I bet you LOVE hanging out until midnight with your little ones and a bunch of kids on New Year’s Eve, right?

I mean, who DOESN’T want to hang out with a 7-year-old for FOUR HOURS past their bedtime?…

NOPE. That’s not ‘our thing’ either!

That’s why I’m starting my children’s countdown to the New Year at 11:59 A.M. this December 31st.

Planning the perfect kids New Year’s Eve party has never been easier when you can just ring in the New Year just before lunch! I’m all about the kind of New Year’s Eve party that doesn’t come with a side of sleep deprivation & a temper tantrum.

The Magic of a Noon Year’s Eve Party For Kids

What-the-what is a Noon Year’s Eve Party? Yesterday, I hadn’t even heard of one. And now, I can’t stop thinking about it.

The concept is beautifully simple: kids’ New Year’s Eve countdown starts at 10:30am (which is conveniently mimosa time), builds up to an exciting countdown and ends with a celebration at noon. BTW, countdowns totally count as ‘practicing math’ over winter break!

Here’s why it works perfectly:

1. Children don’t feel left out of the late-night festivities. Awesome.
2. They avoid waking up overtired waaaaay too early on New Years Day. Sign me up.
3. It’s super easy. And thanks to years of entertaining at (way too many) kids parties, here are some pro-tips that make it easier to pull off than holding your coffee, baby, and cleaning the house at once (that’s the real magic trick isn’t it?).

And that is how you give your kids a chance to get into party mode (and back out of it, thank goodness) hours before bedtime!

So, if you’re looking for a kid-friendly New Year’s Eve event, this celebration checks all the boxes.

Planning Your Kids New Year’s Eve Countdown

Planning a children’s New Year’s Eve celebration doesn’t have to be complicated. I’ve learned which activities actually work in real life – not just in theory.

These are the crowd favorites that have children giggling and parents giving that relieved ‘thank goodness this is working’ smile. No Pinterest fails here!

Invite Your Guests To Wear Fun Outfits

From Parents Magazine:

“Get the kids excited about their big day by allowing them to dress up however they want.  You can do this by encouraging sparkly, festive attire and explaining to them the whole reason we celebrate the changing of our calendars so they’ll feel like rock stars with free creative reign over their looks.”

-Parents Magazine

If you don’t have a pile of costumes lying around, don’t worry. Instead, consider face painting to take ‘dress-up’ to the next level for your kids’ New Year’s Eve party.

(I’m about to do that thing where I talk about my job…warning…3, 2, 1…) 

Get your hands on a face painting kit, or free them up so you can hold that mimosa by having our professional children’s entertainers do it for you! 

Ahem.  The face painting, not the drink holding. *haha*

They’ll kick everyone’s looks up a notch while you kick back and relax with glittering face paints and sparkling glitter tattoos. Oh, and here’s a neat thing: our performers are trained to paint 3-5 faces at a time, so no one gets bored waiting for their turn. Score!

Bonus: If your adult friends are there, we LOVE face painting grown-ups to help them get into the spirit of the festivities too!

Add Some Balloon Magic

Speaking of party atmosphere, here’s what Mother.ly suggests:

“It’s not a party without balloons, right?  Confetti-filled balloons will brighten up your space, then you can pop them at “midnight” (aka noon) for a confetti shower!  If you like, you can fill these with helium or not – either way, the kids will love them. If you really want to wow the kids, stage your own balloon drop! You can make one by taping a plastic party tablecloth filled with balloons to your ceiling.” 

~ Mother.ly

The best part is I’ve found that 100% of the parents I surveyed confirmed that they love tying knots at the ends of balloons. Ok, no.  So, here it comes….don’t worry about the balloons – I have you covered!  

Let our entertainers take over by twisting festive, shimmering chrome balloon hats, wands, and (party) animals for you and your guests. 

Not only do children looooove helping us create new balloon designs, but they also get to take the balloons home, too.  

Hello, instant party favors! 

Keep the Energy Flowing

Once everyone is dressed up and decorated, it’s time to move! To start, whip up a kid-friendly playlist and push back your furniture to transform your living room into a dance floor. Show off your signature dance moves from back in the day to get the kids bopping along with you. Right, right?

It’s a great way for the littlest guests to burn off some energy early in the day so that they’re ready for bedtime, on time. 

What?  Not comfortable busting a move in front of a squad of 6-year-olds?  We’re ready to help!  We LOVE leading the party with our high-energy dancing, singing, and games activity called ‘Let’s Move!‘ anywhere, anytime. 

We come ready with a speaker, props for games, a kid-friendly playlist, and some great tricks to get all your guests moving & giggling. 

Wind Down Kids New Year’s Eve with Story Magic

After all that dancing, it’s a great time to gather the children for some magical storytelling. For example, there are lots of darling children’s books about children’s New Year’s Eve…

–The Night Before New Year’s by Natasha Wing

– Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution by Pat Miller

– Shante Keys and the New Year’s Peas by Gail Piernas-Davenport

If you’re looking for a more interactive storytelling experience, we can bring one of our most popular activities for your celebration.  

Our brand new activity, ‘Let’s Perform!’ is a Children’s Magic Show where the children are the stars. This fully immersive storytelling adventure was made to bring wide age ranges together, so you don’t have to. 

Capture Every Smile

From Parents Magazine:

“Put your crafting skills to use by constructing a photo booth!  Just hang a paper backdrop (festive New Year’s Eve wrapping paper will do the trick) and set up a camera on a tripod or have a designated phone photographer in place.   Blast some music and have the kids dance around, posing with their new, festive props—they’ll have a blast and so will you.  These photos will be a precious keepsake that’ll last a lifetime”.

-Parents Magazine 

Quick Answers to Common Questions

1: What’s the best time to start the party? A: Start at 10:30 AM so you have plenty of time for activities before the big countdown!

