How to Make an Easy DIY New Year’s Eve Piñata

Looking for a simple and inexpensive way to ring in the New Year with kids? Make your own New Year’s Eve piñata out of wrapping paper and packaging from the holiday season! I’ve also included three free piñata filler ideas to save money and reduce waste. It’s a fantastic way to celebrate the coming of a new year with family and friends while being planet and budget-friendly.

My family celebrates Christmas, which means that December is filled with many meaningful holiday traditions. One of them is exchanging gifts, which has a tendency to create more waste than I care to admit. The specific waste I’m referring to is gift packaging. From wrapping paper, ribbons, and cardboard boxes to mixed-material inserts, plastic molds, and tissue paper, the Christmas season can wreak havoc on a sustainably-minded home!

I usually spend a portion of the day after Christmas sorting this waste into four different categories:

• Reusables – gift bags, tissue paper, and boxes
• Compostables – newspaper, brown paper, and cardboard
• Recyclables – recyclable plastics and any excess materials from the compostable list that cannot fit into my compost bin
• Trash – non-recyclable wrapping paper, mixed-material packaging, and non-recyclable plastics

This year I decided to take some of the materials from the compostable, recyclable, and trash piles and create a New Year’s Eve piñata for my family to enjoy.

3 Sustainable and Free Piñata Filler Ideas

You may not need to go out and buy new goodies to fill the piñata. Consider things you already have or may be available in your community to save money on piñata fillers and reduce waste. Repurposing small toys, trinkets, and candy saves money and is a more sustainable piñata filler alternative.

Before you rush out to purchase trinkets or candy, consider some of these more sustainable and inexpensive piñata filler ideas instead.

Regift Small Toys and Trinkets

I don’t know about you, but keeping up with the little figurines and mini toys that enter our home feels like a full time job. Clear a bit of the physical and mental clutter in your life by repurposing small toys to fill the piñata. If you have small children that still like to put toys in their mouths or give everything a good lick (you know it happens), be sure to give the preloved trinkets a quick soap and water dunk before you offer them as prizes to your guests.

Shop Your Buy Nothing Group or Facebook Marketplace

If you’re out of the small toy phase, or the ones that reside in your home are your child’s prize possessions, consider putting a request on your local Buy Nothing Group or Facebook Marketplace for small toys to fill a piñata. You’ll be amazed at how quickly your request is met by parents looking to declutter their homes! Another option is to stop into your local secondhand or consignment shop and see what types of small toys they have available. Just remember to give any items a quick wash with soap and water or a mild bleach solution to clean them. 

Repurpose Holiday Candy

Every holiday comes with its assortment of sweets, from chocolate eggs to jelly beans. Repurpose some of this candy to fill your homemade piñata. Even better, if you ask your friends and family if they have candy they’d like to donate to your DIY New Year’s Eve activity, my guess is that you’ll be met with a joyful “YES!”

If you’re met with more edible donations than your piñata can hold, we also annually repurpose candy to decorate our homemade gingerbread houses. Building gingerbread houses has been my family’s tradition since I was a little girl and makes for a fantastic (and inexpensive) way to reuse sugary confections. 

Materials Needed to Make a New Year’s Eve Piñata

Here are the supplies I used to build a piñata for New Year’s Eve with my family. I shopped at my house for the materials needed for this project. I’ve included some alternative supplies that could be used in lieu of what I had on hand, in an effort to encourage you to use what you have.

To build a New Year’s Eve piñata, you will need:

• A medium-sized square or rectangular cardboard box
• Brown paper bag
• Scissors
• Box cutter
• Packing tape
• White glue or school glue
• Wrapping paper*
• Yarn, string, or ribbon**
• Goodies to fill the piñata
• Ruler (optional – I estimated my measurements and it turned out fine, but if you like to be extra careful, grab a measuring device.)

*I saved wrapping paper from Christmas to cover our pinata. Tissue paper or any other paper would also work.

**depending on how heavy your pinata is once it is filled with goodies, you may want to use a metal clothing hanger or a piece of wire to suspend the piñata.

