Susan Matthews knows that the best commotion on New Year's Eve comes not from the party horns but from the excited kids. So, when she, her husband Frank and their three kids threw a countdown celebration at their Minnetonka, Minnesota, home a couple of years ago, they had the guests make a few items that created a festive mood without deafening the adults.

NOISEMAKER SHAKERS

Fill plastic film canisters halfway with corn kernels and decorate with shiny stickers. (Con-Tact or construction paper, glitter, fabric paint and opaque paint markers are also good for decorating.) We poked a hole in the canister's cap (a parent's job) and threaded curled ribbon through. Knot the ribbon on the underside of the cap, and let the rest stream out of the top.

STREAMERS

Staple lengths of crepe paper to an empty cardboard tube or a straw and decorate with abandon.

COUNTDOWN NUMBERS

Draw and color in the numbers 1 through 10 on poster boards--one number per board. At midnight, each child promenades down a flight of steps, number card held high, as the crowd yells out the number and cameras flash. "That was their moment," says Susan. As the last child hits the last step, the streamers were blowing and the shakers were shaking. "You would just not believe how cool that turned out."