Happy New Year
About 200 attend Town New Year’s at Noon
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Roha Chania, 6, left, and Madilyn Stites Diaz, also 6, share a best-friend moment while decorating their party hats during Town of Farragut’s New Year’s at Noon event in Farragut Community Center Saturday, Dec. 30. - Photos by Tammy Cheek
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Tristan Cottrell, 7, left, draws on a craft with his sister, Adalyn Cottrell, 6, and brother, Haydn 3. - Photos by Tammy Cheek
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Oliver Johnson, 4, is in deep concentration as he decorates his party hat at New Year’s At Noon Saturday, Dec. 30. He was among 200 — children and adults total — who attended the event. - Photos by Tammy Cheek
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Alex Beale shares some father-daughter time with 2-year-old daughter, Amelia Beale, who was more interested in the popcorn during the Town’s New Year’s at Noon Saturday, Dec. 30. - Photos by Tammy Cheek
Families bonded with quality time while celebrating the New Year’s holiday with Town of Farragut-sponsored New Year’s at Noon in Farragut Community Center Saturday, Dec. 30.
“This is our favorite family event of the year,” one parent, Katheryn Wolf, said. “We’ve come to this the last two years, and we just love it — the kids and all their friends — it’s just wonderful. It’s a lot of fun, and the kids have a lot of different crafts and activities they can do.
“They love taking pictures and the balloon drop is amazing,” she added. “The kids love it; they talk about it all year.”
About 200 children and adults enjoyed games and treats, had photos made and took part in other activities before the “balloon drop” at noon.
“We have a popcorn bar; we have bubbly drinks for the kids,” Town Rec & Event manager Rachel Malone said. “We have some yard games set up in the gym. We have a resolution paper, a big piece of paper that says ‘In 2024, I want to …’, and there’s markers (with which the children) can write different things they want to do in the new year.”
Among the resolutions children wrote were: “ I want to make ice cream sundaes; I want to be on a performance dance team; I want to play in a bounce house.”
“We have a craft in the Assembly Hall, which is a party hat,” Malone said. “They can decorate their own party hat.”
But “obviously the big draw is the balloon drop,” Malone said. “It’s about 800 balloons.”
She said the children get under the balloons, “we count down to noon, pull the cord and that is their New Year’s celebration. “
Malone observed “whenever you’re little, you might try as hard as you can, but you can’t make it up to midnight.
“It’s a good thing for the little ones to get to celebrate the New Year with their parents, and it seems to be an event a lot of people look forward to,” she added. “It filled up pretty quickly this year.”
Last year, Malone said the cap on the number attending was 150, “so we expanded it a little bit this year to 200.”
