# Does anyone actually enjoy New Years Eve? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 30, 2008, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260 "2008-12-30T19:52:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260/41 "2008-12-31T01:51:33Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Congratulations! And welcome to the new arrival. Thank you! And many happy returns to you and all the other New Year’s babies in this thread! ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260/42 "2008-12-31T02:20:14Z")
It’s not a big deal. We do watch the ball drop, but it’s 9:00 PM on the West Coast. New Year’s Day, though, I make black-eyed peas with bacon and greens. _That’s_ fun! This year I’ve got mustard greens _and_ collard greens, and some nice, thick, uncured bacon (to substitute for fatback, which is just a bit over the top even for a celebration). ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260/43 "2008-12-31T02:31:10Z")
I’ve been to some great NYE parties and been to some lousy NYE parties. Also spent NYE alone, sometimes by choice and sometimes not. I’d prefer a handful of good friends and a halfway decent amount of drinking over a quiet evening but yeah - overall, I do like New Year’s Eve. ---
**Author:** ![Salem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@Salem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Salem)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260/44 "2008-12-31T03:18:32Z")
I liked it when I was younger and more into partying and the like. For many years now, whatever I’ve done has involved not driving anywhere that night. Sometimes just staying home with my family, sometimes having friends stay over, sometimes staying over with friends. Last year my daughter was here with my grandson so that was great. This year, not so much. Will likely be very quiet. My teenager will be sleeping over a friend’s and my youngest will likely be home with me unless he gets a better offer, of course! The man will be plowing snow tomorrow, so I have no idea what time that will end, but he won’t be up for much when he’s done. It’s not that big a deal to me any more and while I can’t particularly say I enjoy it any more, I don’t dislike it either. ---
**Author:** ![dogbutler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogbutler/32/428_2.png) [@dogbutler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dogbutler)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260/45 "2008-12-31T03:24:29Z")
> [@Hockey\_Monkey](#): > > I like it. This year I’m going to the hockey game. The Canes host a New Year’s Ever party afterward with a band, a puck drop at midnight with a champagne toast, then fireworks outside the arena. This year I’ll have my sweetie to kiss. I’m looking forward to it! Me too. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260/46 "2008-12-31T06:08:24Z")
As long as my neighbours aren’t noisy all night, I don’t care. It’s just another meaningless day designed to make lonely people feel miserable. As I have new neighbours this year, who have proven themselves to be very noisy a lot of the time, I fear I’m in for a bumpy night. Hopefully they’ll be celebrating elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260/47 "2008-12-31T06:19:19Z")
Even if you don’t enjoy it, why do you have to be actively miserable? Just treat it like any other day. It’s not like Christmas or Halloween where it’s blatantly obvious that you should be “enjoying” such a “festive” holiday. Why not just enjoy the day off and do whatever you want to do without dwelling on how “lonely” and “miserable” you are. Even if that’s how you really feel, what’s one more day of feeling like this? Yeah, I’m not the happiest right now, but New Year’s doesn’t make me feel any worse. Whatever… You must be awfully specially if the New Year comes along just to make you feel like shit. I’m pretty sure that the New Year comes along without anyone designing it. Cheers! ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260/48 "2008-12-31T06:27:26Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > But we usually just have some friends over for board games, and then at midnight we all set off party poppers, maybe have a toast of champagne if we’re feeling ritzy that year, and then go back to board gaming. I look forward to it. That sounds ideal! Maybe with some delicious snack foods pre-January 1 diet. I don’t think anyone really has a wonderful, glamorous New Year’s Eve like they do in the movies or the ads. I like to clean the house, myself. It feels good. That’s my ritual. ---
**Author:** ![leafrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cab0a1/32.png) [@leafrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leafrog)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260/49 "2008-12-31T06:35:19Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > If I had someone to celebrate with (maybe get my first ever new year’s kiss) or had friends who were local and invited me to parties, I’d probably like it more. The past few years I’ve found myself in tears at midnight, mourning another year of loneliness passing. I figure tomorrow night will be the same. And it sucks. > > So no, I don’t enjoy New Year’s Eve at all. (((( **tumbledown** )))), I’ve been there. I spent NYE with friends on the Mediterranean once. At midnight, as everyone started to kiss their significant others, it became painfully obvious to me that I was alone. I slipped out to the beach and cried for the first 15 minutes or so of 1999. There were a couple of other NYE’s like that, and I pretty much stopped celebrating. Now that I’m married, my husband and I will stay at home. He has been on-call for his job 4 of the 5 New Years since we’ve met, so we are usually in bed at our normal 10:30. I kind of like to get up early and go for a walk if the weather is good, or stay home make cinnamon rolls if it is inclement. Yay, it’s looking to be inclement this year! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260/50 "2008-12-31T07:03:54Z")
> [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](#): > > Even if you don’t enjoy it, why do you have to be actively miserable? Well, I don’t generally feel miserable. But as it’s a night designed for social activity, with a rather huge emphasis on that fact, the people who celebrate alone are looked on as not participating, as if they’re letting the side down somehow. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260/51 "2008-12-31T07:44:13Z")
It’s [Armin Only](http://newyearsevela.com/2009/index.html) for me. 9 hour DJ set! ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260/52 "2008-12-31T10:35:06Z")
