New Years Eve ideas please.

[serin]

Quite fancy going away somewhere, with extended family, midlands would be about halfway.

Does anyone have any ideas of a nice hotel/event/cottage that would be interesting.

What kind of budget? Will there be many kids and what ages?

Center Parcs Nottingham - pricey at that time of year though.

national trust cottages?

Always spotless, roaring open fires , lovely scenery for walks to burn off excess choccie and alcohol

Kids ages are 15,11,10 and 8yr old neice.

Budget for our part of the deal would not really be more than £500ish which rules out a lot.

Have thought of centre Parcs and though it is a bargain right after New year, our schools go back on the 3rd.

NT is a fab idea, what does eveyone else do?

Not so much where to go as what to do. We had a time shift party last year. Our dc are younger, were 6,4 and 2, so not up to late nights, well they are often up late, but not usually that late. We celebrated Australian New. Year at ?1pm with burgers, sausages (grilled not bbq, not that mad!), then Delhi at 5:30 - had curry, then had a little party with Russian Dancing ?8pm, African dancing 9pm with Kenya New Year, and some olives, pitta, etc at 10pm with Greece. We had the news on too for fireworks on the hour. None of us could be bothered to stay up for actual midnight, but did get up for an American breakfast in the morning! The children were allocated a flag to draw for the different countries.

Am sure you could adapt it to the ages, and can choose different countries. Might be fun if you are planning to do something in a cottage rather than go out. Might do it again this year!

2db, i'm loving that idea for new year it's fab!

3db I love that idea, I'm filing it away for when my kids are old enough to use it!

3DB That is a great idea! Thanks.

That's an all day party, 3DB!

Well alll day and the next morning! It was organised in a last minute panic of 'what do we do with no baby sitter but feel as if we should be having a good time'. It was just our family so we drew flags in the morning, ready to wave at appropriate time. But we didn't really do much between Australia and Delhi. The main party was in the evening with some dancing, pass the parcel (children voted it as obligitory); etc.

If you were doing it with more people then each family could be allocated a country to provide light food/drink for, and some appropriate entertainment, quizzes etc. Certainly after 5 countdowns, party poppers and Happy New Years we felt that we had celebrated it, well until the next morning.

There was an inflatable globe on amazon for 1.99 which would make a great prop.

I was thinking of taking ds to Scotland for a bit of a party.

Oh you can't beat a hogmanay! When the dc are a bit older we'll be off to Edinburgh!

He's 13, do you think he's still too young?

I went in my wild student days, and can't remember much tbh except lots of kissing on the Royal Mile. I think it has calmed down a bit now, aren't there tickets? Edinburgh is lovely for a visit anyway. My ds is 10 years younger than yours and I know he wouldn't appreciate it yet. I think as long as you try to keep him close and have meeting points, mobiles etc it would be fine. It was all very good natured! Alternatively find a Scottish MNer in the know to recommend a smaller ceildih somewhere, highlands or islands could be fun if you know where to go.

Thank you. He'll stick with me though, I like the idea of somewhere small a little better but he'd love the fireworks. I'm not sure about the tickets, I'll look into it.

Oh, it says not recommended for the under 16s

Opps that's probably due to the drunken snogging students whom I have heard have frequented it in the past!

I could take him to a very nice hotel, spend the evening watching the parade, then go back to the hotel for the fireworks?

We're spending new year at Center parcs in Whinfell. Decided to do something different this year.