The holidays don’t end on December 25th, but New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are perfect opportunities for crafting.
We’ve put together a list of exciting, easy, and memorable New Year’s crafts for kids at home.
These will keep little hands busy and create festive decorations for your celebration.
All you need are simple materials you already have in the house! Get ready to celebrate the New Year’s crafts for kids at home!
Exciting New Year’s crafts for kids at home with Noise Makers and Celebration Tools
New Year’s Eve is all about noise and celebration!
These fun and simple New Year’s crafts for kids at home focus on making festive tools when the clock finally strikes midnight.
1. Paper Plate Shakers
Take two plain paper plates and let the kids decorate the outsides with bright markers, glitter, and stickers. Place a handful of dried beans, rice, or large pasta inside one plate. Staple the plates securely together all around the edges to seal in the noise. When shaken, they make a fantastic, loud ruckus!
2. Bottle Cap Noise Makers
Collect several plastic bottle caps and punch a small hole through the center of each one. Thread them onto a piece of colorful pipe cleaner, making sure to twist the ends of the pipe cleaner into a loop. When the kids shake these, the caps jingle and clatter together, creating a fun, rattling sound that is perfect for the countdown.
3. Toilet Paper Roll Kazoos
Cover a cardboard toilet paper tube with construction paper and secure it with glue. Cut a small square of wax paper or tissue paper and secure it over one end of the tube with a rubber band. When kids hum gently into the open end, the tissue vibrates, turning the tube into a simple, festive kazoo.
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4. DIY Confetti Poppers
Save your empty toilet paper rolls! Cover the roll with foil or colorful wrapping paper. Secure a small balloon stretched over one end of the tube with a knot, then cut the bottom of the balloon off. Fill the open end with tiny pieces of paper confetti. When the balloon knot is pulled back and released, the confetti pops out!
5. Ribbon Wands
Take a wooden dowel or an unsharpened pencil and tie several long strands of brightly colored ribbons, gold, silver, and any bright color to one end. When the children run and wave these wands, the ribbons fly, adding beautiful, silent movement to your New Year’s Eve celebration without adding any extra noise.
Perfect New Year’s crafts for kids at home with Wearable and Photo Booth
Get ready for some fun photos! These New Year’s crafts for kids at home are all about creating fun accessories.
Children can wear them proudly, making them perfect props for holiday photos or just wearing them during the New Year’s countdown party.
6. Glittery Cardstock Crowns
Cut thick pieces of cardstock or poster board into long strips to fit around your child’s head. Help them glue on triangular cutouts to form the points of a crown. Decorate the entire surface using glue and lots of gold and silver glitter, making them feel like royalty, welcoming the new year.
7. Pipe Cleaner Glasses
Bend thick, brightly colored pipe cleaners into the shape of eyeglasses, making sure to include large, circular or star-shaped lenses. You can twist multiple colors together for extra sparkle. These silly, customized glasses are fantastic for taking funny, memorable photos on New Year’s Eve.
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8. 2026 Headbands (Next Year’s Number)
Take a plain plastic headband. Use thick construction paper or foam to cut out the four large numbers for the upcoming year (2-0-2-6). Glue or tape these numbers vertically to the top of the headband using thin wire or extra pipe cleaners, making a fun, futuristic accessory.
9. Bow Tie Necklaces
Cut large, exaggerated bow tie shapes out of colorful foam or cardboard. Punch a hole through the center and thread a piece of ribbon or yarn through the hole. Kids can wear these silly, oversized bow ties around their necks as a funny, formal accessory for the big night.
10. Countdown Bracelets
Give the children ten beads and a piece of elastic string. Have them thread the beads onto the string. For every hour leading up to midnight, they can remove one bead. It’s a fun, interactive way for them to track the time until the new year arrives, making it one of the most engaging New Year’s crafts for kids at home.
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Meaningful New Year’s crafts for kids at home
The New Year is absolutely the best time to stop, reflect on the past year, and plan for all the great things ahead.
These New Year’s crafts for kids at home are perfect for helping your children capture those special memories from the year ending to the new year.
