How to host an unforgettable New Year's Eve party

Once Christmas is over and gifts have been unwrapped, the lack of excitement can leave you feeling down. However, before you start waiting for the next big celebration on the opposite side of the year – Midsummer Day – there's one more moment worth celebrating. That is, of course, New Year's Eve.

As we did with our Christmas cleaning checklist, we would also like to share some of our tips to help you plan a memorable New Year's Eve party that runs smoothly and sets a tone for the year ahead.

New Year's Eve is a great time to spend with your family and friends. Throwing a memorable party can help make the celebrations even more enjoyable.

Dive into our New Year's Eve party ideas that promise 2023 will begin on a special note. We hope you get inspired and host the perfect party!

Planning a New Year's Eve party

Hosting a New Year's Eve party is exciting but can come with a few stresses. As with many things, the build-up to your New Year's Eve party will be much more enjoyable and exciting with adequate planning.

Set up the venue

When you have decided to host a party at home, the next thought that probably comes crashing down on you is, "oops, I have to get the house clean and sparkly". You can use our Christmas cleaning checklist to spruce up your house for the New Year's Eve party.

When setting the right mood with decorations, stay stylish and don't overdo it. You'll likely still have the Christmas tree standing in its festive 'outfit' at your house. Candles do the magic throughout the whole dark winter season.

Silver or gold foil fringe curtains are a party staple. They can be placed on a wall as a backdrop for photos, to create a cool disco atmosphere, or hung in doorways for a magical entrance from room to room. You can add some celestial balloons or a garland for a pop of colour. Or be even cooler and rent a disco ball.

Choose simple, delicious food

After all the heavy holiday lunches and dinners, your friends will probably thank you if you are gentle with their stomachs on New Year's Eve. While delicious food is a must at every house party, New Year's Eve can be more about finger food and snacks than a full 5-course dinner seated at a table.

New Year's Eve is the perfect occasion for everybody to move around and mingle, so make your party bites comfortably small and have them placed in several locations in your house so guests do not gather only in the kitchen.

Ensure drinks flow on time, and add a special touch

Good quality bubbly is the cornerstone of a successful New Year's Eve party. It can, but it does not have to be champagne. These days, there is a relatively wide selection of less costly sparkling wines to choose from.

You can add a special touch to the bottles by creating your own unique labels.

There are some simple ways to kick your drink glasses up a notch. For example, you can hot glue a few golden pom-poms onto wooden skewers to make your drinks a little more exciting. It looks especially great with cocktails.

To elevate your New Year's Eve party and make your preparations even more manageable, here's our pick for amazing end-of-the-year party cocktails by Good Housekeeping. They are all sparkling wine based, which you'll stock plenty for the party anyway.

Cherry Bomb Fizz

Ingredients (1 serving):

• 1 cherry
• 15 ml maraschino liqueur
• Sparkling wine

Directions: Drop cherry into a champagne flute. Top with maraschino liqueur, then sparkling wine.

Sparkling Ginger Sangria

Ingredients (6 servings):

• 3 cups red or black seedless grapes, divided
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp. grated fresh ginger plus 1 8-cm piece ginger, thinly sliced
• 1 750-ml bottle of prosecco

Directions: In a pitcher, muddle 1 cup of grapes with sugar and grated ginger. Add the remaining 2 cups of grapes and top with prosecco. Line sides of glasses with sliced ginger, fill with ice and top with sangria.

Sparkling Wine Mojito Punch

Ingredients (6–8 servings):

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 1 cup mint leaves
• 1 cup light rum
• 2 1/2 cups sparkling wine

Directions: In a large measuring cup, mix sugar with fresh lime juice until sugar dissolves. Add mint leaves and muddle to mash and combine. Stir in light rum and let sit for at least 1 hour or overnight. When ready to serve, strain into a pitcher and add sparkling wine. Serve over ice with sliced lime and fresh mint leaves if desired.

Think about entertainment

Unless you plan something of a more extravaganza, a good, old-fashioned board game – like Scrabble and Yahtzee – can always get the party going.

You can also make your own! This free printable game by Alice and Lois is a big hit for New Year's Eve and a great way to get the party conversation started. The questions will get your guests thinking back on their favourite moments of the year. Some of the answers will get the crowd roaring, while others will make them reflect. Find inspiration and adjust the questions – you know your friends best!

Dance your way to the New Year, make everyone feel special

Have everyone choose one song and turn them all into one big party playlist. If you are a Spotify user, there's a feature where multiple users can edit a playlist, so that should make it easy. It'll be fun trying to guess who added what.

Set up a New Year's resolution jar

Get everyone thinking about their New Year's resolutions by encouraging them to write down their goals. Put a glass jar out with blank cards or pieces of paper, so everyone can stash theirs in their purse or pocket.

Fun tip: take polaroids

Engage your guests by letting them take polaroid photos to commemorate the evening. If you have no space or budget to rent the photo booth, ask around if anybody could borrow their instant cameras – like the Fujifilm Instax Mini series.

Don't forget the midnight

Don't forget to plan something special for the most important moment – when the clock strikes midnight! Sparklers are a fun and inexpensive idea to go with a champagne toast outside. After all, fireworks are out of fashion due to the high costs of living these days (energy crisis, inflation, war).

Book your home cleaning early

All the party planning sounds exciting, right? Except for the cleaning.

If you get too busy or just don't want to do it yourself, hire experts to make your home sparkling clean and ready for the last big party of the year.

Make sure to schedule ahead since the holiday season is also busy for cleaners as orders are up.