New Years is a high stakes holiday. I remember someone telling me once that the way you spend your New Year’s Eve is the way you’ll spend your year, which for me usually means I’ll be constantly snacking, binge-watching Netflix and going to bed early. This year, however, I decided to throw a glam NYE party surrounded by food, friends and fun! Cheers to an amazing 2018!

Food

• Don’t Be Crabby in 2018 Dip
  • 1 lb crab meat
  • 1 cup greek yogurt or mayo
  • 1/2 cup pepper jack
  • 1/4 cup parmesan
  • Worchester Sauce, lemon, salt & pepper
  • Mix everything together, bake for 40 minutes at 350 and serve with mini toasts
• Drunken Shrimp Cocktail *(I mixed champagne in the cocktail sauce)*
• Have a Healthy New Year Veggie Tray
• Let’s Get Baked Brie
  • Drizzle oil and fresh herbs, bake for 10 minutes at 350
• Cheesy Little Tuxedos
  • Crackers, sharp cheddar, olive “bow ties” and peppercorn buttons
• Dessert Bar featuring
  • It’s Always Cake O’clock vanilla buttercream cake
  • I Cannoli Kiss You at Midnight
  • I’ll Work This Off January 2nd Fruit & Chocolate Dip
  • Cheesecake, because Lauren Conrad had cheesecake at her New Year’s Party

Drink

• Pomegranate Champagne Punch
  • 1 bottle pomegranate juice
  • 1 cup white rum
  • 1 bottle champagne
  • 1/2 cup lemon simple syrup
  • Lemons, limes, pomegranate seeds
  • ** I also made a virgin version with club soda and raspberry juice for non-drinkers and my plethora of pregnant friends
• Bubbly Bar
  • Champagne.  Lots of it.
  • Mango, Raspberry and Strawberry Lemonades
  • Fruit garnish
  • Cotton Candy Puffs
• Liquor, Beer and Wine
  • No tequila though, because you don’t want people getting tequila drunk at your house on New Year’s Eve

Activities

• New Year’s Wishes
  

  

  
  • Have your guests write a resolution or a wish for the new year, and then address an envelope to themselves so you can send it to them as a reminder later in the year (another LC contribution)
• Traditions Around the World
  

  
  • I tried to market this as a game, but it turned out to be more of a cultural learning experience.  I rolled 8 different New Year’s traditions from around the globe in balloons and wrote a different time on each balloon.  The intention was to have everyone do the activity, but getting 20 some people to participate in a game is hard, so hopefully they just learned something.
• Photo Booth 
  

  

  

  

  

  
  • Sparkly sequin backdrop
  • Photo booth props
  • Balloons and streamers

Favors

I figured everyone would be good and hungover from the 30 bottles of champagne we consumed, so I put together favor bags with a little help from my Cricut to make January 1st a little more bearable

• Advil
• Fortune Cookies (from a Chinese food restaurant)
• Ring pops
• Face Mask
• Mini champagne bottle
• Hershey kisses