I love NYE and NYD, but as with Christmas, I prefer being alone when it happens. Christmas for me has heaps of baggage attached which isn’t all that wonderful, but a New Year just seems more – hopeful, somehow. I’ll be seeing it in (in less than half an hour) with a glass or two of sparkling grape juice, and hanging up a new calendar. No end to the excitement here in my den! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Rack-a-Bones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rack-a-Bones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rack-a-Bones)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260/53 "2008-12-31T19:02:12Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > If I had someone to celebrate with (maybe get my first ever new year’s kiss) or had friends who were local and invited me to parties, I’d probably like it more. The past few years I’ve found myself in tears at midnight, mourning another year of loneliness passing. I figure tomorrow night will be the same. And it sucks. > > So no, I don’t enjoy New Year’s Eve at all. Dang girl, sorry to hear that. Hopefully you’re not too serious and that is just the booze talking (getting an early start on the festivities). You’re a few time zones away but you can come hang out with us. Better leave now; it is a long drive. > [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > I don’t like the preplanned parties at bars and the like; too overcrowded, expensive, and annoying. The best one I’ve had was ringing in the year 2000. I have a brother-in-law who at the time had an artist’s display space in a building in Chicago, and most of the artists were throwing parties in their spaces. At the stroke of midnight we kind of looked around to confirm that the local electric company had become Y2K compliant (they did, which was not entirely expected), but I was on a fire escape, drinking champagne from a plastic cup and singing along with the Beatles’ “Revolution” (blasting out of an adjacent artist loft) to the cops in riot gear in the street below. > > I’m content to have little celebrations with friends at home, or to go to a local bar, etc. Seattle had the distinction of being the only city in the entire world that cancelled their Y2K festivities because of terrorism fears. Between WTO and that, it was a bad year for Seattle. I like New Year’s because it is an excuse to hang out with my friends and have a good time. We usually just head to the neighborhood pub where most everyone knows each other and have a few drinks, listen to the band, etc. Sometimes I make it to midnight, sometimes I don’t. I do agree it can be amateur hour though which is why I stay away from the downtown bars and clubs. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260/54 "2008-12-31T19:44:02Z")
I’d be astonished if I am awake to hear the clock strike 10:00. ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260/55 "2008-12-31T19:59:49Z")
I do hate the idea of dressing in clothes that aren’t quite warm enough and shoes that aren’t really comfortable to cram myself into someplace crowded with people I don’t actually know to eat food that isn’t really special, for which I’ve paid too much money. Fortunately that’s not our tradition. Our tradition is cocktail party food without the cocktails. We play games. In the past it’s been Monopoly, but this year I think the Wii we got for Christmas '07 will be involved. We have some festive hats, and streamers. When my son was very little we started tossing streamers every hour on the hour in case he didn’t make it 'til midnight. We still do that but I’m the one least likely to be awake when the ball drops. ---
**Author:** ![Art\_Rock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/art_rock/32/525_2.png) [@Art\_Rock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Art_Rock)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260/56 "2008-12-31T20:11:50Z")
This year it sucks wookie. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260/57 "2008-12-31T20:22:08Z")
If it is an excuse, like this year, to get together with friends at their place and simply drink eat, converse and have a fun time…like dozens of other times during the year, then yes, it is enjoyable. If it is a “thing” at a bar or a restaurant, then count me out. ---
**Author:** ![Mahna\_Mahna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260/58 "2008-12-31T20:45:06Z")
For the past few years, I’ve had friends over for a NYE brunch. It’s much more relaxed… we can focus on chatting with friends about everyone’s resolutions for the year, getting tipsy on mimosas and enjoying a leisurely meal. This year it was just my cousin and her pugs who were able to come, but we all had a nice time. I used to go out to clubs and the like when I was in my early 20s, and by 11:30 you could practically taste the desperation from all the people dashing around madly to find someone to kiss by midnight. Totally not my scene… the tickets were just way too expensive, the music was usually crap, and cheap champagne just makes me nauseous. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260/59 "2008-12-31T22:56:00Z")
This year I’m having my own party. Last year we had a handful of friends over, and three of us met another couple at the local dive, which is not a “party” type bar, and I toasted the bartenders, all of which I’d do any random Tuesday. Most of the big to-dos are gonna be in the Marina or downtown, or in the Irish bars. The best experiences we’ve had have been low key handfuls of friends at home. One year we went to a house party near the Wharf, then down Embarcadero and at the Ferry Building, which has the big fireworks show. It sucked. And don’t even get me started on the house “party” with one bottle of Smirnoff Ice and a gay guy trying to seduce a straight guy with the help of a female fluffer. Or the one before that when we left at 12:01 because our friend’s cousin was creepy and we ended of at out friend’s dad’s house at 12:15 and he laughed at us. Suffice it to say, I’ve learned my lesson. Also, barring something unforeseen, I’ll be kissing someone tonight, but it sure does suck when you don’t, which is something I do have plenty of experience with. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260/60 "2008-12-31T23:27:17Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > I don’t like it. I live quite close to the harbour in Sydney, where the fireworks are set off at midnight. Every year there’s a huge influx of people who come to my suburb to celebrate. The crowds themselves don’t concern me. It’s the huge mess that the trashier ones leave behind, and the wave of drunken vandalism that ensues each year, that really pisses me off. It was more enjoyable last night than in previous years. The crowds were quite a bit smaller, so there was much less crap to clean up this morning. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-new-years-eve/479260.md?page=4)