2: How many kids should I invite? A: Invite 8-12 children to create the perfect energy for group activities.

3: There are older kids there – won’t they know it’s not really midnight? A: Make them special helpers! They love being “in charge” of younger kids’ activities.

Making Magic Together

No matter what activities you choose for your kids’ New Year’s Eve party, your children will love feeling included. And, we feel you’ll love watching them climb into bed at the right time that night. 🙂

Happy New Year!

Oh. And we have performers standing by who are open right now. Go ahead and see if we can travel to you!

Psssst…if it is between 9am and 4pm (every day), you can chat with us live!

Check Availability

Want more magical party ideas? Download our free Noon Year’s Eve Party Planning Guide (no sharing of your contact info required)!

*Warning. This is a break from our ‘normal’ posts.

This post isn’t normal for me because today…well, today was not normal.

(btw, it’s Fae writing this, I’m the owner here.)

I know. I know. Life hasn’t been normal for quite some time. But today in particular, when I was editing this image from this afternoon’s photoshoot (I’ll get into that later), well, it was the tipping point for me.

So. What was so different about today?

Well, for one, as you West Coasters noticed, the sky was on fire (hence, the right side of this image).

***psssssst…for those of you in other places of the world – this is ~exactly~ what it looked like here today – unfiltered. No joke.

(Don’t worry, the smoke was waaaaay above our marine layer; the air quality was fine).

Back to the story. OK. So, I was sitting down with the shoot’s images just now to…

(here come a lot of air quotes)

…‘clean them up’ to make them feel like they were

…‘social media ready’ in order to maintain that professional

….‘small business look’. (notice the left side of the image)

But I just…I just stopped halfway through doing it. I stopped because the photoshopped version didn’t feel like the honesty that we really need right now.

Families and school staff are frantically trying to educate safely. People are wondering where their next paychecks are coming from. Our country is splitting apart. We’re STILL in the middle of a pand…I can’t even say it anymore. I can’t believe it’s still happening.

But it is. This is ALL happening.

So, what is the point of me typing out all this stuff that you already know? Especially when it’s ‘our job’ to bring the cheer and laughs?

My point is…there is another thing that has been happening that I’ve been pretty quiet about on the public side. And I just want to bring it up once, because I know I’m not alone. I’m just tired of trying to hide it.

I’ve been trying to keep a live entertainment company going during a worldwide pandemic. Our entire industry is inches away from crumbling apart. The stress of trying to keep everyone’s jobs (and to be here for your children when they desperately need a pick me up)…it’s been unreal.

But stick with me, I’m not writing this to make you feel sorry for me.

I’m here to thank you.

Also, thank you to my family who stepped in right when everything fell apart back in March. The childcare, financial help, and endless listening ears you gave me while I cried got me through.

All of you reading this right now, you could have just doomscrolled right by (if you’re reading this on our blog, this was originally a post on social media), but for some reason you stopped to check in on us.

Maybe it’s because you’ve hired us before, or worked here, or wanted to work here, or just like magic.

Whoever you are, thank you.

Because of you, we’ve been able to hold on.

Today, I was able to call the performer in this image for the photo shoot – because they *still actually have a job here* thanks to all of you who booked online shows with us over the summer.

This morning, I was able to spring this last-minute shoot on our performer manager (sorry, Meadow!), who has worked here for over 10 years, because of all the in-person shows you’ve trusted us to treat with safety and care.

I’m sitting here working on a new way for you to make Halloween over-the-top for your kids (but super easy on you), because of all the gift certificates, referrals, and honest reviews you’ve written online about us.

Thank you. Thank you.

I love Happily Ever Laughter with every fiber of my being. I’ve worked so hard on her over the last 14 years, and so have the hundreds of performers who’ve worked here alongside me.

Thank you for keeping this magic alive.

I’m going to sleep now, but writing all this out made me feel ready to take on finishing these photos for you.

Tomorrow. After lots of coffee. 🙂

Goodnight, grown-ups. And thank you again.

Ribbons and Roses,
Fae Diddle Diddle

“What if there are BOYS at my party?”

^ We get that question every.single.dayyyyy.

Ok. Real talk for a sec.

Can you do a quick role-playing game with me? (I mean, you’re surfing the internet for something fun to look at anyway, right? )

YAY! Cool. Let’s do this.

So, pretend you are a grown-up (I know, it’s hard to imagine ????) at a party for grown-ups (and it’s like, woahhh so fun).

Now, imagine that a person walks up to and offers you a giant basket of free…let me think for a second…WINE. Wine is fun. Free wine is even more fun. ????

(if wine isn’t your jam, then maybe they just walked up to you and…uh…oh, here’s a good one: they start telling you the BEST JOKE EVER in the whole world!)

Ok. Keep that in mind.

Here is what you WON’T do next:

Your brain won’t think —> “I don’t even want to LOOK at that wine, or HEAR that joke, because that person is wearing a white shirt.“

^or orange shoes. or blue skirt. or pink suit. (you get it now)

(but….if that IS what you’d think, I have no idea how to help you there)

Make sense?

It’s the same with children.

After the 17,000 times our performers have been invited to play with children, never ever never (ever) has a child said:

“I don’t want to pet that cute baby dragon puppet because…you are a Mermaid.”

“That shiny golden balloon animal you want to give me is boring because…you are a Faerie.”

We only show up as a character because it’s like wrapping paper on a present.

It’s shiny.

It’s fun.

But, what a child really wants, is the gift inside.

No matter how it’s wrapped.

So, there ya go. If there are boys at your party, (like the 99% of parties we’ve been to), they’ll be just fine.

In fact, they’ll be more than just fine.

They’ll be stoked.

Party on!