1. New Year’s Eve Party Ideas
New Year’s parties are the highlight of the holiday season, and a great way to end the year and start the
new. But it’s easy for New Year’s parties to seem the same year after year. Want to make yours stand
out? Here are some ideas to do just that:
Balloons make great decorations, but you can make them truly magical by putting confetti
inside. Using a funnel, add a small amount of confetti before inflating. (We recommend not
using glitter, as it can get in peoples’ eyes when the balloon pops.) Now leave the balloons
floating around the venue, and at midnight start the popping fest!
Use a Chinese New Year theme. Even though the Chinese New Year won’t start for another four
weeks, you can use the upcoming Year’s animal as a great motif. 2014 is the Year of the Horse,
and you could have fake horse races using small puppets or place some hobby horses around the
space for guests to play with.
If you’re going to use a vintage theme, choosing a specific year is difficult—most people don’t
remember what exactly happened in 1968, for example, but a 1960’s New Year is a great way to
go.
Better than a Vintage New Year might be a Future New Year. Back in the 20th century
Hollywood seemed to think we’d all be riding hover cars and fighting robots by now. Reach
into all the sci-fi cheesiness and Jetsons’ wishful thinking to put together a fun themed party
that no one will forget.
Resolutions? Put up a resolution board! You can decorate a chalkboard or dry-erase board to
create a display where people can write their New Year’s resolutions and share them with the
world. Alternately, bulletin boards and colored paper strips let people pin them up, or use a large
empty glass picture frame, lit from behind, for a stunning dry-erase marker board.
Music Trivia. Choose 13 hit songs from the past 13 years and get them queued up in a playlist.
You can have people form teams or just yell out their guesses as you play the first minute of
each song. Their job: guess which year the song is from. Some will be easy and some will be
surprisingly hard! Make sure you have a prize (or prizes) for the best guessers. A gift card to
buy music online is a nice way to go.
Of course, a party is only as good as the food and drinks. You can make your New Year’s Eve party
even better (and easier to plan) by bringing in an event caterer. If you’re in the greater Washington D.C.
area, let Saint Germain Catering take care of all your catering needs.