Spending New Year’s Eve at home with the kids is as fun as you make it.

You can mope around about the fact that you’re not hitting the town, or you can pick some activities that the kids will really get into, celebrate it at 8pm and then toast each other when they’re all tucked in bed.

Last year we made our own balloon drop, drank some super yummy mocktails, ate sparkling Jello push pops, and even contemplated the 14 habits of happy families to fill out our FREE year-in-review/year-to-come printables for families (ok, we didn’t actually do all those things but we were super happy to provide you guys with the details on how to do them all).

This year, we’re making party hats that are so cute and easy to make. All you need is some card stock, a little festive paper or ribbons and some paint.

I’m giving you some general guidelines for making these hats, but if you don’t have the specific item (like gold tissue paper) it’s completely okay to use a different color or a bit of curled ribbon. The point is just to decorate a simple party hat and have fun while you’re doing it.

Start by cutting the white card stock. I’ve laid out how to cut the paper, but as you can see mine is not completely symmetrical and it still works. Just start a few inches down and cut a curved line to the other side. (You’ll be using the top portion.)

Next you’ll want to paint the card stock using watercolors. If you don’t have paints, that’s okay. Use markers or crayons. (These crayola watercolor pencils and oil pastel crayons would be especially fun!)

Leave the paint to dry for a few minutes. Use your hand to curve the paper around on itself. The bottom curved part is the bottom of the hat. The straight part on top will become the side seam that you can glue.

Here’s how it looks once you curve it around. Use some kind of ribbon or elastic to add a strap to both sides so it can be secured on the head.

Next you can start decorating. I chose gold tissue paper and cut some strips for a little tassel on the top. I stuffed it in that tiny hole at the top and added a drop of hot glue to secure it.

On another hat, I crumpled up a ball of gold tissue paper and secured it on the top. I also cut some fringed paper for around the bottom of one hat.

Hot glue works best to secure all your decorations because it dries so quickly. You can also use markers to write fun New Year sayings.

Have fun ringing in an early New Year and toasting with our super popular mocktails! At least until the kids go to bed.

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