29 Ways to Prepare for the New Year

Every year we are anxiously awaiting the winter holidays: it seems that the confusion can not be avoided. But in our power to make these days enjoyable for all family members! We offer ways to prepare for New Year's celebrations and guaranteed to create a magical mood for yourself and your loved ones!
Congratulate relatives and friends with homemade cards
Let it be a child's drawing, applique or collage. Another idea is a family photograph instead of a postcard: decorate it beautifully, for example, put it in the frame-mattress, add funny New Year stickers, write congratulations and wishes for loved ones. And specially for posting in social networks or sending by e-mail, you can create a music greeting card-presentation! Choose 10-15 photos illustrating the best events of the year, the appropriate music, in a special program, impose teasers and ... collect the well-deserved "husky"!

Play the game "The Secret Santa"
The essence of the game is an anonymous exchange of gifts: each participant first pulls out a piece of paper from the hat with the name of the addressee, comes up with a gift, and then all surprises will only be obtained from a large bag and given away. Gifts can not be changed!

Think of a beautiful gift box
You can use not only colorful wrapping paper, but also fabric, mesh, old newspapers or kraft paper, children's drawings, pieces of wallpaper or other very unusual materials.

Think about the format of the New Year's table
If you are going to celebrate the New Year in a family circle, perhaps you should not plan a feast with a mountain and a big festive menu with salads, hot and desserts. Put on the table a pair of the most favorite dishes for each member of the family and complement something that you can eat whole companies, for example, cheese or chocolate fondue.

Let the delicious food not only on the festive table plan unusual and interesting dishes for every day of the holidays. Conduct a household survey and make a list of their "top" culinary preferences. It's great if some dishes have to be cooked together!

Bake curly cookies to decorate the Christmas tree
Suitable shortbread or ginger dough, just do not forget to make a hole in each cookie for twine.

Participate in postcrossing
This is an international exchange of postcards. Anyone can participate in it, regardless of age. Cards received from all corners of the world can be nicely placed on the stand.

Choose an unusual Christmas tree decoration style
Maybe this year her "outfit" will be devoted to the theme of "Star Wars" or sustained in strict British style, or will you create a Christmas tree dedicated to ballet - with bows and laces? Fantasize together!

Have not you bought gifts yet?
Go shopping in the mornings on weekdays until 12 o'clock, - people in stores will be less. You can also divide "by interests", for example, mother and daughter, father and son: an excellent opportunity to sit in a cafe and chat! Well, relatives, with whom you will see only on vacation, you can buy gifts and after the New Year, for example, January 2-3.

Set a family performance
Or arrange a small thematic presentation. Think up your storyline or adapt the well-known, write script, make sure that the role was found for everyone. The action, of course, must be removed on video!

In addition to gifts to relatives and friends, prepare a few small souvenirs
It can be chocolate, beautifully packaged soap or candles - "courtesy gifts" will come in handy to congratulate the concierge or the postman on the holiday.

Create an "inviolable" stock of ready meals
In the course of the month before the New Year's holiday, prepare several dishes "in reserve" and put them in the freezer. It is possible that you do not really want to spend the evenings at the stove, so everyone will be happy with the ready dinners.

Think of a family gift
Gifts to each of the Santa Claus sack is a mandatory part of the program. And choose one common gift for the whole family - it can be a board game, a tourist tent for family trips to nature, similar clothes or pajamas in a "family style" or, say, a camera. Present a gift to each other in the evening, without waiting for the battle of the bells, or on the morning of January 1st.

Film, film, film!
Choose a dozen movies for a true family viewing experience. Consider the tastes of each - "killer" blockbusters, cartoons and sagas. Prepare a cozy spectator seats and a "harmful" treat - popcorn and soda. Enjoy watching!

One of the days off announce thematic
For example, arrange a Day of video games. Prepare your favorite CDs, study reviews and recommendations and buy a couple of new games, fight one on one or arrange a team competition. Today time is not regulated by the computer!

Study the poster
Think about what to do on vacation, make a schedule that takes into account the household. Attend no more than one place per day, otherwise the children will get tired and will not do without the ills of vagaries.

Plan on the morning of December 31 cultural event
Maybe it will be a performance, a performance or a visit to the museum with an interesting excursion. First, it will create a mood for the whole day, and secondly, you will get tired a little - just in order to enjoy a nap after lunch and gain strength for the New Year's Eve.

Start a general project on the topic: "What I remember this year"
To make it it is possible in the form of a diary-questionnaire with records from all members of the family or to hold a video interview, adhering to the planned list of topics and questions. In a few years you will be very interested in revising this archive - to see, the children grow up, how their handwriting changes and the reasoning "grows".

Every year, buy a new Christmas tree toy
And not simple, but "with meaning", symbolizing some kind of family event. For example, a Christmas decoration in the form of a medal reminds of children's victories in competitions, a compass - about a family trip.

Organize a photo archive
Can not you find time to deal with family photos? Make a photobook by the end of the year: select the best photos, write them and order an album in the darkroom. Show the book, of course, better right on the eve of the holiday.

Make an unusual gift for your family
For example, a "scratch card" is a ticket for various pleasures. Let it be something valuable, but intangible: the hour of playing with my mother, going to the movies, the opportunity to go to bed later, or to take Papa's favorite chair for one evening. On the cardboard you need to describe the "gift", wipe the surface with wax or hygienic lipstick and apply one layer of acrylic paint over the text. Dry paint is easy to remove with a coin - everything is like a real lottery ticket.

Start decorating the apartment on the first day of winter
This will create a festive mood: every day hang one garland or a couple of balls. Well, after the New Year, do not remove all the decorations at once - maybe a beautiful wreath will please you until the end of February.

Prepare the New Year's "noise"
And together with the battle of the chimes loudly announce the coming of the New Year! Suitable, for example, tambourines, toy pipes and vuvuzels, plastic cans with "fillers" - beans or peas.

Make a garland of photos of the outgoing year
Using clips or clips, attach the photo to the long tape, alternating them with postcards or written on the sheet of wishes, and hang, for example, in the doorway.

Think up your own New Year's ritual
Agree with someone that your family will be together to do every New Year's Eve. Perhaps, all of you, holding hands, blowing out a candle, making a wish, or going out into the yard and blinding a funny New Year's snowman.

Spend the ritual of parting with last year
For example, write on small pieces of something that did not work or upset you, tear "mistakes" and "failures" in shreds and burn them on a candle!

Prepare small gifts
They are needed to make it easier for children to wait until the New Year. You can hand them in every hour, on a timer, or pack out into opaque packages and write: "open at 9 o'clock", "at 10 o'clock".

Wow, how scary!
Organize the night in the style of a pioneer camp. Lay down on the floor in the living room sleeping bags, pillows and blankets, get comfortable and all night long tell each other terrible and funny stories. Terrible, but fun!

Beginning January 1, start the Book of the Year
In a folder with transparent pockets every month, collect all sorts of trivia, reminiscent of family entertainment: tickets to the cinema and theater, programs, photographs and notes. Next December it will be interesting to recall the details of the last year!