What to do for New Year’s Eve 2023 & beyond with Kids in Moncton
Welcome to the end of 2022, everyone! We here at Pickle Planet HQ have been trying to embrace the holidays & stay offline but we couldn’t leave you all without a final post for the year – filled with the information you’re looking for to ring in the New Year with your family in Greater Moncton!
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We’re about to dive into events that are happening this year to ring in 2023, but first, some ideas for family-focused fun you can create on your own.
NEW YEAR’S EVE IDEAS WITH KIDS
- Plan a sleepover! Invite your favourite family over to spend the night or create your own family camp out in the living room.
- Outdoor fun! Enjoy a backyard bonfire with s’mores and sparklers or stock up on glow sticks and have a dance party!
- Skating Party! Many local indoor & outdoor rinks are open & have skate times available on December 31 & January 1. Maybe you’ll start a new family tradition!
RELATED: PICKLE PLANET MONCTON’S GUIDE TO SKATING IN GREATER MONCTON
- See the lights! Wild Lights at Magnetic Hill Zoo is open New Year’s Eve to enjoy the lights, then head home for some hot chocolate and treats while you await midnight. You might also plan a stroll along the Riverfront Trail in Riverview, a free option that offers amazingly romantic and festive vibes for snapping photos. Many homes still have their holiday lights on, too! (You can find our suggested route for some great Christmas lights here.)
- Family fun! Break out the board games, invest in a puzzle, indulge in video games, or plan a movie marathon.
- Don’t forget the treats! If you’re planning take out, try to order ahead – like, days ahead. Some local Chinese restaurants will take bookings a few days before New Years Eve. Many families plan a fun meal, like homemade personal pizzas or fondue. A trip to the candy store to pick out some special goodies is always a fun treat, too!
RELATED: HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN HOT CHOCOLATE BOARD
- New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day is also a great time to start a tradition with your family. Grab a notebook and begin keeping a log of the one-liners, inside jokes, family adventures, and everyday moments you want to remember. Keep it somewhere easily accessible, like tucked in a drawer in the kitchen, so everyone can add to it through the year. Enjoy reminiscing next year!
- Discover other cultural traditions! Spend some time learning about New Year’s traditions from around the world and incorporate these into your celebrations. Maybe you’ll eat a dozen grapes like folks do in Spain, or wear red and/or yellow like many Italians or Mexicans – colours that are meant to bring you love, happiness, & money – or have a dark-haired Scottish man come round for first footing, bringing your home good luck for the year to come.
- Early countdowns! Netflix usually brings out a whole bunch of short New Year’s Eve countdown videos featuring popular kids’ programming. Perfect for early night fun with little ones!
NEW YEAR’S EVE EVENTS IN GREATER MONCTON
Sky Zone is once again hosting New Year’s Eve at Noon! There will be lots of extra activities from 10am until 4pm – live DJ, games, etc – with a countdown at noon & a GLOW light show from then until 3pm. A great way to celebrate without keeping the kids up late! (Passes are good all day; don’t forget, white or florescent shirts are required for the GLOW show & SkyZone socks are needed, too.)
Hop! Skip! Jump! is also open New Year’s Eve (9am-2pm) and on New Year’s Day (9am-2pm & 3-8pm).
The Petty Raceway is holding a New Year’s Eve Blast, with monster truck rides at 1pm & racing beginning at 2pm.
Poley Mountain is open for the season, with the hill scheduled to be open 9am-4:30pm on New Year’s Eve & New Year’s Day.
Memramcook is offering a free skate, 1-2pm, on New Year’s Eve. The rink is closed New Year’s Day.
The 8th Hussars Sports Centre in Sussex is holding a free skate with lots of fun extras on New Year’s Eve, starting at 2:30pm.
Thanks to the World Juniors, there’s a massive downtown celebration planned in Moncton for New Year’s Eve this year. The Mellotones will be providing the music, the Canada vs Sweden game will be on the big screen, and there’ll be fireworks & a proper countown to 2023! (The game begins at 7:30pm, the music at 10pm, and fireworks at midnight.) Bring your skates to enjoy the Ian Fowler Oval & be sure to visit the local food trucks on site, too.
Psst! That also means there are road closures downtown on December 31, so plan your route accordingly.
NEW YEAR’S DAY LEVEES & MORE
Many municipalities in New Brunswick generally host New Year’s Day Levees as a way to bring the community together at the start of the year. Apparently it’s a very Canadian tradition. In Riverview, the Mayor’s Levee is being held from 1-2:30pm with cake and a special celebratory kick off for the town’s 50th anniversary!
MORE IDEAS FOR FAMILY FUN ON NEW YEAR’S DAY & BEYOND
A reminder: Anglophone East & Francophone Sud schools return to classes JANUARY 9, 2023.
Both the Ian Fowler Oval in Moncton (in front of the Avenir Centre) & the Dieppe Skating Oval (at Place 1604) are refrigerated & open for outdoor skating now! More outdoor community rinks generally become usable in January. You can find a list of them & more indoor & outdoor skating info in our Guide to Ice Skating in Greater Moncton,
The City of Moncton is holding a free skate at the Crossman Centre/Kay Arena from 1-4pm on New Year’s Day. Enjoy free hot chocolate, too! (Don’t forget to bring a helmet if you plan to be on the ice.)
Cineplex is open New Year’s Day & has a few family-friendly titles to choose from, including Disney’s Strange World, the new Puss in Boots movie, Black Panther, the Whitney Houston biopic, and more.
