Calling All (Tired) Parents! Count Down to the New Year Early With Your Kids — and Professor Second

There's nothing quite so frightening for parents as an overtired child!

Companies like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+ and YouTube Kids realized that years ago and responded with New Year's countdown videos featuring beloved characters such as King Julien (from Madagascar), Big Bird (Sesame Street) and many more.

Parents can pull up these videos on their televisions or computer screens at any point in the evening and pretend that it's almost midnight. So you can count down with the kids, celebrate the new year with a sparkling apple cider toast, and then tuck the kiddos away … all before midnight REALLY happens.

This year, it only makes sense that NIST's own Professor Second gets in on the countdown action. (After all, we are the U.S. timekeepers.) So, we present to you our very own NIST-y countdown video to share with your kids - or to use yourself if you struggle to stay up until midnight like I do! (This video is also available on YouTube.)