Afternoon countdown at Sammy Krenshaw's
Article content
At Sammy Krensaw’s in Tillsonburg, New Year’s Eve is celebrated twice beginning with a party for children ages 3-9 in the afternoon.
“We just call it the Kids New Year’s Eve Countdown,” said owner Keith Beres.
“What it stems from is being a single dad, raising this guy,” said Beres, nodding to his 12-year-old son Chase, who earlier in the afternoon was on the dance floor wearing several different mascot costumes including Paw Patrol. “There was nowhere to take him, ever. If you take him to a place like Great Wolf Lodge you’re dropping $100… There’s nothing cheap and entertaining for kids anymore. As soon as I opened this place (three years ago) I said, ‘What would I have done with him back then?’ And that’s what makes it a success, I guess.”
They usually get 60-80 children for the 1 p.m. party which starts with a bowl-a-thon, then snacks. It concludes with loud age-appropriate music, flashing lights and a lot of dancing – not something the kids would typically see until they get to tween dances.
“At 3 o’clock we do a New Year’s countdown. All the kids count backwards from 10, shout ‘Happy New Year’ and we drop a couple hundred balloons on them. Their job is to pop balloons and trash the place for the next half hour,” laughed Beres who joined them on the dance floor to do the countdown. “As soon as they dropped, they just jumped, jumped and jumped. I genuinely like to get on the dance floor for the countdown.”
This year the mothers were a lot more involved in the dancing with their children, he noted.
“They got to go ‘club’ with their kids and I thought that was kind of neat.”
The adults, of course, are invited back for adult’s New Year’s Eve party, which began at 9 p.m. with about 170 advance tickets sold. Every year Sammy’s has a different theme and on Monday it was ‘Back to the 90s.’
“That’s when the big kids come in,” Beres grinned. “We’ve tried the Masquerade Ball, the dressing up thing, but when you do this (Back to the 90s) you get a lot more.”
Saying goodbye as the kids were starting to leave, Beres said to one mother, “I think you had more fun than the kids!”
“I know, this was so awesome,” she nodded.
“Did you have fun?” Beres asked another couple on their way out.
“I know I did,” the dad smiled.
“It was a good time,” said Beres.
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.