Tiny New Year's Eve Rituals
December 31, 2024 9:38 AM   Subscribe

It's six pm. I have the flu, and I'm very low energy. But I just started thinking about making fancy hot chocolate at midnight, and that got me a little excited. Any ideas for other really, really easy things that might make the night stand out? There's a husband and two dogs who'd celebrate with me.

My only real, lifelong tradition has been to sing "Auld Lang Syne" at midnight. I can't sing this year, though (I can't even speak very well). This is making me a little sad, so I'd love to have some other small ideas to replace my ritual.
posted by toucan to Grab Bag (30 answers total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
Well, we usually have a glass or two of cava (like champagne but more reasonably priced) and maybe some fruit and note that we are still on the right side of the sod.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 9:40 AM on December 31


Eating soba is a New Year's tradition in Japan (I believe they symbolize longevity/prosperity). Maybe some warm noodles would go well on cold day where you have the flu?
posted by space snail at 9:48 AM on December 31 [7 favorites]


In Germany, everybody watches Dinner For One on New Year's Eve. I spent the holiday there once and have kept up the tradition since.
posted by knile at 9:49 AM on December 31 [4 favorites]


When my friends moved to Scotland a couple of years ago, I was happy for them but sad for me. We had spent most New Years Eves together for over 20 years or more. The town they moved to has a lot of great festivals and traditions. On NYE there is a parade with bagpipes (of course) but also a group of men and women swinging "fireballs"-- wrought iron cages lit on fire and whirled about. And, they have a webcam for a live view that is mounted on the city hall tower. The best part for me, being old, is that it happens at 4pm my time here in California. Unfortunately the camera doesn't cover the run to the harbor to dowse the fireballs in the water there. It is a short event, and lots of fun.
posted by agatha_magatha at 9:58 AM on December 31 [5 favorites]


The film "The Apartment" with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine is fabulous NYE fare, especially if you watch it with your honey. Looks like Apple TV has it available to rent and it should be eminently torrentable, God willing.
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 10:15 AM on December 31 [3 favorites]


Well. We eat pudding in the bathtub*. Just on new year's eve. You can do it on the stroke of midnight if you want; the stroke of midnight anywhere in the world.

* Clothed is fine. Just get everyone into the bathtub and have a couple of spoons of pudding.
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:17 AM on December 31 [6 favorites]


Little NYE things for my people include soaking the black-eyed peas and making sure to get some bacon out to defrost. I don't use a recipe but here's one
posted by secretseasons at 10:22 AM on December 31 [3 favorites]


Can you find a particularly beautiful recording of "Auld Lang Syne" that you can play at midnight? Maybe turn the lights out, put the ball drop on TV on mute, play the song and drink your delicious fancy cocoa.
posted by LKWorking at 10:24 AM on December 31 [1 favorite]


Eat a number of grapes equal to the year, (so five, or 25 if you want), followed by apple slices dipped in honey.
posted by Windopaene at 10:25 AM on December 31


We do grapes too, but always 12, to match the chimes on the clock and months in the year.

Wear yellow underwear for good luck, or red underwear for good luck in love.
posted by solotoro at 10:33 AM on December 31 [1 favorite]


seanmpuckett, your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter

do you all like stand in the bathtub and pass a snack pack around or
posted by cabbage raccoon at 10:39 AM on December 31 [19 favorites]


You could likely find a broadcast of the Vienna Philharmonic NYE concert, or read about the interesting history of it here: https://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/en/newyearsconcert/tradition-and-history

Instead of toasting with sparkling wine, maybe a nice hot toddy to soothe your throat and help you fall asleep?

I was also going to suggest finding recordings of performances of “Auld Lang Syne,” perhaps even watching a marathon of them. As you cannot sing, maybe learn the sign language of your choice for the chorus so you can sign along to the singing?

I am sorry you are ill. No fun!



(I also want to know more about pudding in the bathtub. Dessert/British pudding? American pudding? How did this come to be? So many questions…)
posted by kyraU2 at 10:58 AM on December 31 [6 favorites]


I do wax and water divination -- get a bowl of water, drip wax from a candle in it until there is a reasonably sized block of wax floating in it, take it out, flip it over, and the underside will be full of patterns that ostensibly symbolize what to expect in the coming year.
posted by virve at 11:08 AM on December 31 [1 favorite]


Not exactly a particularly beautiful version of Auld Lang Syne (although they play it straight and it's a nice enough vocal arrangement although only the first verse) but the Muppets always cheer me up.

