As a couple, we mostly fail at being really social, but one or another of our friends nearly always has a NYE party for us to go to. Tonight we’re going to the home of our good friends to hang out, play games, and eat lots of snackies. This couple always has a ‘family NYE party’ so we bring all our kids. At 9, the kids watch the ball drop in NYC and we go home to bed soon after. It’s the best of both worlds if you’re a parent!
The 14+ teens have their own party/dance to go to, which actually does go till after 12. For some reason, there was one last night too, so my 14yo is still asleep right now at 9am.
My husband and I have rarely stayed home on NYE, ever. There’s always somebody.
In my 20s I had many many great NYE celebrations at friends’ parties and at bars. Since around age 30, though, we’ve been staying home. We could easily get to & from a party/bar safely on the subway, but I no longer like the crowds or noise or (yes it’s a cliche) the amateurs. The folks who are making NYE their big “I’m going out and getting wrecked” night. Their one of two for the year, afaict, since I think these are the same yahoos ruining bar life on St Patrick’s Day.
ETA - the bars here in Boston are packed for NYE and many of our neighbors put on shindigs. So I don’t think there are fewer people making a big deal out of tonight.
Nothing says “Laissez les bon temps roulez” like home made Chex mix. Nonetheless, Americans have way more entertainment options these days. Getting dressed up and drunk just isn’t that interesting.
A lot of parents hesitate to do things without their kids nowadays. And since kids sleep early and we’ve had it pounded into our heads that we must keep our kids’ schedules at all costs, a lot of us don’t stay out that late anymore. Keep in mind, I say this speaking from my own experience as a parent who rarely sees her friends without their children, so there is no scientific fact to back it up.
That said, as a family we usually have a party to go to or we go to a friend’s house to hang out and enjoy a few beverages until we all get tired. Tonight we’re going to an outdoor ice rink. But we’ll be home by 10 for a couple of reasons: 1. kids. 2. I work on New Year’s Day starting at 11 cst.
I support a lot of government health plans and all benefits renew at 12:01 EST, so you have to start looking for issues at that point so you don’t create a healthcare access issue.
So tonight when we get home at 10:30, I might have a nap and kiss the kids goodnight, but then I’ll log on, probably work until 2 or 3 a.m., take a nap, log on at 6 a.m. and work until 2-ish. And then I might celebrate. The 2nd will be more of the same.
And this. We’re going to a friends house and they are expecting another 20+ people. We’ll socialize and play games and at midnight there are fireworks at a nearby park we’ll head over to.
This may be the first New Year’s party I’ve ever gone to. Previous years, if we celebrated at all, it was with snacks around the TV.
This year it may break up before midnight because the main hosts have twins that were born in November. I say main because it’s being held at their parents’ house, mostly because it’s closer to most of their friends and partly because they can retire, if needed, and not shut down the party.
We’ll see how it goes. However it goes, it will be more social than most other years. I’ll be at least one person’s ride home. Not booze related, he just has no car available.
Another boring old fart here. I’m staying in because:
Everyone in my age range I know is also staying in.
Bars and parties where there will be lots of drinking hasn’t appealed to me for about 20 years.
I have a hard time staying up much past 10:30 or 11 pm.
I’m planning on going on a 10 am, 6.5 mile hike with my Sierra Club group tomorrow and it’s a 45 minute drive. I want to have energy for that!
It seems sort of arbitrary anyhow. It’s just another date…
I’m 31. My wife doesn’t like going out to bars so I haven’t done the NYE bar thing since we started dating. Before that I had a blast every year full of drunken revelry. This year we’re just having two other couples over to the house to drink and play games. It should be a good time but it’s definitely low key. My brother in law got a ticket to the Coyote Ugly NYE party so he’s heading downtown to drop several hundred bucks.
I think there is a window of like 22-35 where it’s a big deal, you can afford to party and your friends are still into it and then it tapers off as 1-2 am becomes really late and totally not worth it.
Back in the 50s you could smoke in the office and have drinks at lunch. Deals were done with handshakes, cars got 15 mpg and nobody cared because gas was $0.23/gallon and had lead in it. Communism was bad and USA was the untarnished paragon of good. Whitey was in charge, the Blacks knew their place, and Mexicans lived in Mexico.
Then Kennedy & Johnson happened and everything went to hell.
I don’t think it’s so much that they didn’t have anything better to do, so much as that back then Christmas didn’t start on November 1st. People didn’t really start gearing up for Christmas until the middle of December, so they had a hell of a lot more energy left at New Years.
I’m 47. I’ve never even been to a NYE party. I’m wondering if I’ve ever been invited to one.
Doesn’t matter anyway, as I really don’t see the point in celebrating on NYE. I put it in the same category as St. Patrick’s Day - drinking for the sake of drinking.
Gonna esplain to everyone tonight about how Drunken Disorderly is a thing. In Michigan. And they’ll believe me, cause that’s the kinda crowd I partay with.
