Ironically, New Years’ Eve has never been a night when my husband and I have booked a sitter. We’ve always treated it as a casual family-night in. We’ll just make dinner and watch the ball drop together. And even when the kids were about six, we would let them stay up with us to welcome the New Year.

I was recently telling this to a friend who was pretty shocked that I would ever let a child stay up until midnight. And yes, I know, I would pay for it, for a few days of excess whining afterwards. But it was a fun, simple family tradition.

What do you do on New Year’s Eve? If you’re booking a sitter, I’d suggest doing that today. But if you’re staying home with the kids, I have some fun NYE family party ideas from the Editors at Care.com that might(!) be a little more exciting than my Dick Clark Rockin’ Eve. Would love to hear your ideas too:

1. Host an Early Ball Drop. This would work for all early bedtimers. Google New Year celebrations in major cities in earlier time zones and celebrate while watching online. Countdown and blow horns, toast with fizzy apple cider. Whatever you want. Then kiss goodnight and let the kids get their sleep.
2. Throw a Slumber Party. The friends with the biggest house get to host! But this way, kids and grownups all get to join in the fun – and parents can be with their friends after the kids have gone to bed.
3. Have a New Years Day Open House. Forget the late nights and host a play date brunch for people to drop in and relax. It’s casual and playful, and another day for you to enjoy being with your kids – and each other.

Whatever you do for your New Year’s Eve and Day, I hope you have a great – and safe – night.

And here’s another tip. If you’re going out for dinner and you know you’ll be home early, as in around 9:30 or 10, let babysitter job applicants know. Create the Care.com job post with a title like "Need NYE Sitter – Will Be Home by 10PM." This works if you’re looking for a fun early night (since little ones don’t know it’s New Year’s Day!), you might just open up a wealth of job applicants (so they can go out after you get home!).

Tell me, what do you like to do with your kids for the holiday? Is it a big celebration for you?

I love the holidays. But I can’t take the excess. The indulgence. The wish-lists that start in October. And can I be honest? There’s nothing worse than disappointed children after spending three hours opening presents – because they want more!

They’ve been spoiled. But it’s not their fault. It’s ours. And I have a possible cure: the answer is giving each child one gift.

My theory is that the kids would get their one gift from each side of your family. So by the time Santa, Grandma, Pop, Nana, the Aunties and Uncles and your nanny give their one gift, your child has been showered with all that he could ever need. And then you can spend the rest of the holiday being together – playing with the toys or enjoying time not working!

I grew up in a family of five kids. So getting one gift was normal to us. We got our gift and we played with each others’. And the rest of the day was focused on a big meal, going to church, watching movies or playing a game together.

Then I grew up and decided to do things my way. So as a mom of two boys, I started off indulging them with a ton of stuff to see the joy in their faces each time they opened a present. But it didn’t make us all feel great in the end. It left them asking "what’s next?" and me feeling like I didn’t do the best job teaching them gratitude and generosity.

Much to my chagrin, I went back to how my parents raised me. I had to refocus on what I wanted the holidays to be about – being together. So to this day it is still one gift per kid, but it’s a meaningful gift. (We have a big family, so they get plenty of gifts.) When there’s only one gift from each person who cares for them, that gift will be a lot more special. If you celebrate Chanukah, do one big gift on the first night and smaller gifts for the remainder of the holiday (my friend Jody, our senior care advisor here at Care.com, suggests "gelt," little bags of chocolate coins, as a small gift for kids).

What do you think about my one gift rule? Am I just an old-fashioned, stingy Mama? Or, do I have something here? And, I ask you, no matter what you celebrate, will you join me in the one gift rule?!