16 New Year Games With Free Printables for Children Who Want to Stay Up

The best new years eve games for family are the ones that survive a seven-year-old hitting a wall at nine o’clock. This list is built for a fake midnight, a countdown at eight or nine that feels just as real, with eight free printables to download and eight no-prep games that need nothing more than what is already in the house. Print the sheets in the afternoon, stick the countdown chart on the wall, and the evening runs itself.

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1. The Countdown Chart to Noon Year (Single Shared Poster)

One large poster goes up on the wall at the start of the evening, showing every hour from six o’clock to fake midnight. Each hour has a small illustrated clock face and a blank star next to it. As the family ticks off each activity or game, a child colours in that star with a gold marker. The chart turns the whole evening into a visible race toward the countdown rather than a vague stretch of time that small children cannot measure.

Print one copy at A3 or US Letter (it reads at both), stick it at child height on a door or wall, and leave a cup of coloured markers nearby. No scissors needed. The whole setup takes under two minutes.

The most common mistake is printing it too small. If the printer only does Letter, go landscape and trim the white border, then tape two panels together. A laminated version wipes clean and survives another year.

2. The Balloon Pop Every Hour (No Printing Needed)

Before the party, write one tiny activity on a slip of paper, roll it up, and stuff it inside a balloon before inflating it. Make one balloon per hour of the evening. At the top of each hour a child gets to pop their balloon (sitting on it, stomping it, or using a pin with adult supervision) and the whole family does whatever the slip says: five jumping jacks, a silly dance, swap seats, tell a joke. The popping is half the point, and children will ask about it from the moment they arrive.

No printing required. Prepare the balloons in about fifteen minutes the afternoon before. Keep a small basket to hold them so they do not drift around the house and get popped early.

Write the activities in adult handwriting small enough to roll up neatly but legible enough for an older child to read aloud. If a very young child is popping the balloon, stomp-style is safer than a pin.

3. Hourly Activity Cards to Open

Six illustrated cards, each sealed in a small envelope or folded and taped shut before the party. Each card is numbered by hour and carries a short family challenge written directly on the card face: things like ‘Everyone do their best robot impression’, ‘Name three things you are excited about this year’, or ‘Do the worm (or your best attempt) across the living room floor’. The family opens exactly one card per hour, reads it aloud, and does it together before moving on.

Print on cardstock and cut apart. Six cards fit one US Letter sheet. Fold each card in half, write the hour on the outside, and tape shut. Stack them on the mantel in order. No envelopes needed, though small kraft ones look tidier.

If children spot the stack early and want to open them all at once, move the stack somewhere out of sight, a high shelf or inside a kitchen cupboard, and bring each one out yourself at the hour mark.

4. The Paper Chain Countdown (No Printing Needed)

Cut strips of paper in the afternoon, one strip per minute of the countdown window, or, for young children, one per hour. Write a small resolution, hope, or silly prediction on each strip before linking them into a chain. Hang the chain across the room. At each hour, or at the final countdown, a child tears off a link and reads it aloud. The chain gets shorter as fake midnight approaches, and children can see the end coming, which is enormously satisfying.

No printing needed. Coloured paper, scissors, and a stapler or glue stick are all it takes. An evening-long version uses six links; a ten-minute countdown uses ten.

Let children write or draw on their own strips during the setup. A strip with a drawing of a dog doing a handstand is as valid as a written resolution, and considerably more entertaining when read out.

5. Family Predictions for the Year

Each person fills in a card with their own predictions for the coming year: the film everyone will watch twice, the food someone will suddenly refuse to eat, the family trip that might actually happen, who will learn something new. The cards go into an envelope, sealed, and opened at the same fake-midnight celebration next year. Reading last year’s predictions out loud is reliably the funniest part of the whole evening.

Four cards fit one US Letter sheet, so one printed page covers a family of four. Print on regular paper and cut apart. Each child needs a fine-tip marker or a pen that will not bleed through when the cards are folded into the envelope.

Seal the envelope in front of everyone and write ‘DO NOT OPEN UNTIL FAKE MIDNIGHT NEXT YEAR’ on the front in large letters. Tape it inside a kitchen cupboard door so it does not get lost, filed away, or accidentally recycled.

6. Musical Statues Before Bed (No Printing Needed)

A classic that every child already knows, dressed up for New Year by playing only songs from the year just finishing. Whoever controls the speaker calls out ‘FREEZE’ instead of pausing the music, which removes the need to watch a button, and the whole family plays together rather than eliminating children one by one. Instead of sitting out, anyone caught moving does five star jumps and rejoins immediately. The game keeps going until the grown-up in charge needs a rest.

No printing needed, no equipment beyond a speaker and a playlist. Build the playlist beforehand with songs the children will recognise from the past year: school performances, car playlist regulars, anything they sang at home.

Play two rounds: one where freezing means absolutely no movement, one where only feet must stay still. The second version produces excellent dramatic frozen faces and is considerably harder than it sounds.

