New Year's activities for kids
Tap a present. Each one hides something for the countdown.
Tap a present to see what's inside.
Or start with New Year's jokes🍎 For your classroom
For the last night of the year, and the first morning
| Activity | When | What a child does |
|---|---|---|
| New Year's jokes for kids | Any time | Tell a joke about clocks, calendars and staying up late. |
| Picture timers | The countdown | Run a countdown with a picture timer. |
| Charades | Before midnight | Act out words for the room to guess. |
| Game Night | Before midnight | Keep score at a family dice game. |
| Trivia | Before midnight | Answer rounds for the whole table. |
| Coloring pages | Early evening | Color a picture for the wall. |
| The Kitchen | Early evening | Make a snack for the countdown. |
| Short bedtime stories | Early night | A story for a child who will not make it to midnight. |
Ways to make the countdown fit
| If your child… | Try |
|---|---|
| Is too young for midnight | A countdown at 7 p.m. with a picture timer, then a story |
| Wants to stay up | Game Night and charades |
| Likes to draw | A picture of the year on the Art Studio |
| Likes jokes | New Year's jokes |
New Year's Eve is the night of Thursday, December 31, 2026 and New Year's Day is Friday, January 1, 2027. Everything here is free through the end of 2026, with no ads, no sign-up and nothing to download.
Questions parents ask
What can kids do on New Year's Eve?
Play games before the countdown: charades, a family game night, trivia, and a countdown run on a picture timer.
What can young kids do who cannot stay up?
Hold the countdown early with a picture timer, then read a bedtime story.
What are some New Year's jokes?
Forty jokes with answers, with the answers read aloud.
Are these free?
Everything here is free through the end of 2026, with no ads, no sign-up and nothing to download.
Teacher? Share this page to Google Classroom. Children open it with no sign-up.
Checked against how Peabody works on 6 November 2026. Written with help from AI, from Peabody's own code and library. Peabody is a learning app, not an assessment: if you're worried about your child's learning, talk to their teacher. How Peabody's pages are made.