Our annual occasions and treasured holidays are generally celebrated by everyone in our households, from the oldest to the youngest (and, quite often, the pets, too, in full customary costume).
But there is a bit of exception to this rule, and it falls on the final day of the year. For while our young'uns are front-and-centered at the Thanksgiving table, and they happily fashion paper hearts for Valentine's and wave flags on Independence Day, they don't always make it to midnight on New Year's Eve.
This could be a parental choice, of course, especially if the tot is but a toddler, but oftentimes kids simply can't make the late hour (nor can their parents or anybody else who identifies as a morning person). Eyelids grow heavy, and soon the partier is deeply asnooze on the couch well ahead of the ball drop.
There is a sweet solution to this, and a festive one, too. Both Discovery Cube OC in Santa Ana and Kidspace Children's Museum in Pasadena rev up the Auld Lang Syne action early in the day on Dec. 31. In fact, exactly twelve hours earlier, to be specific, so if you're guessing the party is dubbed "Noon Year's Eve," you'd be correct.
Balloons will be dropped at both locations promptly at noon o'clock, and Kidspace says revelers "MUST ARRIVE EARLY" for the spectacle, so take that suggestion to heart. The parties start well ahead of noon at both spots -- 9:30 in Pasadena, while Discovery Cube has several learning stations open ahead of the balloon drop -- and dressing festively is part of the fun (the Santa Ana party has a superhero theme).
If you can't do Dec. 31 -- too busy, et cetera -- note that the Discovery Cube is holding its Noon Year's Eve bash on Dec. 30, too. And it'll happen two times each day, at noon and 2 o'clock, just in case you need a double dose of balloon-bright action.
Who says we have to welcome 2016 right at the stroke of midnight? Tots who may be tucked up at that hour can get the celebrating going hours ahead of that moment, alongside their families, in both Orange County and steps from the Rose Bowl.
