Alternative New Year’s Eve Celebrations

Jennifer Lawrence on the Graham Norton show admitting she hates New Year’s Eve

Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve. Middle age is when you’re forced to. ~ Bill Vaughan

So New Year’s Eve is coming, amateur night as I like to refer to it and like every year you’re dreading the inevitable terrible party.  You’re not alone, Even Jennifer Lawrence doesn’t like New Year’s Eve so what else to do?

My personal traditions have tended around quiet nights with a bonfire on the beach or in the mountains.  I’ve more recently taken to writing on New Year’s Eve and pretty much ignoring the whole damn affair.  However there are more creative people in the world, so here are some links to New Year’s Eve alternatives, enjoy and have a happy day                   ~ Rev Kane

Apparently most website and magazine writers do not understand the definition of the word alternate.  So, most of the links I found had at least one traditional party or fireworks on it, I did my best to find some links with some actual alternatives to getting loaded at a party.

However, it seems the world is fairly devoid of interesting ideas so here’s my own list.

1. Create a project, it could be a time capsule, or a year-end review or clean and organize the garage, but set a project that can be done in a night and get it done!
2. Quiet contemplation time, fast for New Year’s Eve Day, sit in the yard and watch the sky, or meditate.  Then pig out on a wonderful New Year’s Day dinner.
3. Go camping, winter camping is actually a lot of fun if you’re properly prepared.  Or you can always rent a cabin and “camp” that way.
4. Go for a night hike, even if it’s just walking around someplace you know well, your neighborhood or local park will be amazingly different at night.
5. Learn something new, have a good friend who’s an expert, or are you an expert, set up a night to learn how to do a new skill, make sushi, bake, or learn a craft.
6. The old faithfuls are always an option, movie night or gaming night.  But spruce up movie night, don’t just watch movies, decorate the room, bring in really plush pillows and go high-end on the snacks.
7. For the kids, let them bring over a few friends and turn the whole living room into a giant pillow and blanket fort.  Construct tunnels and little bunkers then surprise them by putting little surprises in hiding spots all over the fort.  Motion activated toys are a lot of fun.  In the center of the fort set up the DVD player and screen in a secret bunker.
8. SNIPE HUNT!  Have friends who aren’t particularly outdoorsy well then take them on a Snipe Hunt to find the elusive North American Snipe with its unique call, low to the ground movements and glow in the dark wings.  No idea what I’m talking about?  Here’s the gist, you tell folks that you’ve recently discovered nearby, yard, campsite wherever, that you have North American Snipe, very rare, gorgeous, non-flying birds that are of course nocturnal.  You rig a plan, get folks to hunch over, tap sticks together to herd the snipe to a certain location where they can be seen or captured.  Video taping is particularly fun as later you have visual evidence of people looking really ridiculously funny.  You can let it wind down  and break the joke down for them but I’ve always been fond of a payoff.  Once on a winter snipe hunt in the snow, we set fireworks around the end of some bushes and had a person hide and light the off.  We’ve done the simple jump our and scare people and for a time at a student camp we got high tech with little drones, remote control cars etc… leaping out from unexpected openings or constructed “snipe nests.”  The best is if you take people in small groups they get to be in on the joke while you prank the next group.
9. You can always also just do a really nice night of making homemade food with friends, make pizza’s from scratch and do some baking.

I hope this give’s you some positive ideas for having a good time on New Year’s Eve, enjoy friends ~ Rev Kane