From parties and concerts at various venues to parties hosted at home, and even the Times Square ball drop, there are plenty of ways to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Not only are the events themselves considered traditions, but the foods we eat on this day and the things we wear are also believed to impact how the coming year will go. If you’re looking to participate in a new tradition or two this year, look no further. We have a list of the 40 best New Year’s Eve traditions for you to read, enjoy and take part in!
40 New Year’s Eve Traditions
1. Host a Party
This is probably the most popular tradition for New Year’s Eve. Who doesn’t like to celebrate with friends and family in the comfort of home? A significant perk of hosting a party at home is that you aren’t out late on the roads with everyone else who has been celebrating the holiday.
2. Watch Fireworks
Fireworks are a bright and mesmerizing part of New Year’s. Getting together with friends to watch them is a fun tradition for all!
3. Listen to “Auld Lang Syne”
Bid farewell to the passing year by playing this traditional song for everyone to sing along to!
4. Make a Toast
What better way is there to start a new year than to toast to all the good times from the previous year? Doing so may even allow some of that prosperity to spill over!
5. Bang Pots and Pans Together
Commemorate the final strike of midnight by making noise of your own! Pots and pans are certainly loud enough to show your holiday spirit. Participating in this tradition will certainly start your year off with a bang!
6. Use Noise Makers
A more modern option than simply banging pots and pans together, party horns can be festive and serve a purpose!
7. Wear Polka Dots
In the Philippines, the tradition of wearing a round-themed dress is said to be good luck and to bring prosperity full circle into the coming year.
8. Watch the Ball Drop
New York City on New Year’s Eve is the perfect combination. Even if you can’t be there in person, watching it on TV can be just as exciting! What matters most is the people you have surrounding you as the new year begins.
9. Toss a Coin
Throwing a coin in the air at midnight is said to increase wealth. There are also variations of this tradition that say you should place coins in each corner of your home and in nooks and crannies to increase your chances of receiving wealth.
10. Drink Champagne
This bubbly beverage is associated with joyous occasions and has been widely accepted as the drink to have on New Year’s Eve.
11. Countdown to Midnight
Increase the anticipation as your whole crowd joins together in counting down the seconds to midnight!
12. Kiss at Midnight
Starting off the new year with a smooch is a good way to insure that you have romance throughout the year and symbolizes a strengthening of ties with your special someone.
13. Dress for the Occasion
Sequins have been a more common choice for quite some time, however, comfortable clothes are your best friend on a night like New Year’s Eve! Choose whatever outfit makes you feel and look your best and it could positively impact your goals for the year.
14. Light Sparklers
In ancient times, fire and noise were thought to dispel evil spirits and bring luck into your life. Lighting sparklers is one way to honor that belief!
15. Throw Water Out a Window
In certain areas of the world, throwing a bucket of water out a window on New Year’s Eve symbolizes renewal. In other areas, it is thought to ward off evil. Either way, we think this is a pretty good tradition to begin participating in!
16. Eat Hoppin’ John
Hoppin John is a dish comprised of peas, most commonly black-eyed peas, rice and pork, and should bring luck and peace in the year to come to whoever eats it on New Year’s Eve. Hoppin’ John is traditionally served with golden cornbread and collard greens for their similarities to gold and paper money.
17. Choose Your First Guest Wisely
In Scottish folklore, your first guest of the year should be a tall, dark man as that was who was thought to be the best protection against Vikings. The traditional gift to bring as a first guest was coal, salt, shortbread and whisky to signify the provision of basic needs of heat, food and drink.
18. Do the Polar Bear Plunge
Submerging yourself in ice-cold water on New Year’s Day has been a tradition since the early 1900s. If you’re wondering why in the world anyone would want to willingly become a human icicle, most of the time these events are centered around charities as fundraisers. So if you’re impervious to the cold, consider this as your new tradition to participate in!
19. Exchange Gifts
In Soviet Russia, Christmas was banned and so the tradition of gifts being exchanged on New Year’s was born. Instead of Santa Claus bringing presents, Grandfather Frost is the bearer of joy and toys and is accompanied by his granddaughter Snegurochka the snow maiden. This tradition could come in handy for any of those gifts that didn’t quite make it on time for Christmas!
20. Make a Resolution
Or, make multiple! There’s no limit when it comes to how you’d like to change your life for the upcoming year. They don’t have to be huge, but should be things you can easily hold yourself accountable to stick with.
