New Year’s Eve is a time for renewal and celebration. People all over the world say goodbye to what didn’t work in the previous year, revel in the things that went right and rejoice over the hope they have in the year to come. Usually while drinking something bubbly and wearing something fancy. But, what if your New Year’s Eve has become a sedate little affair where you and your significant other try to corral the kiddies for hours on end until the ball drops and you can finally send them to bed? What to do if you want to get some of the magic back and have a romantic New Year’s countdown without the youngun’s under foot? Well, Netflix has an idea for you.
Netflix posted a video to explain the new feature to their YouTube page. The streaming service has created six on-demand countdown specials just for you to trick the young people into thinking it’s really almost midnight. Just log on to Netflix, search “New Year’s Eve” and the selection of countdown choices will pop up, and you or your kids can pick the one they want to ring in the new year with.
The brilliance of this plan, of course, is that you can play this countdown at any time on New Year’s Eve, and then send the kids to bed and get on with some more grown up fun until midnight actually comes around. Each special is between one and three minutes long, so there’s just enough time for a little New Year’s Eve frivolity for the offspring. They can get some dance moves in, have some giggles, enjoy a countdown made just for them and head off to sleepy town having brought in the new year right.
The specials feature popular cartoon and children show characters from Netflix’s properties. The shows are hosted by different characters from Puffin Rock, Care Bears & Cousins, Inspector Gadget, King Julien, Mr. Peabody and Sherman and Project Mc2. Netflix only prepared one countdown special last year. Not surprisingly, parents are glad to have some additional options this year.
The countdown specials are designed for everyone from preschoolers up to tweens. Netflix even did some research, which shows that 58 percent of parents around the world would rather put the kids to bed well before the clock strikes 12 on New Year’s Eve. They also found out that 49 percent of parents in the US, UK, Canada and Australia would be likely to have their countdowns finished by nine o’clock New Year’s Eve night. Well, with numbers like that, something tells me Netflix will be ready with more youngster-centric countdowns this time next year.