Here are some movies that have a NYE countdown in them (timestamped so you can start them to line up with midnight, if you'd like), if that sounds like something you might enjoy. Hope you're feeling better soon!
posted by EvaDestruction at 11:15 AM on December 31


I have a spoonful of bacon-free black-eyed peas and listen to Dan Fogelberg's Same Old Lang Syne.
posted by fuse theorem at 11:48 AM on December 31 [2 favorites]


in re pudding-in-the-bathtub: yes, we just stand in the bathtub, clothed, and pass around a snack-pack of chocolate or butterscotch pudding. although this year we have Kozy Shack rice pudding.

you don't have to be clothed, you don't have to eat it neatly. i mean, it's a bathtub, and if you want to get wet and messy, you do you. we just keep it simple.
posted by seanmpuckett at 12:08 PM on December 31 [3 favorites]


We watch The Annual Big Fat Quiz on youtube and play along. It's like a pub quiz about the past year with comedians. If this year doesn't load/is taken down, you can always watch a previous year.

Happy New Year! Feel better!
posted by dearadeline at 12:12 PM on December 31 [1 favorite]


Seconding Dinner For One, it's a good time.

We also like to watch After The Thin Man (alas, link is only to trailer). Not the best Nora & Nick movie, but sports a solid New Years Eve scene, and you don't have to think too much.
posted by german_bight at 12:21 PM on December 31 [1 favorite]


+1 for a viewing of "The Apartment" as an NYE tradition -- just back (truly, within the last half hour) from seeing it in the theater myself, a yearly treat. It is also streaming and very compatible with not feeling great.

And another vote for the eating of 12 grapes, traditional in Latin America via Spain to bring in hopes, wishes, and luck for the new year, no voice required.
posted by wormtales at 12:21 PM on December 31


@seanmpuckett but... but why pudding? Why in a bathtub?? Your follow-up somehow made it even more mysterious...
posted by space snail at 12:33 PM on December 31 [11 favorites]


YES PLEASE
I must know about the BATHTUB. why???

In terms of traditions, I sometimes call friends in another time zone / country to marvel we are each in a different year.
posted by M. at 1:04 PM on December 31 [1 favorite]


I used to ring the speaking clock at midnight to listen to it roll over from 23.59 to 00.00. That's as minimal as you can get, I think.
posted by paduasoy at 1:13 PM on December 31


Make a Lemon Pig!
posted by enfa at 2:17 PM on December 31 [4 favorites]


I want to note that The Apartment has a lot of sadness in it, in case OP feels one way or another about that.

For a recording of Auld Lang Syne that's from another era and has some real nostalgia to it, Dame Nellie Melba's recording from 1905 is beautiful in a very specific way.
posted by less-of-course at 4:19 PM on December 31


This is a bit random, but, growing up, on New Year's Eve, my mom would always put on her VHS copy of the 1981 Simon and Garfunkel concert in Central Park. It was a reunion show, with a really cool vibe, and always felt appropriately celebratory, at least to 10-year-old me. And hey, it's on YouTube!
posted by flod at 5:23 PM on December 31 [1 favorite]


My partner and I have a tradition where sometime in the week between Christmas and New Year’s we go to a used bookstore and each pick out a book for the other. We gift them to each other on New Year’s Eve and then plan to spend most of New Year’s Day in bed reading together. This year we failed to get out to a bookstore and have sooo many books at home already, so this NYE we’re each picking a book from the other’s to-read stack and “gifting” it to the other to read in bed tomorrow.
posted by brook horse at 5:43 PM on December 31 [7 favorites]


I got distracted, realized it was midnight at the last minute when I heard the fireworks, so did the only thing impulsively and readily available to me: ran naked through the apartment.

Was fun, would recommend, will make it a tradition.
posted by EarnestDeer at 7:11 PM on December 31 [8 favorites]


Posted by EarnestDeer.

Eponysterical.

(Also, I too have questions about how the pudding bathtub tradition came about. I just stole mine from my friend’s Christmas Eve/Day tradition and made it New Year’s because I learned about it too late to use it for Christmas that year.)
posted by brook horse at 8:48 PM on December 31


When I was a teenager stuck babysitting her little brother each New Year's, I would open a window at midnight, shout "happy new year, everyone!" and shut the window again

I too would like to know the origin story for BathtubPudding.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:40 PM on December 31 [1 favorite]


We enjoyed Dinner for One very much, thank you to all who recommended.

And agatha _magatha, we tuned into the live stream of the fireballs! While we had some glitches (to be expected), there seemed to be a camera angle of people chucking them into the water. My partner was VERY intrigued. Thank you very much for sharing.

Who wants to go there for NYE next year with us?

I could not stay awake until midnight for BathtubPudding, nor did we have any pudding in the house, so I had to make do with a leftover Springerle.

Toucan, hope you had an okay NYE after all.
posted by kyraU2 at 9:09 AM on January 1 [1 favorite]


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