Here in Texas, you must eat black-eyed peas for good luck. At least in my house!
Same here, in Illinois. Oysters, too! And don’t forget the mimosas!
New Years Day = pizza at my house. And I always make a cold macaroni salad with tiny shells, hard boiled egg, mayo, and a can (and only canned is allowed) of shrimp.
Both these ‘traditions’ are leftover from years past when everyone in the house was too darn hungover to cook the day after.
I like to thoroughly clean the house New Year’s Eve day. But I will be at the office until 5 p.m., so it isn’t going to happen this year. But it’s nice to start January 1st with the house all clean, the laundry done and away, clean sheets on the bed, all the garbage/recycling out, etc.
No, we don’t usually go out dancing or such. Sometimes get together with friends and do take-out and movies, but that’s as wild as it gets.
Sigh. I wish I could stay home and clean tomorrow. I know I won’t feel like cleaning at 6:00 at night.
Almost forgot…Three Stooges marathon after arriving home from welcoming in the New Year, then The Twilight Zone marathon for the day.
For some reason, my family had a version of the Scottish tradition of seeing in the New Year with a dark-haired member of the family knocking on the back door to the house bearing a piece of wood (shelter), a piece of greenery (can’t recall what that was for), and a piece of bread (food), all blessings that you don’t run out of the three things during the coming year. By the time I was about 9, I was the only one left in the family who had dark hair (my mum used to do it, apparently, until she was more grey than dark).
I don’t do this anymore, mainly because I’m by myself these days, and I’m getting greyer (another reason to be happy about that aging side-effect). I dispensed with the shandy tradition (can’t stand beer, and beer mixed with lemonade is vile), so I mainly keep to the “special drink” tradition (tonight, it’s sparkling grape juice) and making sure I hang up at least one new calendar after midnight but before I go to sleep. It’s not really for good luck, though, not as much as the twig/leaf/bread thing was.
Along with my other munchies this evening, I’ll enjoy some pickled herring and onions on a kaiser roll. However, my main good luck tradition comes tomorrow, when I’ll have some navy bean soup. I made a big batch yesterday and stuck it in the fridge. I got it out and put it on the stove about 30 minutes ago, to warm it up again. Then it goes back in the fridge till lunchtime tomorrow, when I’ll serve up some New Year’s Day bean soup in the hopes of improving my fortune for the year.
Happy New Year!!
We never had any new year traditions. I don’t know if it’s because of our ethnic background, the area of the country where I grew up, or just plain indifference.
We haven’t stayed up till midnight for more years than I can remember…
In my youth it was: Drink myself to unconsciousness such that I could barely move and lay on the couch all day.
Now it is: Go to bed around 9:00 and treat the day as any other.
Oddly, both traditions seem to have a similar amount of success. 
Mom always said I had to have some form of cabbage, preferably sour kraut. I can’t stand sour kraut, and can’t recall the last time I had cabbage on New Years.
My grandmother used to try to make me eat pickled herring every New Years for good luck, but I always refused. I don’t eat bait fish dammit! We also put money on the doorsill and swept it into the house. It didn’t help.