiday season ending, which makes it even more fun for them to bring the rest of the story to life in their own house!

 

Creating Your Own New Year’s Tree

These fun characters and their festive creation were born from a tradition that the author started with her daughters years before the book was published. When her daughter mentioned that she didn’t realize everyone didn’t decorate a New Year’s tree, Angela Sartori decided to create a kit that would allow everyone to join in their fun!

The Oh! New Year’s Tree gift set includes everything you need to recreate the story with your own family, including streamers and a hat for your tree, as well as hats for you and a special ornament to hold your wishes. The ornament opens easily and the metal material ensures that my toddler can’t hurt it when she hangs it on the tree (which she has been enjoying!). The flame resistant streamers and the foldable party hats are easy to use, so all ages can be a part of the fun. Kids can either throw the streamers, or blow them on to the tree. (Since they sit lightly on the surface of the tree, they are easy to remove too!)

Reflecting as a Family

I love that this kit not only gives kids a fun tradition of redecorating the tree and making something new, but it also encourages them to take a look back at the past year, and forward to the year ahead. It will be so much fun to reread our wishes from the previous year as we add new ones to the ornament. It’s also a great way to teach kids about reflecting on the past, and looking to the future.

Check out the Oh! New Year’s Tree website to sign up for their email list. Future plans include offering refill kits for your New Year’s Tree set, as well as more adventures for Mack and Mae!

Does your family celebrate New Year’s Eve with any fun traditions? Share in the comments below!

26 comments on “A Family Friendly New Year’s Eve Tradition”

  2. This is a really nice idea! Having a new years tree is definitely a tradition we would enjoy and get into! It also keeps the festive feeling going for just that little bit longer!

    • Haha, my mom likes to take theirs down on New Year’s day, so I understand that! The nice part about this is that you only have to keep it up until then!

  10. Oh, this is so fun, I’ve never seen anything like this before. What a great idea of getting the kids excited for the new year, this is a great time for them to set goals especially since they’re going into the second half of the school year.

    • I’m so excited about it! It is so cute and I know my daughter will love redecorating our tree! And yes, the memory jar has become one of my favorite traditions for sure.

Comments are closed.