New Year’s Traditions vary from region to region and even home to home. With the New Year coming up, perhaps it’s time to think about a few new and different traditions. Check out these New Year’s traditions that are perfect to embrace and call your own with your family.
New Year’s Traditions to Embrace
Family Time
It’s fairly common for people to see New Year’s as a time to party with friends. How about a new tradition of making time for family? Whether it’s New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day, create a new tradition of spending quality family time together. With New Year’s, you don’t have the pressure of giving gifts or of cooking great big meals. Plan a family get-together to play board games, eat finger foods and left over Christmas goodies, and just hang out. Perhaps turn the time into a time of reminiscing by pulling out family photos and snapshots and looking over them together.
Reach Out and Touch
Plan to make the time to call old friends and family members you haven’t seen in a long time to start out the New Year. Christmas gets so rushed that it’s difficult to get everything done, but you can create a new tradition of reaching out to people you care about with a phone call to catch up to end out the old year and ring in the new one.
Movie Marathon
Pick a series of movies to watch on New Year’s and hold your own movie marathon. Choose a different theme or movie franchise every year and make this a tradition with friends and family. If you’re planning on renting movies on New Year’s Eve, though, get them early! Otherwise, your selections will be limited, as this is becoming one of the more popular New Year’s Eve traditions. If you have a streaming service, you don’t have to worry about this.
Let Go of Last Year
We all have regrets from the previous year and even events that we wish we could forget. Whether it’s a death in the family or a job loss, or some other type of event that created a sour spot during the past year, here’s a tradition that can symbolize moving forward. You can embrace this as an annual tradition. Write down your regrets or bad memories from the year past on a piece of paper. Light your paper with a match or lighter then throw it into a metal coffee can and allow it to burn up. You will be symbolically letting go of the past and starting fresh for a new year.
Volunteer Day
Plan to spend New Year’s doing volunteer work. Find out if a local homeless shelter needs a volunteer or search out another volunteer opportunity in your community. You could clean up a park or playground, take meals to elderly shut ins, some other act of service. Turn New Year’s into a chance to make a difference in someone else’s life and start a new tradition to observe each year.
Creating New Year’s traditions doesn’t have to be difficult. Come up with a few ideas that you like and give them a try. Invite family and friends to help you and turn these new traditions into something truly special.
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Do you have any special New Year’s traditions that others may love to embrace? Share them in the comments!
we have a bonfire in the back yard and make a lot of noise at midnight
These are all great! Volunteering is so much fun to do and it fun to do for others.
I love your idea of reaching out to old friends. In the past we’ve gone out to Families First Night parties that aren’t centered around drinking and filled with fun activities that are great for small kids, teens and parents.
These are great ideas to do! We typically spend the day watching movies and relaxing so everyone can stay up late and hopefully make it to midnight!
What a great list. For my family it is family time, that is how we spend the last day of the year and the 1st day of the new year.
Every year we have a movie marathon. We each purchase the snacks that we want for the day and watch movies all day.
We really do not have many NYE traditions yet. But I am loving the volunteer day!
My family and I usually just have a movie marathon. Right before twelve we get ready and watch the ball drop!
These traditions are such fun. I can’t wait until New Years.
I am always looking for ways to created family time and traditions that are meaningful! Thanks for the tips!
Unfortunately New Years has always largely been ignored in my family. I think it’s because everyone has just arrived back home from visiting family!
What fabulous ideas. Every year my kids say they want to stay up but they never seem to be able to. Maybe this year :)
Our new years tradition has always been a family party. We stay up playing games with extended family and having delicious foods. It is always so much fun.
We love to have friends over and ring in the new year with ones we love! It is one of my favorite nights!
I love to just relax and plan for the new year! There is some nice about the fresh slate of then year!
We get together every year and play games and ring in the new year together. It’s something we have done forever.
Let go of last year. That is so simple and yet so powerful. Don’t accumulate a bunch of emotional baggage.
Quality time spent with loved ones near and dear is always a tradition I enjoy practicing each year.
These are great ideas! we usually have a few friends over.
Well, it’s my birthday on new years eve and though we’ve had some huge parties in the past, these last few years I love to just keep it simple and quiet. A nice relaxing end to the year – with my family, some great food and card games.
We do not really have any family traditions for New Year’s Eve. I love the idea of volunteering.