7. The Year in Review Picture Quiz

A quiz sheet showing eight illustrated scenes from things that happened in popular culture and the wider world over the past year: a new animated film, a sports moment, a famous animal that went viral, a space mission, a chart-topping song represented by a microphone and a lyric fragment. Players write the name of what they think each picture represents. Children and adults play together, and it is pleasantly level because adults blank on children’s film releases just as reliably as children blank on sports results.

Print one sheet per player on regular paper. Players need only a pen. Allow about ten minutes. Read the answers aloud at the end, using the key on the host’s copy (or on a separate printed sheet kept out of sight). Tally scores on the back of each card.

The trick with a mixed-age group is including at least three questions that heavily favour children and three that heavily favour adults. No one age group should win by default, or the quiz loses its comedy.

8. New Year Bingo (4 Bingo Grids + Call List)

Four bingo cards, each with a five-by-five grid of New Year words and icons: fireworks, countdown, resolution, cocoa, party hat, balloon, confetti, midnight, noisemaker, tinsel, sparkler, clock, champagne flute (juice for the children), bubbly, cheer, toast, wish, glow stick, new year, family, hug, dance, silly hat, star, and lucky. A separate call list sheet lets the host draw and call terms one at a time. First to complete a row shouts ‘Happy New Year’ instead of bingo.

Print the four grids on two sheets (two up, back to back or side by side), and the call list on a third. Players need a pen or small tokens to mark squares. A game runs about eight minutes. Play several rounds with different winning patterns: full row, corners only, blackout.

Pre-cut the call list into individual slips and keep them in a bowl so children can take turns drawing. Shuffle thoroughly, or the same terms cluster and the game stalls. A laminated set reused with dry-erase markers survives the whole family growing up.

9. The Cocoa Toast at Fake Midnight (No Printing Needed)

At the agreed fake midnight, everyone gets a mug of hot cocoa (or sparkling juice in a plastic flute for older children who feel the occasion). The host counts down from ten, loudly, with everyone joining in. At zero, mugs clink, everyone shouts ‘Happy New Year’, and the toast is drunk. It is an extremely small ritual, and children treat it with an extremely large amount of ceremony.

No printing needed. Make the cocoa ten minutes before the countdown so it is warm but not scalding. Add mini marshmallows for the children, a splash of something good for the adults. Keep a noisemaker or a tambourine handy for the zero moment.

If children are at different bedtimes, stagger the cocoa: younger ones get their toast at eight, older ones at nine or ten. Each countdown is equally real and equally loud, and no child feels shortchanged by going to bed earlier than a sibling.

10. Resolution Cards for Children

Each child gets a card to fill in with three things they want to do, try, or get better at in the coming year. The prompts are deliberately gentle and open: something to learn, something to do with a friend, something just for fun. Finished cards go into the child’s room, tucked into a book or pinned above the desk, to be found and read months later when the resolution is long forgotten or quietly achieved.

Four cards per sheet, print on cardstock. Each child decorates their own card with the markers or crayons already on the table, then reads it aloud before it gets put away. Listening to a five-year-old explain that their resolution is to eat more spaghetti is, genuinely, the best part of the evening.

Keep a copy for yourself, photographed on your phone. Children change so fast that a resolution written now is a time capsule regardless of whether it is ever actually kept.

11. Glow Stick Dancing (No Printing Needed)

Turn off the lights, crack the glow sticks, and put on a three-song playlist. Children wave their sticks like wands, try to draw shapes in the air, and generally lose their minds with joy. Adults can sit this one out or join in. The sticks double as wristbands and noisemaker accessories for the fake midnight countdown, so nothing is wasted.

No printing needed. Buy a multipack of glow sticks in the afternoon: they cost almost nothing and the effect on children is disproportionate. Crack them all at once for a good entry moment, lights off, playlist on, sticks handed out simultaneously.

Run this game in the slot right before the cocoa toast or just before bedtime to use up the last of the evening’s energy in one controlled burst. A glow stick dance-off where children vote for the best ‘glow shape’ keeps the structure if you need it.

12. Guess How Many in the Jar (Tally Card, One Per Guest)

A clear jar filled with small wrapped candies or foil-wrapped chocolate coins sits on the table all evening. Every guest writes their name and their guess on a tally card. At fake midnight, the host counts the candies out loud (children help), and the closest guess wins the whole jar. The counting is genuinely exciting. Children hover. Grown-ups pretend they are not hovering.

One tally card per guest, cut from a sheet of four. Print on regular paper. The jar itself goes on the table as soon as guests arrive, so everyone has the full evening to study it, argue about it, and change their mind at least twice.

Fill the jar with something that counts easily and looks good: gold-foil chocolate coins work perfectly for a New Year theme and photograph well if anyone wants a table shot. Avoid anything so small it becomes genuinely impossible to count.

13. The Memory Tray of Things From the Year (No Printing Needed)

Arrange twelve small objects on a tray, each one representing something from the year just finished: a cinema ticket stub, a photo printed on regular paper, a small toy, a leaf from a holiday walk, a foreign coin, a book cover torn from a proof copy, a sticker from a school event. Players study the tray for sixty seconds, then it is covered with a tea towel. Everyone writes or says as many objects as they can remember. The game is part quiz, part family scrapbook, and reliably produces a conversation about something everyone had half forgotten.

