From the Vault: New Year's Eve
Though all holidays are special, everyone has their favorite (or, more likely, favorites). On those social network quizzes that never stop making the rounds, one friend of mine writes that she loves Mother’s Day while another writes the same about The Fourth of July. One reader shares that she loves Memorial and Labor Days, because they bracket summertime. Sentimentalists love Valentine’s Day while pragmatists appreciate any bank holiday. For some, their favorite holiday is simply their birthday or that of a loved one -- or, what the heck, all birthdays. Then there are the winter holidays, which occupy special territory because they can be religious, secular, both or neither.
It must mean something that my two favorite holidays fall within the final quarter of the year. Halloween is the undisputed champ in our urban home, but I also happen to love New Year’s Eve. Christmas gets the press. Whether or not one celebrates Christmas religiously, one can and many do bake and decorate and give presents and get them. I love all of that, and engage in much of it. This year I baked a Christmas ham and a weekend's worth of cookies. I filled pieces of amber art glass with vintage woodland-themed ornaments – golden acorns, copper pine cones, butterscotch branches. We have been collecting holiday ornaments for twenty years, and it is a special night when we unpack these and thread them with hangers before helping them find their place on the tree. This year, we splurged a real tree (from a genuine logger from Canada!) and the cedar perfume with which it fills the room and the vision of the golden lights dancing on its branches are reason enough to celebrate.
But there’s something special about New Year’s Eve. For one thing, with the possible exception of the Temperance League, this night is not divisive – in fact, it is inclusive. It is the night where everywhere from the local watering hole to the banquet hall, from your own living room to a cabin in the woods, from Times Square to the Las Vegas Strip, everyone is brought together by the revelries of the moment. I have celebrated New Year's Eve in nightclubs and brownstones, in dorm rooms and row houses, in diners and on trains. The confetti, the party hats, the noisemakers unite us wherever we are and whatever we're doing. Accordingly, in the complimentary spirits of celebration and unity, let us remember those who work this night: the bartenders and wait staff, the police and firefighters, the cab drivers and train conductors, the nurses and doctors, the soldiers.
It is great to celebrate out in the world, but almost no party is more fun to host than New Year’s Eve. For one thing, it requires little work If you have holiday decorations, leave them up – there is time enough to take them down on a homebound January weekend. We’ve had some great party food recipes this year at Urban Home Blog. An assortment of party dips goes down well with Champagne. Harken to yesteryear’s glamour on this most glamorous of nights by placing a fondue station next to the makings for midnight martinis. If, as I do, you have guests who gravitate to the kitchen, let them make curried popcorn, or pop open some giardiniera from last summer’s canning. Set up your Urban Bar to serve Bloody Marys, Sake Martinis, Black Russians, Snakebites or Harvey Wallbangers. You not only have the recipe for these drinks – including a party-friendly Bloody Mary buffet – you have their story. These anecdotes sparkle like the bubbles in Champagne as conversation starters.
As guests, drink in hand, navigate the festivities, perhaps they will sight someone to try to kiss at midnight. New Year’s Eve is license to party freely, without the freight of the winter holidays that preceded it and without the weight of the winter doldrums that may pursue it. The old year was one of great highs and scary lows, of lessons learned and, no doubt, a few missed. The realities of the new year will set in soon enough. Tonight, let us concentrate on the party. Tonight let us eat and drink and tell ribald jokes and sing along with the music and kiss loved ones and strangers. Tonight, let us sparkle with possibility.
It must mean something that my two favorite holidays fall within the final quarter of the year. Halloween is the undisputed champ in our urban home, but I also happen to love New Year’s Eve. Christmas gets the press. Whether or not one celebrates Christmas religiously, one can and many do bake and decorate and give presents and get them. I love all of that, and engage in much of it. This year I baked a Christmas ham and a weekend's worth of cookies. I filled pieces of amber art glass with vintage woodland-themed ornaments – golden acorns, copper pine cones, butterscotch branches. We have been collecting holiday ornaments for twenty years, and it is a special night when we unpack these and thread them with hangers before helping them find their place on the tree. This year, we splurged a real tree (from a genuine logger from Canada!) and the cedar perfume with which it fills the room and the vision of the golden lights dancing on its branches are reason enough to celebrate.
But there’s something special about New Year’s Eve. For one thing, with the possible exception of the Temperance League, this night is not divisive – in fact, it is inclusive. It is the night where everywhere from the local watering hole to the banquet hall, from your own living room to a cabin in the woods, from Times Square to the Las Vegas Strip, everyone is brought together by the revelries of the moment. I have celebrated New Year's Eve in nightclubs and brownstones, in dorm rooms and row houses, in diners and on trains. The confetti, the party hats, the noisemakers unite us wherever we are and whatever we're doing. Accordingly, in the complimentary spirits of celebration and unity, let us remember those who work this night: the bartenders and wait staff, the police and firefighters, the cab drivers and train conductors, the nurses and doctors, the soldiers.
It is great to celebrate out in the world, but almost no party is more fun to host than New Year’s Eve. For one thing, it requires little work If you have holiday decorations, leave them up – there is time enough to take them down on a homebound January weekend. We’ve had some great party food recipes this year at Urban Home Blog. An assortment of party dips goes down well with Champagne. Harken to yesteryear’s glamour on this most glamorous of nights by placing a fondue station next to the makings for midnight martinis. If, as I do, you have guests who gravitate to the kitchen, let them make curried popcorn, or pop open some giardiniera from last summer’s canning. Set up your Urban Bar to serve Bloody Marys, Sake Martinis, Black Russians, Snakebites or Harvey Wallbangers. You not only have the recipe for these drinks – including a party-friendly Bloody Mary buffet – you have their story. These anecdotes sparkle like the bubbles in Champagne as conversation starters.
As guests, drink in hand, navigate the festivities, perhaps they will sight someone to try to kiss at midnight. New Year’s Eve is license to party freely, without the freight of the winter holidays that preceded it and without the weight of the winter doldrums that may pursue it. The old year was one of great highs and scary lows, of lessons learned and, no doubt, a few missed. The realities of the new year will set in soon enough. Tonight, let us concentrate on the party. Tonight let us eat and drink and tell ribald jokes and sing along with the music and kiss loved ones and strangers. Tonight, let us sparkle with possibility.
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