Let the whole family enjoy New Years Eve with a kid friendly Care Bears themed countdown

Your children don't need to stay up until midnight for your family to enjoy bringing in the New Year together with a new on-demand service from Netflix that allows you to participate in a Care Bears themed end-of-the-year countdown.  According to research by Netflix, more than half of parents around the world (58%) would prefer to put their children to bed before the clock strikes twelve yet still want to experience having their family do a New Year's Eve Countdown together.  Netflix has the Care Bears helping you cheer in the new year plus 5 other kid friendly countdown specials to select from you can choose to stream at the time you prefer to welcome in the new year as a family.  Enjoy a family celebration with the Care Bears at 8, 9 or 10pm than put the kids to bed and enjoy the rest of the evening with some parents only time.

Choose the time to go to bed and let your kids choose which of their favorite Netflix children's show characters they want to countdown to the new year with:

Care Bears & Cousins head to Share Bear's Shake Shack to gear up for a belly badge -tastic countdown in Care-a-Lot;

Puffin Rock residents Oona and Baba re-live their adventures from the past year and celebrate with the Northern Lights, nature's own fireworks;

Inspector Gadget saves New Year's Eve from a mischievous M.A.D. agent just in the knick of time for a dazzling firework display;

King Julien lives up to his party animal persona with a countdown to dance your way into the new year.

Mr. Peabody and Sherman venture around the world to gather their favorite talk show guests fro a star studded countdown event featuring popular DreamWorks characters Hiccup and Toothless, Puss in Boots, the Croods, and the entire Dinotrux team.

Project Mc2 stars McKeyla, Adrienne, Bryden and Camryn team up for NOV8's most important mission yet: Party!

These Netflix countdowns are a great way to share the New Year's Eve experience with young children while getting them to bed at a respectable hour.  Parents in the US, UK, Canada and Australia agree 9 pm is the new midnight with nearly half of those surveyed by Netflix saying they'd prefer to countdown those famous 10 seconds as a family by 9 p.m.  Of those people surveyed it appears us Americans really appreciate getting our kids to bed early on New Years Eve with 41% of US parents replying that they have or plan to use a special countdown as a way to get their kids to bed early.  No matter where you are, start your party anytime, anywhere by searching "New Year's Eve Countdown" on Netflix.  They won't tell your kids it is not midnight if you don't.

Stay up to date on all the latest news about the #CareBears by visiting www.CareBears.com, following @CareBearsFriend on Twitter or liking the Care Bears Facebook page.

A Geek Daddy is a Care Bears #ShareYourCare Brand Ambassador.  As part of that blogger program, I occasionally receive Care Bears promotional information and products to review and share with blog readers.  A Geek Daddy does not receive any financial compensation for its participation in this brand ambassador program.  

Care Bears Roar Onto The Comic Scene

After a 25 year lapse, the Care Bears are returning to the pages of a comic book series.  Roar Comics, the young readers imprint of St. Louis-based publisher Lion Forge Comics, has announced it will be bringing the popular characters from the '80s back to life in their own comic book that will be debuting in a digital format this year and in print next year.  Readers will be able to download an app that will feature the new Care Bears series as digital single issues along with interactive educational content.  That will be followed up by a print collection of the digital issues that is scheduled to be available in May 2016.

The Care Bears series is being written by Georgia Ball (My Little Pony, Scooby Doo) with illustrations by Melanie Gillman (As the Crow Flies).  The publisher is promising that this new series will have the same emotion-driven cheerful adventure stories that first made the Care Bears franchise a global phenomenon in the 1980s.  Care Bears started as a line of greeting cards in 1981 and quickly became a smash hit children's entertainment franchise with a series of animated films and television cartoons along with a blockbuster-selling toy line.  The new comics will launch ahead of a new animated series, Care Bears & Cousins, set to debut on Netflix in 2016.

"The best thing about writing Care Bears is that each of the core characters has a distinct personality and a role to play that take them on exciting adventures to new places," writer Georgia Ball relayed to A Geek Daddy blog via email.  "I've worked with American Greetings on comic books before and loved every minute of it; I'm thrilled to be writing with them again on a property that was such a major part of my childhood.  Melanie Gillman's art is just terrific -- cheery and bright, just like Care-A-Lot itself. Kids are going to love it."

Roar Comics plans to provide more information on the new series plus release artwork samples  during the big Comic Con convention in San Diego.  The publisher also announced during the American Library Association's recent annual conference that the company's full catalog of e-book releases will be available via Follett's digital lending platform for access by library patrons across the country.  If you have a library card, you may want to check out what e-books and digital comics you may have access to.  I know that's a service our family doesn't take as much benefit from as we probably could.

"Getting comics into the hands of kids everywhere is crucial to Lion Forge's mission of making comics for everyone," Lion Forge CEO Dave Steward noted before attendees at the American Library Association's Annual Conference.  "We want our books - especially great new series like Care Bears - available to librarians and their patrons on any platform and medium they choose."

Those are words I like to hear!   Keep an eye out for more information about the Care Bears comic books as their app becomes available on digital platforms, the printed books hit retail shelves next year, and hopefully the digital and print versions will be available soon at your local public library.  I'm pretty sure a lot of children (and their parents who were kids in the 80s) are going to be excited by this new comic book series.