11. Paper Chain of Memories
Gather the kids and ask them to think hard and write down just one happy memory or achievement they had during the past year on small, colorful strips of paper. Once every strip is filled with a fun reflection, link these strips together using glue or tape to form a long, meaningful paper chain. This memory chain can be hung up as decoration, letting everyone enjoy reflecting on all the past year’s highlights together in a visual way.
12. My Year Ahead Vision Board
Hand each child a big piece of poster board and a fun stack of old magazines, newspapers, or brochures that you’ve already read. Encourage them to excitedly cut out pictures and bold words that perfectly represent all the amazing things they want to learn, achieve, or experience in the upcoming year. This fun activity powerfully helps them set positive, tangible intentions and personal goals for the future in a really inspiring and creative way.
Also Read: How To Organize Your Kids Toys After The Crafting!
13. Decorated Time Capsule Box
Grab an empty shoebox or find an oatmeal container that you can decorate and seal up later. Have the children carefully place small items inside that represent their favorite things or big moments from the current year, such as a tiny toy, a memorable photograph, or even a ribbon from an event. Seal the box tightly and label it with the date, giving them the exciting instruction not to peek until the next New Year’s Eve!
14. Handprint Calendar
You can buy a simple calendar kit or just use large pieces of thick, blank paper. Have the children dip their clean hands into bright, colorful, non-toxic paint and make a cheerful handprint for each month, labeling each page accordingly. This quickly creates a charming, personalized calendar that they can proudly use all year long, and it is one of the classic New Year’s crafts for kids at home that parents adore.
15. Resolution Scrolls
Find a long, thin piece of paper, like parchment paper or brown packing paper, for each child to use. Have them write or draw out their personal New Year’s resolutions, wishes, and goals for the coming year. Roll the paper up neatly like an ancient scroll and tie it with a shiny gold ribbon. They can proudly unroll it on January 1st to announce their exciting and heartfelt goals to the family.
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Sparkling New Year’s crafts for kids at home with Glitter and Glimmer Decorations
These dazzling New Year’s crafts for kids at home focus entirely on maximizing the shimmer using glue, glitter, foil, and any metallic paper.
These decorations are easy to hang up and will instantly make your home look festive and completely ready for New Year’s Eve!
16. Glitter Ball Ornaments
Start by purchasing cheap, simple, clear plastic or foam ball ornaments from any craft store. Slather the entire outside of the ornaments with glue and let the children roll them in a generous, glorious mix of silver and gold glitter. Once fully dry, hang them from the ceiling or around your windows for simple, high-impact sparkle that catches the party lights beautifully as the night goes on.
17. Foil Star Garland
Take scissors and cut out many different sizes of cheerful star shapes from bright gold and silver aluminum foil or metallic cardstock you might have saved. Punch a small hole in the top of each star and thread them carefully onto a long piece of kitchen twine or yarn. This quickly creates a spectacular, shimmering garland that looks fantastic draped across a mantelpiece or a large window.
18. Salt Dough Keepsakes
Whip up a simple batch of homemade salt dough using flour, salt, and water. It’s incredibly easy! Use your holiday cookie cutters to create shapes like the numbers for the upcoming year (2-0-2-6), tiny clocks, or champagne flutes. Poke a hole for hanging, bake them until they are nice and hard, and then paint them with metallic gold or silver paint. These make lovely, durable keepsakes for the New Year.
19. DIY Disco Ball
If you have an old CD or DVD you no longer need, carefully cut it into small, random square pieces using sturdy scissors. Glue these small, incredibly shiny pieces onto a plain styrofoam ball or an old Christmas ornament that needs a quick, festive upgrade. When light hits this clever creation, it reflects light everywhere, acting as a fun, tiny disco ball! This is a unique idea for New Year’s crafts for kids at home that uses recycled materials.
20. Tinsel Burst Centerpiece
Grab a handful of metallic pipe cleaners in various festive colors like red, green, and silver, and twist them tightly together in the center to form one dense cluster. Gently bend the ends of the pipe cleaners outward to make them look exactly like fireworks bursting. Place these clusters into a tall, clear vase for a sparkling, firework-themed centerpiece decoration that is really fun and dynamic to look at.
