Sometimes, hosts can have a challenge on their hands when they host parties with kids in the house. How to have party that appeals to teenagers without boring everyone else? What would younger children do just after midnight?
Non-Alcoholic Options for Tweens and Teens
Consider what they will drink for the New Year’s Toast: While some older teens might be allowed a sip of champagne, ensuring that the younger ones don’t start unsupervised alcohol tasting on their own is key. Make them a punch bowl containing a mix of fruit juices, or give them a more sophisticated option of “mocktails”: fruit juices and sparkling water served in a champagne glass or martini glass. A faster option is serving a bottle of sparkling grape juice.
Do It Yourself Pizza Party
An inexpensive, healthy and really fun option that children and adults alike will enjoy is creating a “pizza bar”. Everyone gets to dress his or her pizza with any range of toppings.
Make several batches your own organic pizza dough ahead of time, and form them into pre-made small pizzas that your guests will top with a range of vegetables, sausages, herbs and spices, as they would like. (Any leftovers can be easily frozen.) Have several small bowls filled with a range of topping options, so everyone has a choice: Be sure to label each bowl so that food allergies and taboos can be easily avoided.
Guests can make as many as they would like, any way they like and by including them in the fun of dressing the pizza, it can be as personalized as they like. Topping suggestions can be any of the following, and if you’re stumped, you can cheat by checking out the toppings list from your favourite pizzeria.
Topping Suggestions for DIY Pizza
- Mushrooms
- Red, green and yellow sweet peppers
- Hot peppers (pickled and fresh)
- Olives (green and black are standard but you can make it a gourmet version by adding garlic-stuffed Manzanilla olives, or Kalamata.)
- Onions
- Garlic
- Extra herbs like oregano, marjoram, thyme, rosemary
- Cooked chicken
- Cooked seafood like shrimp, scallops, calamari, or smoked oysters
- Strips of cooked beef
- Fruit, like pineapple, avocado, or tomatoes
- Sausages, like sliced pepperoni or crumbled cooked Italian sausage
- Gourmet cheese, other than the standard mozzarella: Try smoked mozzarella or Gouda, a sharp cheese like Roquefort, or mild fast-melting cheeses like Brie and Camembert.
(Remind your guests to put them on last, after they just come out of the oven. That way they can melt with heat of a just-baked pizza: If it’s added before the pizza is baked, the cheese will burn.)
New Year’s Desserts: Sundae Bar
Wishing your guests a sweet new year with a dessert bar is a decadent and surprisingly easy alternative to providing different pastries. In your invitation, have your guests bring along a their favourite candy, and/or ice cream topping, for a wide range of sundae toppings.
Provide the ice cream (most stores now sell industrial sized tubs of ice cream) in three basic flavours: Chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. The choice of providing sauces is up to you, and watching people gleefully toss candies and fruit on their creation is almost as much fun as eating the sundaes themselves.
New Year’s “Good Luck” Foods
Organizing a pot luck New Year’s Eve dinner can be a frugal and fun alternative: The theme can be “lucky” foods, as determined by various cultures. My article on Lucky Foods for New Year’s Eve can provide menu ideas, as well as some themes that may be an off-beat alternative to your average pot luck.
Here's wishing our reader's a happy and healthy New Year, and may your party be a blast!
