New Year - a celebration or just another day?

[Gemini]

Plant asked about our New Years Eve in Chat so I have started a thread. I know Daisy hosts NYE too.
Do you do anything on NYE or New Year's Day?


For many years now we have hosted NYE for a group of friends. There will be 10 of us this year. It is one of the highlights of my Christmas and our friends say the same!
It is just friends getting together for food, board games, drinks and chat.

We usually order takeaways, but this year we have decided to cook. Friends will bring nibbles or a dessert or wine.
It is tradition for me to make my Jamie Oliver mulled wine so I will do that.

As well as board games we will have Guess the Photo. I did this last year and it went down well. Last year was a baby and young child photo for everyone. This year I have asked for a teenage or late childhood photo, plus one from our 20's or 30's. I have everyone's but OH's

We don't have any New Years Day traditions and no plans as far as I know. I think I went to see my mum last year.

In my previous marriage we had a tradition of going out to blow away the cobwebs on New Year's Day, often to the coast. We would eat out too.

[Daisy]

Our New Year's Eve tradition started nearly 40 years ago! Babysitters were hard to get for New Year's Eve, and at that time we had a huge room off the kitchen, with doors into the garden - and ideal party place. So a group of us got together, shared out all the food preparation and we all gathered, with children, for a NYE party. The number of people varied from year to year - the largest was 27! As you can imagine the children loved it, feeling very grown-up, and they all knew each other. We left them in charge of the music.

As the years passed people moved away from the village, sadly one or two passed away, and eventually we moved into our current house. The children now of course have grown-up children of their own and different lives, but 7 of us have continued to meet up, with different people playing host every year. The host does the main course and everything else is done by the rest of the group. This year we will be a very small, select group of 5, and it's our turn to host. I'm going to do a pot roast of beef with roasties and various vegetables, so not too difficult.

[Oma]

We don’t do anything but watch a film and I’m usually in bed by 11 ish ,
We celebrated when we were younger but don’t want to now , DD & SIL are the same DD isn’t fussed , they will go out if invited but are not bothered either way .

[Nanto2girls]

We don't bother much with NYE.
Like you Oma, we celebrated it when we were younger but don't bother now.
Very unlikely that i will stay up to see the new year in.

[Gemini]

My NYE costume IMG_20231228_143637181~3.jpg

[Grauntie Mag]

The same as Daisy, we have met with mostly the same friends for nearly 40 years, taking it in turn to host. The children were always included and now do similar with their own friends. Our numbers have depleted, but we will still have 13 this year. As we are the fittest at present, we are hosting. I have bought the main course from Cook, salmon en croute, and we have agreed to split the total cost between us all. It won’t be a 3 a.m. finish like it used to be, more like 1 a.m. and that is only because it’s new year! We can’t take the pace like we used to. 😁

[Daisy]

Grauntie, we're the same - can't party till dawn these days. More's the pity, but it's still fun.

[Plantaholic]

Mine will be a very quiet New Year, I shall probably be in bed before 12. I expect DD and Sil will be celebrating.