No printing needed. The tray takes about fifteen minutes to assemble if you collect objects through December. The reveal, lifting the tea towel, works best done slowly while someone does a dramatic drumroll on the table.

For young children who cannot write quickly, pair them with an older sibling or adult who writes their answers for them. The point is the remembering and the conversation, not the score.

14. Spot the Difference

Two nearly identical New Year party scenes sit side by side: a living room decorated for a fake midnight countdown, with ten subtle differences hidden between them. Players circle each difference they find directly on the sheet. Children and adults play at the same time, racing to find all ten. The first to find all ten shouts ‘Happy New Year’ and gets first pick of the snack bowl.

Print one sheet per player on regular paper. Players need only a pen or pencil. The game runs about six to ten minutes depending on age, and a second round with a time limit is harder than it looks even for adults who have already seen the answers. The answer key prints on a separate sheet the host keeps back.

Set a rule that players cannot show others where differences are until everyone has finished or given up. If a very young child gets frustrated, allow them to find five out of ten for a half-win, which is perfectly honourable.

15. Pass the Parcel (No Printing Needed)

Wrap a small prize in multiple layers of newspaper or wrapping paper, with a tiny forfeit or activity slip tucked between each layer: strike your best superhero pose, tell a joke, do ten hops. Children sit in a circle and pass the parcel while music plays. When the music stops, the child holding it unwraps one layer, reads the slip, does the forfeit, and the music restarts. The child who unwraps the final layer wins the prize. The forfeits are the whole point: they generate a ridiculous amount of noise and movement in the ten minutes before fake midnight.

No printing needed. Wrap the parcel in the afternoon with one layer per child attending, plus two extras. Use New Year-themed wrapping paper or plain newspaper with gold ribbon. The prize can be as small as a packet of sparkly stickers.

Use a playlist of year-in-review songs as the music, so the stopping and starting doubles as a music-recognition moment for older children. Control the pauses yourself rather than using a randomiser, to make sure every child gets at least one layer.

16. The Sunrise Breakfast Plan Written Together (No Printing Needed)

Right at the end of the evening, after the cocoa toast, children and adults sit together and plan a special New Year’s Day breakfast on a large sheet of paper. Everyone contributes: what to eat, what shape to cut the pancakes, who sets the table, what music plays, whether there are candles. The sheet goes on the fridge overnight. In the morning, even the youngest child can see exactly what was decided and hold everyone to it.

No printing needed. A sheet of A3 paper, a marker, and ten minutes of calm conversation. The planning is the game: it gives children a reason to feel settled about going to bed, because there is something specific and chosen waiting on the other side of sleep.

Write every child’s contribution in their own colour of marker so they can identify their idea in the morning. Keep the breakfast genuinely achievable, pancakes with a chosen topping, not a twelve-dish spread, or the plan becomes a source of morning disappointment rather than delight.

Frequently Asked Questions

What time should fake midnight be for young children?

Eight or nine o’clock works well for children under six. For a mixed group with older and younger children, stagger it: the youngest children get their countdown at eight, older ones at nine or ten. Each countdown is fully celebrated, equally loud, and no child feels like they missed the real thing.

How many of these new years eve games for family do you actually need for one evening?

Six to eight games covers a five-hour evening comfortably. Use the countdown chart and hourly activity cards as the backbone, add two active games, one or two printables for quieter stretches, and finish with the cocoa toast. You do not need all sixteen in one night.

Which printables should be printed one per child and which are shared?

Print one per child: Family Predictions (one card each), Resolution Cards (one per child), Guess How Many tally cards, Year in Review Picture Quiz, and Spot the Difference. Print one shared copy: the Countdown Chart poster (stick it on the wall), the Hourly Activity Cards (one set opened together), and the New Year Bingo call list. Print four Bingo grids total, one per player up to four, or reuse with dry-erase markers on laminated copies.

What if children fall asleep before fake midnight?

Move the countdown earlier and tell no one you planned it that way. A countdown at eight-thirty is indistinguishable from one at midnight when you are five. The cocoa toast, the countdown from ten, the shouting: all of it lands exactly the same way regardless of what the clock actually says.

Do adults enjoy these games or are they purely for children?

Most of these genuinely work for adults too. The Year in Review Quiz is designed to level the playing field between ages. The Memory Tray triggers real conversation. Pass the Parcel with activity forfeits is funnier with adults in the circle than without them. The Sunrise Breakfast planning is entirely adult-proof.

What is the cheapest way to run this whole evening?

Print the eight printable sheets at home on regular paper (cardstock only for the cards you want to keep). The no-printing games cost almost nothing: the paper chain uses scrap paper, Musical Statues needs only a phone, the Memory Tray uses objects already in the house. The only genuine purchase is glow sticks and, if you want them, gold foil chocolate coins for the guessing jar. Total spend is well under ten pounds or dollars.