Celebrate New Year's Eve at Home

I don't know about you, but I've outgrown the desire to go out on New Year's Eve. The thought of driving on the roads with all those over-indulged party-goers scares me, so I prefer to celebrate at home or at a friend's or family member's house where we can spend the night.

Here are some fun ideas I gathered from past New Year's Eves and from around the net:

Get Musical: Have a karaoke party and sign the night away. If you have the Wii and Rock Band, that's the perfect way to rock out on New Year's Eve. Or how about being a dancing fool. Turn on some disco or hip hop and shake your groove thing. You still have time to buy a disco ball. If you have a Spencer's Gifts at your local mall, they carry them.

Get Your Game On: Spend the evening laughing and having fun and playing games--board games, video games, card games. Some of my family's favorite games are Bananagrams (a totally addictive anagram game), Apples to Apples (also addictive, hard to describe, but leads to hilarious and often deep discussions), and Cranium (this has you singing, sculpting, drawing, acting, just plain old using your noggin to have fun).

Dress up Your Home: Choose a special room to heavily decorate so to make it appear quite fancy. Shop for streamers, stars, confetti, hats, ceiling decorations and much more. You do not have to spend a fortune to do this. Just stop by your neighborhood dollar store and get your basket full of decorations. Don't forget the balloons! You may all want to pop them when midnight strikes!

Get Cooking: Plan a culinary evening and get the whole gang involved. Lots of ideas here. Have a cooking contest around a theme. Plan a meal where everyone can make their own tailored meal, like building your own pizza by setting out the ingredients. Have a potluck with an international theme where everyone contributes, say, an Italian component to the meal. Splurge on something very fancy, like lobster or expensive cuts of meat that you wouldn't normally buy. After all, you're saving money by staying at home.

 

Movie Night: Pop some popcorn and buy some Raisinettes and rent some of your favorite old movies or some new ones you've been dying to see, and have a movie night marathon.

Get Gussied Up: Even though you're staying at home make the evening a really special occasion (and photo-worthy) by getting all dolled up in your fanciest threads and wear some sparkly makeup and nail polish. Who says you can't wear sequins at home?

Remembering and Looking Ahead: Pull out your scrapbooks from this past year and spend time talking and reminiscing. Ask: What were everyone's favorite memories of the year? What were the funniest moments? What were your proudest moments? What did you learn and discover this past year? Then spend time making plans for the coming year. What do you want to see in those scrapbooks when you look at them next New Year's Eve?

We're going to our sister's house to celebrate this year. We're still tossing ideas around about how to spend the evening. I'd love to hear some of your celebrate-at-home traditions.

Whatever you do this New Year's Eve. Have a happy, safe, fun one! I will leave you with a few New Year's Eve images I found on Pinterest...