21. Smash a Plate
It doesn’t have to be a plate, it could be any old or already broken dish. In Denmark, it is a tradition to throw a dish at a loved one’s front door. So if you wake up to broken china on your front porch, don’t be alarmed! It simply means someone who cares for you is wishing you good luck in the new year.
22. Leap Into January
Leaping off of a chair and into the new year brings good luck and banishes bad spirits, or so say the people of Denmark. We think it’s worth the risk of a twinged ankle if it keeps bad spirits at bay!
23. Take a Short Trip
Do you want your upcoming year to be full of travel? Then implement the tradition of Columbia that simply requires you to run around the block holding an empty suitcase. Participating in this tradition as a group could be a great opportunity for some healthy competition. Make this run around the block into a race and whoever comes back to where the race began first receives a travel-themed gift!
24. Wear White
Brazilians believe that wearing white on New Year’s Eve is a great way to bring peace into your life. A symbol of purity and innocence, white is also a bold and classy fashion choice!
25. Hang Onions On Your Front Door
In Greece, onions represent fertility and good luck. The thinking is that since onions sprout even when no one pays attention, hanging them on the front door will invite that prosperity into your life.
26. Open Doors and Windows
Another tradition from the Philippines, this one is to air out the old year and welcome the new into your home. Hopefully, you live in a similarly mild climate so you won’t also let all the heat out!
27. Decorate Your Tree
That’s right, go ahead and keep that Christmas tree up! This tradition dates back to the 1600s and we think it was a Christmas lover’s idea. So if you’re not quite ready to take down our tree, simply change the ornaments and decorations!
28. Wear Red
In Latin American culture it’s said that if you wear red underwear going into the New Year you will have more passion and romance in your life.
29. Wear Yellow
Also in Latin culture, if you choose yellow instead of red it is thought to bring financial prosperity!
30. Eat 12 Grapes
Eating a grape at each stroke of midnight is said to bring a lucky year. If you aren’t able to finish your grapes before the clock stops chiming, however, you could be in for some misfortune!
31. Throw Confetti
Many events hosted on December 31 include confetti, balloons and tinsel being dropped from the ceiling at midnight. Even the ball drop in New York City boasts the shiny decoration falling from the sky. Whatever you do though, make sure you don’t throw glitter! You’ll be spending the next full year cleaning it all up, and no one likes glitter that much.
32. Send Thank You Notes
Jot down how someone in your life positively impacted you the past year and send it to them, or read them out loud together as part of your New Year’s celebration!
33. Provide a Surprise Dessert
Hiding a surprise in a dessert is a tradition in a couple of different cultures. In Scandinavian countries, a peeled almond is hidden in rice pudding and in Greece, a coin is baked into sweetbread. Whoever finds the almond or coin in their dessert will have good luck!
34. Throw Some Bread
No, I don’t mean make it rain. Throw actual bread—at your wall, to be exact. This is an Irish tradition that is thought to chase off bad spirits.
35. Break a Peppermint Pig
Beginning in Saratoga Springs, New York, in the 1800s, this tradition consists of breaking a pig made out of peppermint with a tiny hammer and eating the pieces in order to bring about good fortune. In Victorian times, pigs represented happiness, prosperity and good health, which is where the idea stemmed from.
36. Smash Pomegranates
This tradition comes from Turkey and is said to bring prosperity. You place the fruit on your front doorstep and smash it! The farther the pieces of pomegranate go, and the more pieces there are, dictate how much more prosperous you’ll be. As an added bonus you can sprinkle salt on your doorstep to bring peace.
37. Write to Let Go
Take a minute to write something, or things, that you want to let go of from the previous year on a piece of paper. Focus on moving forward while you write, and then burn it. Having a physical representation of that thing being demolished can be pleasingly cathartic.
38. Eat Long Foods for a Long Life
This Japanese tradition is performed in the hopes of securing resilience and longevity. The traditional food to consume is toshikoshi soba, a soft noodle that is served either cold or hot. The noodles are easy to break while eating which symbolizes letting go of hardships from the past year.
39. Hear the Bells Ringing
Also in Japan, the Buddhist temple bells ring 108 times leading up to midnight. Each chime is to ward off a worldly vice including lust, anger, pride or greed, and will help each person who hears them begin the new year on a clean slate.
40. Make a Wish
If you’re hosting a party at home, set out an empty jar and label it “Wishes”. Have each guest write down their wish for the new year, fold it up and place it in the jar. On the next New Year’s Eve break out the jar and see how many guests’ wishes came true! Next: 100 Best New Year’s Quotes To Ring in 2023