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Dynamic New Year’s crafts for kids at home with balloons and streamers
Balloons and streamers are the ideal party supplies, and kids love using them for creative, dynamic projects.
These lively New Year’s crafts for kids at home utilize these easy-to-find supplies to transform your party space instantly and effortlessly.
21. Streamer Fringe Doorway
Get your scissors and cut many long lengths of metallic or brightly colored streamers. Tape the ends securely across the top of a doorway so they hang down like fun, vibrant fringe curtains. When people walk through the doorway, the streamers brush against them, creating a celebratory, tactile entrance that makes everyone feel like the party has officially started!
22. Balloon Animals
Use simple, round balloons and draw on funny, detailed animal faces with permanent markers. Tie paper ears or tails onto the balloon knots with tape or extra string. This gives the appearance of complex balloon animals without needing any tricky twisting techniques, making it one of the easiest and most effective New Year’s crafts for kids at home for instant fun.
23. Dropping Ball Countdown Banner
Draw a large circle to look like the ball in Times Square on thick black poster board. Attach a long strip of paper below it, clearly marked with the countdown numbers 10, 9, 8, etc. Use string and tape to create a simple pulley system that allows the paper ball to drop down the strip as you count down to midnight in a fun, dramatic fashion!
24. Tissue Paper Flowers
Take several layers of colorful tissue paper and cut them into a large circle shape. Pinch the center tightly and twist it, then gently fluff out the edges of the paper to look like a voluminous, beautiful flower bloom. Attach these flowers to walls, curtains, or even headbands for a cheerful and inexpensive pop of color that looks professional and festive.
25. Balloon Cluster Centerpieces
Blow small clusters of balloons, about 3-4 balloons per cluster, using festive red, silver, and gold colors that pop. Tie the cluster to a weighted item, like a small decorated jar or a water bottle covered in foil. These simple, colorful arrangements make great table decorations without needing to rely on expensive helium tanks, making them easy New Year’s crafts for kids at home.
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Imaginative New Year’s crafts for kids at home
The end of the year is naturally all about thinking of fortune, making predictions, and looking forward to what the future holds.
These reflective New Year’s crafts for kids at home engage your children’s imaginations for the next twelve months in a very engaging way.
26. Fortune Teller Cootie Catchers
Fold paper into the classic “cootie catcher” fortune teller shape that every kid loves. Write fun, harmless New Year’s predictions inside the flaps, like “You will eat three cakes this year” or “You will learn to jump higher next year.” Kids absolutely love telling each other’s fortunes, making it a great, highly engaging party activity before the countdown.
27. Paper Firework Paintings
Lay out large sheets of dark blue or black construction paper to simulate the night sky. Dip stiff paint brushes or forks into bright paint colors like yellow, red, silver, and white. Press the bristles onto the paper in outward, radiating lines from a central point to beautifully simulate the shape of a bursting firework. This creates beautiful, vibrant New Year’s art that feels exciting.
28. Future Self Drawings
Give your children paper and a fresh box of crayons and ask them to draw a detailed picture of themselves one year from now on the next New Year’s Eve. What will they look like? What new things will they be doing? This imaginative exercise is a wonderful way to encourage personal growth and positive self-reflection in a playful, creative manner.
29. Dream Jars
Find a simple glass jar and decorate it beautifully with ribbons and lots of glitter. Provide small strips of paper and have the kids write down their dreams, sincere wishes, and goals for the upcoming year. They can fold the slips and keep them safely in the jar, reading them next year to see which dreams magically came true.
Also Read: How To Use Vintage Glass Bottles For Home Decor!
30. New Year’s Countdown Clock
Draw a large circle on a poster board and divide it neatly into twelve segments for the hours. Decorate it brightly and add two clock hands made from stiff cardstock. Use a paper fastener to connect the hands in the center. Kids can manually move their hands as the night goes on, focusing excitedly on the final countdown to midnight!
Conclusion: New Year’s crafts for kids at home
You are now fully prepared with fantastic New Year’s crafts for kids at home!
From noisy shakers to thoughtful memory jars, these ideas provide hours of fun and result in beautiful, festive decorations for your home.
Use these New Year’s crafts for kids at home to ring in the New Year with creativity and unforgettable family joy!
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