Stringham Family: New Years Eve Party

Thursday, January 16, 2014

New Years Eve Party

This year for New Years Eve we thought about going bowling and let someone else handle the party but the truth is our group is just too big it would have cost too much money so 2 days before the day my sister and I decided to throw a party together. This is the was to go just split the work in half. Its hard to find ideas on the Internet that don't involve alcohol so after some searching and my creative brain I had a few ideas in mind so I put them in action.

First off was food. You can't have a party with out food. We talked about having it catered but again too much $$. We let everyone know we were having a party and they all came out of the wood work asking what they could do or bring. So we delegated. We assigned a lot of the food out and told everyone we would handle everything else. My sister Amy made delicious copy cat Cafe Rio chicken and was gracious enough to buy their salad dressings. I myself made my famous salsa and guacamole and we had everyone bring 1 bottle of martinelli's. Food handled, my sister Steph did the decorating and hosted it at her house. As people arrived we had a photo op where they were to write their resolutions on a white board so we could take their picture. We made this mandatory and got everyone at the party to comply. Some a little more willingly than others but if you can get people to get involved from the beginning it opens them up for the rest of the night.

I came up with some count down games that I wrapped up in boxes and labeled like they were a clock. I had a game complete with prize for each hour. Since we have a large group of adults as well as kids I made 2 sets of games (one for kids and one for adults). We started the party at 7:30-8pm. On hind sight I probably would have moved it later because it was just too much for some kids and grownups. We didn't really play the games on the hour but with in the hour when it was convenient for us. They had such fun they they wanted game after game. They kept asking when the next game could be played. In between games we ate food and had a dance party that was off the hook. The kids were great, showing off their moves as we cranked the stereo up. Even those who were shy eventually joined in the fun and turned out to be awesome dancers.

Our first game at 8 o'clock was a post it game. I split people up in pairs and gave each pair a stack of sticky post it notes. They had to pull of the notes 1 by one and stick them on their partner. The first team to finish won. I made the rule that all the post its had to be stuck on the person. If any fell off they had to reapply it in order for it to count. This was a game the kids could do as well so they had their own sets just the smaller ones. The winner for this game received an itunes gift card. Once people saw we had real prizes they got more involved.

For 9 o'clock game we had a trivia game of what happened in 2013. Basically a paper with questions ranging from who won the super bowl to which major disasters did mother nature do this year. It was a total of 15 questions they had to answer. For the kids we did a movie quote trivia. We paired the ones that couldn't read with ones that could and they worked in pairs. The winner to this also received and itunes gift card.

Brennen burning it up on the dance floor

For 10 o'clock we had a pop culture quiz and celebrity resolution quiz. This was sheer guessing for most of our group because we are not that into what the celebrity's do with their lives. For the kids I had 2 boxes of recycle-ables, tape, and scissors. I had each team make an animal out of the materials. They had to work together and try to use as many of the things in the box as possible. The winners received an amazon gift card and a target gift card.

post it winners

For the 11 o'clock box we had our celebration box. we split up into teams and played reverse charades. This is always a great party game because everyone has to participate. There is an app for this game but basically 1 person is the guesser and the rest of the team tries to get their guesser to say the right word. The twist is everyone has their own idea of how to get he guesser to the right answer that they have no idea who to look at so it gets crazy but its super fun. The winning group won cash money. We made a big deal out of it even though it was only $25 so each person got $5 but they were all great sports and acted like they won the lottery.

When it was time for the actual count down we handed out the noise makers and silly string. My brother Scott brought Chinese lanterns for each family. We wrote our resolutions on them then went outside to release them in the sky. The great thing about this was that other people had the same idea. It started off as just a few of our floating towards the darkened sky then all of the the sudden more and more joined them. It was an incredible sight. We lit fireworks and sparklers making more noise than we knew what to deal with. Then went inside for a little bubbly in special little (plastic) champagne cups. It was a super fun night and I didn't have any trouble staying awake this year.