Fun ways for kids to ring in the new year

New Year's doesn't have to be a holiday where grown-ups get to stay up late and have all the fun. Kids can find ways to celebrate, too.

This year, get the whole family involved in the festivities. Try out some of these new traditions, or think of your own ideas to ring in the New Year with your family.

• On New Year's Eve write your hopes for the coming year on brightly colored tags and tie them to a tree in the yard. It's beautiful to look out the window and see the paper strips blowing in the wind.

• Ask Mom or Dad for your own packet of seeds for a house plant. On the package, you (and each of your brothers and sisters) can write what you'd like to accomplish in the upcoming year.

Plant your seeds on New Year's Day. As each of you watches your plants grow, look at the packets occasionally to see how you've grown closer to reaching the goals you wrote down.

•During the year, toss party invitations, special school assignments, locks of hair, and other keepsakes into a box. Next New Year's Eve, spend an hour with your family looking through all the items.

• If your family made a gingerbread house for the holidays, save it until Jan. 1. Then break out hammers and mugs of milk – time for demolishing (and devouring) the tasty building.

• Go online to watch (and celebrate) the coming of the new year in different places around the world.

• On New Year's Day, see if you can eat at a new restaurant, watch a new movie, play a new game, or try a new craft.

Source: Adapted from the December '07/January '08 issue of Wondertime magazine.