new year's eve

There’s no shame in keeping it traditional for New Year’s Eve—you may just invite some friends over, stuff yourself with snacks, sip a couple glasses of wine, watch the ball drop on TV, fall asleep on the couch, and wake up to a filthy house. There are worse ways to spend an evening. But in case you’re itching to switch things up next time, the internet has plenty of intriguing (and/or amusing) suggestions

A 33-year-old couple kick-started this conversation on Reddit by asking, "What's your unconventional NYE tradition?" They continued, "There is enough time away to do something that requires planning and might be different from just watching the clock. Is there something fun, funny, or unconventional you do with the loved ones that you might recommend as a new tradition?"

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Unusual NYE traditions that people love

The Reddit thread’s top response wasn’t even party-related—instead, it focused on a more meditative plan for New Year’s Day. "I’m a morning person, so I stopped staying up to midnight, and instead I wake up early on Jan 1 to watch the first sunrise of the year," someone wrote. "I like this much better." (Multiple people noted that they aren’t morning people but, given their tendency to stay up super late on NYE, they could easily see the sunrise anyway.)

Many of the other top replies, naturally, involved food:

"We once went to a terrible New Year's Eve party where the host hadn't prepared anything and hastily put out some boxes of Pop Tarts. So now we always have Pop Tarts on New Year's Eve."

"My family stays in and does a movie marathon and eat junk food we never have otherwise eat. We do 3 movies, either a series, all staring the same actor, or all by the same director."

"We have tater tots. One year I made an easy dinner before we went out to party and packed up the leftover tater tots. We got home pretty drunk (shoutout to the taxi driver), and we both remembered the tots at the same time, and ran to put them in the toaster oven to reheat. So we start and end each year with tater tots. Plus we picked January 1 as our dog's birthday (we don’t know it but adopted him in March when he was maybe 12 weeks old), so he gets birthday tots! Now we are older and don’t go out to party any more, so we have tots with dinner and sneak a few tots before breakfast the next day. But the tots are tradition!!"

"Maybe unconventional everywhere but Spain, but we eat 12 grapes in the countdown to the New Year and you MUST finish before the last bell tolls, which is no small feat and inspires a lot of giggles. You also do this while wearing red underwear, which must be given to you by somebody else. All for good luck in the new year, of course!"

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Sunsets and symbolism

Some of the traditions are super thoughtful.

"I like learning languages for fun, so I do my countdown in a different language each year. This year, it's Slovak."

"I have a tradition of watching the last or first sunset of the year, either at the beach or somewhere with a nice view. It’s a great way to pause and reflect on the new year ahead. My wife and I have kept this tradition going since we met. Happy New Year!"

"I insist on starting the new year off with a deep-cleaned house, bath, and new pajamas. It's a weird symbolism of starting the new year 'new and clean.' Also my family insists on eating cabbage on New Year's Day. It's supposed to bring good luck and money. I burn some candles as an 'offering' to people close to me who've passed as a way to remember them through the new year. I also burn a letter to them every single year as a way to remember them. I normally write the letters New Year's Eve and burn them in the early hours after midnight."

Sticking to your resolutions

One person wrote that they "make Peking Duck, drink champagne, and list our resolutions"—but they put a unique twist on the latter. "Instead of focusing on personal change, we list uplifting things for each other like lists of 12 great books to read in the coming year, 12 recipes to try, etc," they wrote. "It’s great fun, generally inexpensive, creative, and really nice to receive these thoughtful lists from your family & friends."

But if you choose to make resolutions, how can you really, truly stick to them? Back in 2022, Upworthy gained some insight from Dr. Mark Jellicoe, a senior lecturer in psychology at The University of Law in the U.K. "Often goals can be too vague, or, in reality, the resolution might be a wish that we are just not that committed to,” he said, giving us five evidence-based tips for achieving our New Year’s goals.

- YouTube www.youtube.com