The Moncton Library has several events happening through the first week of the New Year, including chess on Tuesday, family colouring Thursday morning, origami and D&D on Saturday, and more.
Sackville’s Lunch time skates are happening January 2-6, noon to 1:30pm.
Dieppe’s skating rinks are open, with several options each day, as well as daily public swim times at the Dieppe Aquatic Centre during the holidays (until Jan 8).
The World Juniors fun continues January 2, 4, & 5 downtown, with Halifax-based games shown outside on the big screen, live music, food trucks, and two quarter final games at the Avenir Centre on Monday! (There’s also a watch party happening in Shediac on Jan 2.)
Memramcook is offering free public skating on Wednesday, Jan 4 (1:45-3:45pm) & Sunday, Jan 8 (11:45am-12:45pm).
The Capitol Theatre is holding an Open Doors event on Sunday, January 8. Guided tours begin at 10am, leaving the lobby every 15 minutes. You’ll get a chance to stand on stage, backstage, and more. At 3pm, the 1984 Ghostbusters will be shown, with free popcorn for all! The entire event is free; seats are first come, first served for the movie.
ONGOING EVENTS & IDEAS FOR FAMILY FUN
- There are several spots that often indoor walking, with many tracks being stroller-friendly (at least at certain times), including Moncton Coliseum, Crossman Centre/Kay Arena, YMCA North & the UNIplex in Dieppe for current information.
- Marco’s Clinic is a great spot for basketball & laser tag! (It’s just across the parking lot from our next spot.)
- FitRocks Climbing Gym has great courses for all ages. Perfect for any combination of climbers.
- DIY Studio is a great spot for a paint-your-own pottery outing. We’re thrilled to see they’re getting a bigger space this month!
- Bowling is always fun! Bowlarama in Dieppe offers gutter blockers for kids & an awesome arcade section. There’s also Holy Moly in Riverview and Fairlanes in Moncton (with Glow Bowling nights!).
- The YMCA Moncton North has an indoor splash pad & playground!
- Resurgo Place is generally closed Sundays & Mondays; a great spot with hands-on historical fun for kids.
- Doiron House, celebrating Acadian community life in Dieppec, is generally open Saturdays & Sundays.
- The Riverview Indoor Skatepark is a wonderful place to learn & practice your skills; book a time and check them out!
- Escape rooms are great fun with older kids; check out the options at Room Escape Atlantic, Mystery Moncton Mystere, & Shediac’s Le Moque-Tortue.
- Timber Lounge offers family bookings, too. Another great option for tweens & teens (or a night out).
- Bass Pro’s 12,000-gallon freshwater aquarium with striped bass, Atlantic sturgeon, trout, perch, and more is always a sight to see.
- Take in a public swimming session at the YMCA Greater Moncton (small pool for littles), Dieppe Aquatic Centre (pirate ship splash area and sloped entry are great for littles), or the Pat Crossman pool in Riverview.
- Head to Hiking NB for amazing details on trails throughout the province – including lots of winter options. You might also want to follow along with Maritime Detours and Explore Nature’s Bounty for locally-guided options.
- For a self-guided option with a little trivia mixed in, why not use the Culture & Heritage Scavenger Hunt for the City of Moncton? Pair it with visiting the public murals scattered throughout the area!
- Love ninja warrior courses? Parkour? Check out Off Grid Adventure in Anagance for an awesome adventure course!
- Maghill Paintball is a fantastic option with older kids. A two-hour rental (birthday party package) is available; great for a group outing.
- Most kids love animals – and there are some fun options locally to consider, either booking a visit soon or grabbing a gift certificate for a holiday experience!
- Llamazing Adventures is full of funky options to spend time with their crew all year round.
- Broadleaf Ranch is a lovely place for a trail ride; we highly suggest an overnight stay in one of their themed glamping cabins, too!
- Boyle Family Farm offers a petting zoo & horseback rides closer to Moncton.
- NB Urban Mushing allows you to experience the thrill of dog sledding!
- And of course, the Magnetic Hill Zoo is open for Wild Lights until Jan 7.
Don’t forget to take time to enjoy local parks & playgrounds, which can be just as fun in winter as in summer! Here are a few of the large spaces to explore, with trails & occasional activities planned. You can also check out our Playground section for dozens of profiles of local spaces to play. Some of these spaces will even have community rinks this winter!
SLIDING HILLS IN GREATER MONCTON
Tobogganing, sliding, sledding – whatever you call it, it’s one of the most fun things to do in winter! Every neighbourhood has its favourite hills, but here are a few to-go spots to seek out this winter.
- There are a few municipally-approved toboggan runs at Centennial Park in Moncton.
- Rotary St-Anselme Park in Dieppe also has several great spots.
- In Riverview, head to Winter Wonderland Park, on Quinn Court (off Gunningsville Boulevard) for some awesome tracks (and some snowboarding ones, too!) or behind Claude D. Taylor School.
- Our kids love sliding at Highland Park in Salisbury; the hill is fantastic!
- Shediac’s Pascal Poirier Park is often home to many sliding tracks in the winter.
- In Fundy Park, check out the Headquarters Tobogganing Hill, and if you’re at Kouchibouquac Park, Patterson Hill is a great spot for sliding, though it is a long walk (2km) to reach the site.
2022 BABIES OF NEW BRUNSWICK
Want to see what’s been trending over the years — including what the most popular names were for babies in New Brunswick in 2022?! We’ve got you covered!
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Happy 2023 everyone!