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New Year’s eve looms as the next holiday celebration, but if you have young kids you might think your days of glitzy celebrations are over. After all, even if you can find a babysitter, who can afford one?

That’s why now’s the time to step into a new New Year’s tradition with your family and make it memorable. Jessica Fisher, a wife, mom of six and writer, offers some fun, inexpensive, do-able suggestions for Ringing in the New Year With Kids. Among my favorites are hosting a Game-athon night, where you invite young and old over to play classics such as Monopoly, Yahtzee, Candy Land and Battleship, as well as some newer games, such as Blockus, Rush Hour or Apples to Apples. Serve inexpensive munchies and drinks to keep folks happy! Another simple, sweet idea from is to bake a Happy New Year Cake. Jessica suggests you use a boxed mix and let the kids help top the cake with frosting and sprinkles. You take a photo of the family blowing out the candles together for posterity. I also like suggestion of gathering the family to think and dream of all they’d like to do in the coming year. I do believe that dreams are the roots from which reality can spring. What a great way to start the New Year and bond as a family.

Each new year, I like to make crackers with my family. Popping crackers, which are decorative party favors shaped like cylinders, are an English tradition dating to Victorian times. I remember the fun I had as a child pulling the crackers apart (tug-of-war style) with a friend and exploring the contents for a joke, riddle, party hat or whistle! If you buy these crackers in a store, they’ll run you from $10 to $25 for a box of eight, but making them with your kids is so much more fun and inexpensive. I recycle cardboard rolls from paper towels for the cylinders and cover them with leftover Christmas paper. You can fill them with inexpensive surprises, making each one different. I must admit that my crackers do not make the official cracking pop, but there’s a lot of yelling and excitement when the contents spill open. That counts, doesn’t it?

Do you have great New Year’s traditions? Share them with us!

— Written by Odile Fredericks, Carolina Parent Web Editor

Visit CarolinaParent.com’s Story Times & Weekly Events for free or thrifty daily fun and visit our Triangle Holiday Guide for more local seasonal fun!

With the holidays here, your child might just feel inclined to sit on the couch with TV remote in hand. But try these five ideas from Karl Dune, of Huntington Learning Center of Fayetteville, and visit CarolinaParent.com’s sources, for fun—and often free—ways to keep kids learning during the holiday break.

1. Take trips to the library. Call your local library to see what programs they have for children who are off from school such as arts and crafts classes or enrichment programs. (See CarolinaParent.com’s Story Times & Weekly Events for free fun any day of the week and visit our Triangle Holiday Guide.) Holiday break is also the perfect time for your child to pick out some fun reading material, whether that’s a book about penguins and the North Pole, or the latest Harry Potter novel. If you’re the parent of a tween or teen, try selecting a book that both of you can read and scheduling a "book club" date to discuss it over ice cream or lunch when you’re finished. (See CarolinaParent.com’s daily Calendar for fun activities.)

2. Bake holiday treats. Search for tasty cookie or pastry recipes online together and let your child take charge in the kitchen, reading the recipe instructions aloud and measuring the ingredients. Then, bag up those holiday goodies for family, friends or neighbors, and have your child get out a ruler to measure and cut 18-inch ribbons to tie the gift baggies closed. (Looking for local recipes? Check out www.CarolinaParent.com’s Holiday Traditions at the Table for recipes from our readers and staff.) Have your child cut small cards out of construction paper and write holiday greetings inside.

3. Explore your town’s museums and other tourist sites. What is your child interested in these days - Space? Art? American History? Why not spend an afternoon or evening together the local nature and science museum, art museum or history museum? For younger children, be sure to check out children’s museums and their holiday programs for kids and families. You’ll find some Triangle museum events on CarolinaParent.com’s Calendar Highlights. Live in