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New Year’s Eve: Netflix Creates Fake Countdowns To Help Put Kids To Bed Early, Parents Rejoice

By Sandra Johnson
Published on: 14:48 PST, Dec 30, 2015

On New Year’s Eve, parents of young children are always faced with the difficult question: Let the little ones stay up late and deal with the consequences on New Year’s Day? Or make them go to bed and deal with the consequences on New Year’s Eve?

This year, the conundrum may be a bit easier for some parents, as Netflix has announced that the service will have several fake countdowns available for adults to stream throughout the day. Want the kiddos to go to bed at 8:30? No problem. Just pull up one of the Netflix New Year’s Eve countdowns and trick the kids into believing that it’s already midnight.

According to a study done by Netflix, parents around the world like to put their children to bed well before midnight, even on New Year’s Eve. The same study found that 97 percent of parents spend the evening with their children on New Year’s Eve, and almost half of parents in the United States, Canada, Australia, and U.K. put their kids to bed by 9 p.m.

And, the study reported, nearly 41 percent of parents in the United States planned to use some kind of trick to get their kids to go to sleep early. Might as well use one of the Netflix countdowns, according to the Netflix press release.

“Midnight, shmidnight. This year you can celebrate as a family and still have time for a parents-only party with a whole new set of New Year’s Eve countdowns on Netflix designed for preschoolers, tweens and everyone in between.”

According to the same study, Brazilian parents are most excited to spend New Year’s Eve as a family and say the countdowns provide an opportunity to do so. Nearly 63 percent of parents in Brazil are excited to be able to ring in the 2016 new year with their little ones — even if the ringing in happens a little early!

There are several New Year’s Eve countdowns on Netflix, according to the same press release. Characters who are featured on countdowns include Oona and Baba from Puffin Rock, the Care Bears, Inspector Gadget, King Julien, Mr. Peabody and Sherman, Puss in Boots, and the Croods. In total, there are six on-demand countdowns available.

The on-demand countdowns from Netflix are an interesting idea put forth by the streaming media giant, and as the Netflix study indicated, parents are jumping at the chance to take advantage of the New Year’s Eve countdowns.

The Netflix countdowns are the subject of a lot of press this year, but it’s not the first time the subscription service has offered the on-demand New Year’s Eve countdowns. Last year, Netflix offered a single countdown featuring King Julien. Obviously it was popular enough for Netflix to not only bring the idea back, but also to expand from one to six countdowns.

Each countdown is just a few minutes long, ranging in time from one minute and 37 seconds (Mr Peabody & Sherman) to three minutes and 19 seconds (King Julien).

The Netflix countdowns can be found by searching “New Year’s Eve” in the Netflix search bar.

What do you think of the New Year’s Eve countdowns on Netflix? Do you think it’s okay for parents to trick their kids into going to bed earlier? Do you like the Netflix countdown idea? Will you use it?

Find out more about Netflix’s New Year’s Eve countdowns for kids in the video below.

[Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images News]

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