How To Celebrate New Year’s Eve At Home

An end to another year has come and with that means looking back at the year that has past and setting goals for the year to come. For some, NYE is a night celebrated by people all over the world, that usually entails big parties, fancy outfits, cocktails, countdowns, and resolutions of change and renewal. Some go to huge countdown parties, other go-to house parties to be with friends but I don’t. Instead of wearing sequins and going out, I choose to spend the night at home with my boyfriend.

Don’t get me wrong, I love dressing up and going out to celebrate something but there is just something about New Year’s that makes me want to stay in. Now, I don’t just sit on the couch watching the New York City Celebration on TV all night, I make the night fun with drinking and games and fun activities.

Here’s how I have a fun New Year’s Eve staying at home:

Dinner

I’m Pennsylvania dutch and that means that I celebrate New Year’s with a dinner of pork and sauerkraut. I used to hate sauerkraut but if you pour gravy over it, it’s actually good.  The dish is a German custom that was brought over by the Pennsylvania Dutch who settled largely in the central and southern portions of the state. The pork is meant to bring you good luck and the Sauerkraut is meant to bring you money. It’s also said in Dutch folklore that long strands of sauerkraut represent a long life to be lived, and the green color that sauerkraut starts as can symbolize money: The more kraut, the more cash. My family pours pork gravy all over the plate and serve it with cooked carrots or green beans.

Drinks

New Year’s tends to be a drinking holiday where some get so drunk that they don’t remember much past 11 pm. The fun thing about staying at home is that you can drink that much but you don’t have to have a designated driver take you home because you’re already there! Now I don’t drink that much but my boyfriend and I enjoy a bottle or two of fancy wine and champagne. I have two glasses that are just for the night so that it makes it special when you drink out of them.

Games

To make the night fun you have to play games! A friend’s houses in the past we have played beer pong but since I hate the taste of beer we play prosecco pong. I found the game at Urban Outfitters a couple of years ago and it’s become a New Year’s tradition. You fill the cups with the wine and play the same way you would beer pong. It’s really fun and I actually enjoy drinking it. Other games that we play are blackjack, bowling or Mario Kart on the Wii, Cards against Humanity, and other board games. It’s important to have a lot of games to play because it’s a long time until it reaches midnight!

Midnight Celebration

By midnight I am usually ready to go to bed because I’m a grandma who likes to go to bed at 10 pm every night. Around this time we are sitting on the couch, snacking on leftover desserts and watching the New Year’s Eve celebration with Ryan Seacrest on television. I like seeing all the people celebrating the countdown to the new year but I am so glad that I am not standing in the middle of Time Square freezing my butt off. I’ve been to Times Square so many times in my life and the New Year’s ball is up there all year long so you can see it whenever you go into the city.

Some special things that I plan on doing this year opening a new bottle of champagne right at midnight and lighting sparklers outside! And of course, there will be a kiss at midnight from my boyfriend and I’ll give a little kiss to my kitties on the tops of their heads.