Your family can ring in 2019 with a balloon drop, time capsule, countdown to 12 and stories about celebrating a new year.
All before noon.
The Franklin library, 401 State St., and Clark-Pleasant library, 530 Tracy Road, Whiteland, are offering Happy Noon Year events starting at 11:30 a.m. today.
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Branches of the Johnson County Public Library for years have offered an event that allows families to count down to a new year by counting down to noon.
The idea of families celebrating a new year together early has become trendy and the library branches have annually planned and implemented the event as a way for families to spend time together on the holiday and to help draw people to the library, librarians said.
Celebrating the new year has traditionally skewed as a celebration for teens and adults because of the late hour, Kalen Jones, teen and children’s librarian at the Franklin branch said.
“(The event) is just to have at time to come together with their family and with other families in the area to have some fun and ring in the new year in kind of a different way,” she said.
In Indianapolis, the Children’s Museum has long offered a similar event at the museum. The event is popular with local families, with both branches expecting to host a few dozen children at their events, librarians said.
Parents may find it appealing because they can celebrate as a family and their child can celebrate while still getting to bed at a reasonable hour, Whitney Woody, children’s programmer at the Clark-Pleasant library said.
“A lot of kids don’t stay up or are not able to stay up to midnight, so it has become a fad to host a Noon Year’s party,” she said.
Both events featured themed crafts, snacks, books read and ways to count down to noon. Librarians gather ideas on how to make the event festive through library trade magazines and crafting websites.
The idea is to get children and their families in a festive mood and is a popular seasonal event that is offered annually by the library, Woody said.
“I think it is something that the kids really enjoy,” she said. “It is an event that is a popular kids’ event.”
The event is today and patrons are still urged to register at pageafterpage.org.