At this point, consider where you plan to hang the piñata. If it is going to be strung from an outdoor tree branch or indoor beam of your home, measure an appropriate length of yarn or string to allow the piñata to hang at the height you require. If you are hanging the piñata from a free-moving pole as we did, the length of the string is less important as you will be able to raise and lower the piñata based on the height of your contestant. 

Instructions to Make a New Year’s Eve Piñata 

Once you’ve gathered your supplies, follow these instructions to construct your homemade piñata. This took me approximately 1.5 hours to complete, which included drying time.

1. Turn the box so that you are looking at a side that contains 4 flaps.
2. Cut off the 2 long side flaps and keep the 2 short side flaps attached to the box.
3. Flip the box over to the other side and repeat Step 2.
4. Measure the approximate size of the side of the box and cut out a piece of a brown paper bag to cover the space, allowing for the paper bag to fold over the four sides.
5. Attach the paper bag to the side of the box with packing tape. 
6. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 for the other side of the box.
7. Turn the box so that you are looking at the back of the box. Using a box cutter, cut a three-sided flap into the back of the box. Fold the flap outward along the uncut side. You will use this flap to fill the piñata with goodies later.
8. On the top of the box, carefully use a box cutter to create two adjacent holes, approximately 2 inches (5 cm) apart. 
9. Thread the ribbon through the holes of the box to create a loop from which to hang the piñata. See my notes in the materials section for determining where to hang your homemade piñata.
10. Now that the structure of your DIY piñata is completed, it’s time to decorate! To make a New Year’s Eve piñata, cut strips of leftover wrapping paper. 
11. Along each horizontal strip of wrapping paper, make vertical cuts halfway up to create a fringed appearance to the paper.
12. Glue the fringed wrapping paper in a layered fashion along the front, back and sides of the piñata, taking care to avoid gluing the candy flap shut. Allow the glue to dry.
13. Cut out the numbers of the new year from additional paper. We had some leftover gold paper from a previous project, so we used that.
14. Glue the year onto the front of the piñata and let dry.
15. Fill your homemade piñata with goodies. Test the weight of the piñata by holding it by the yarn to make sure you don’t overfill the box and bust a seam before the party begins! 
16. Use packing tape to seal the flap shut.

Once you’ve followed these instructions, you’ll have a homemade New Year’s Eve piñata that’s perfect to celebrate the new year!

How to Sustainably Dispose of Your DIY Piñata

Once the party is over and your homemade New Year’s Eve piñata has delighted your guests, it’s time to clean up. Here are some simple instructions to sustainably dispose of or repurpose your piñata and its contents.

• Remove any remaining goodies from the inside of the piñata.
• Remove the yarn from the box and save it for another crafting session.
• If you used plastic packing tape, remove the tape from the cardboard box, flatten it, and recycle the box covered with paper. If you used paper packing tape, there’s no need to remove it.

In addition to responsibly disposing of the piñata, you can research if anyone in your community has a candy wrapper collection box from Terracycle to repurpose the foil and plastic packaging from your sugary treats.

Inspired to continue crafting responsibly with cardboard boxes? My friend Jen of Honestly Modern has a fantastic collection of fun and creative ways to reuse cardboard delivery boxes. 

Additional DIY New Year’s Eve Activity Ideas

Looking for more easy and inexpensive activities for New Year’s Eve? Here are a few more party game ideas that my family has enjoyed creating and playing.

DIY Cardboard Tube Confetti Poppers

If you have a toilet paper roll, a balloon, some tape, and some scrap paper, then you have the materials needed to make your own cardboard tube confetti popper! The best part about these confetti shooters is that they can be refilled and reused again and again. Watch this short video to see them in action.

Free Sustainability Bingo Game

Want to set some sustainable intentions for the New Year? Introduce kids to sustainable living habits through the classic game of bingo! Composting, eating leftovers, reducing energy consumption, and planting a garden are just some of the 30+ examples provided in this fun family favorite. This free printable includes 10 different game boards and two sheets of calling cards. Get your free copy of Sustainability Bingo here!