New Years Eve with kids

[Maza]

How do/did you spend new years eve with little children? By that I mean the night time - not the day. Since becoming parents we have either had DH's family staying or have stayed in by ourselves and watched the fireworks on tv - and loved the fact that we can go to bed straight afterwards! In the last few years all of our good friends have moved out of our area and so we don't have anyone that we can just pop over and see.

This year we have been invited to spend the night at one of our friends' houses as they are having a party. We'll probably do it - but it will be a pain as the spare bedroom is just off the living room/open plan kitchen where all the noise will be so not sure if DD will be able to fall asleep - but hopefully she'll be in good spirits because there is no escape once we are there. They also have a daughter who is a similar age but a bit of a madam, so a bit hit and miss as to whether they will get on or not.

How have you all done it in the past or present?

[mama2three]

We usually go away. children are much more welcome abroad at celebrations and we go to a bar or to the local square where they have live music and fireworks. Ds loves it as much as we do ..he has been doing it since a few months old. He would either sleep in the buggy , or when a little older have a sleep in the afternoon.
This year we fly back on new years eve , so i have a feeling Ill be in bed before the bells this time!

[FloraDora]

We always spend New Year with friends. Before we had children and when they were growing up we hired a big house/ adjoining cottages together.
The children all slept in the same room usually so had their own party with late night feasts etc...until they had the stamina to stay up.
We also went on holiday together so had a good routine of at least one adult not drinking alcohol at all each night, the nominated children carer.
I really don't like drinking lots so would happily do the New Year's Eve duty, but in reality nobody drank that much that they couldn't care for their child- it was just in case of an emergency really.
As they grew up the children were very much part of the group so we had a nice meal and played games together.
For a few years we all took our top 3 songs that we had played a lot that year, children included which was always good listening. In later older teenage years, it became trickier when boyfriends/ girlfriends came on the scene, but mainly they would be invited along those years the 'children' stayed up partying longer than the mums and dads..until they all one year were at some stage of university and it was just grown ups...a very weird one!
Now it's the original friends...with occasional adult children who come along for a freebie holiday with their families.
It's nice to go somewhere that is not anyone's home so we all muck in. Usually we just eat left over Chritmas food as we tend to go on the 27/28th.
Let's hope the girls get on well - could your daughter sleep in the room with the other little girl away from the party? Or even on top of your friends bed and then you lift her when the party comes to an end??
It's my experience though that children manage to stay up as excitement of the bells ritual and being up late keeps them going.