New Year’s Eve Family Traditions
As we get ready to say goodbye to the year 2017 and welcome in the new year 2018, I wanted to share with all of you some of my family’s New Year’s Eve traditions. Some of our traditions started when I was a child and other’s were added in over the years.
When my brother and I were little we used to spend almost all of the New Year’s Eves with my great aunt and great uncle. They were like grandparents to us and we spent a lot of time with them over the years. They would have us down overnight and we would enjoy pizza that night while watching the ball drop on Time’s Square. Of course, we always watched it on TV, like millions of other families around the world.
My mother always gave my brother and I a new outfit on New Year’s Eve and we would wear that new outfit on our first day back-to-school in the new year. Yes, we would get new clothes for Christmas too, but we always got a new shirt and pair of jeans as a New Year’s Eve gift too.
Once I got married and had our daughter we started our own NY Eve traditions. Every time it rolled around we would cook up some shrimp, crab legs and other seafood treats. We always played board games that night and then eventually watch the ball drop on TV. Now that our daughter is out of the house & raising her own family, hubby and I still cook up our seafood dinner, play board games and now we watch a movie together, since we have no interest in watching the ball drop on Time’s Square.
Every couple of years we’ll go out after having our seafood dinner and go downtown to watch the fireworks. Now that we’re getting older, we’re not so keen on doing that because it’s usually around 15 or 20 degrees that night. Yikes!
For New Year’s Day we always cook up a big family dinner together. We make the traditional pork roast, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, homemade dinner rolls, salads, etc. My daughter now makes and brings dessert to our family dinner.
My question today for all of you is this…Do you have any New Year’s Eve and/or New Year’s Day family traditions? If so, what are they? How long have you been doing them?
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