Happy New Year! Throwing the Ultimate New Year's Bash at Home

The Invitations

If you’re having a party, you are obviously going to need to invite your guests. There are several ways to do so (e-mail and phone being the easiest), but why not class it up a bit and send out a personalized formal invite? There are lots of invitation shops and designers who would be happy to design a special invitation for your party.

Imagine your guests delight when they open up their mailbox to find an invitation just for them. And there are so many cute designs you can do with a New Year’s theme.

Decorate

To have a true New Year’s Eve celebration, you’ll want your place to look like a party. This means you’re going to have to decorate. Silver and blue seem to be the perfect New Year’s celebration colors. So, pick up some balloons, streamers, and sparkly things. The decor pictured above will look fabulous placed in the center of your room’s tables.

Party favors are always fun at New Year’s parties. Like these hats, for example. Your guests will go crazy over them. Also a good time? Those party crackers with prizes in them. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love those, even though the prizes never fail to be super lame. Kazoos and other noise-makers are equally fun and will have you ready to shoot yourself by the end of the night.

Well-Stocked Bar

If you listen to one thing I say in this guide, let it be this. In order to have a successful New Year’s party in your home, you must make sure your bar is well stocked. If your guests are stuck searching for alcohol or being forced to drink that old bottle of Wild Turkey you had stuck on top of your fridge, they will not be happy. And they could leave to go somewhere else where their thirst can be quenched.

Make sure you get a large selection of alcohol, including beer, wine, and the hard stuff. Plus, mixers. If you have tons of hard alcohol with no mixers, your party could end in a very messy way.

Don’t be shy about asking your guests to bring a bottle or two. If they’re polite, they will anyway.

Champagne: The Good Stuff

You could grab some Perrier-Jouet, the most expensive champagne in the world. Think about how cool you will look and how impressed your guests will be. Just don’t let them do anything silly like chug a whole bottle or pour the thing over their head at midnight. Unless you’re super rich and don’t care about that sort of thing.

Champagne: The Poor People's Choice

OR you could pick up a bottle of Andre champagne. Andre is the college student’s choice, but that doesn’t mean you can’t buy it well into your 20s and 30s.

OK, so your party won’t be the classiest around, but at least you’ll be able to afford plenty of the stuff. Maybe you can even get every guest their own bottle. How’s that for class?

Champagne Glasses (Plastics?)

Well, if you’re going to serve champagne at your party, you need to have champagne glasses, right? Toasting at midnight with champagne in a Solo cup just doesn’t seem right at all. But since you probably don’t want to purchase 50 champagne glasses and deal with all the broken ones, just buy a few packages of plastic champagne glasses.

No, they’re not the classiest thing at all, but trust me, it’s way classier than Solo cup champagne drinking. And maybe it will encourage your guests to actually pour the champagne rather than drinking it straight out of the bottle.

Party Food

Since your guests will likely be partaking in a lot of drinking, it is extremely necessary that you offer them some food as well. Party guests usually aren’t too picky, so you can get as fancy as you want with this. It’s nice to set out cute little platters with cut up veggies, chips, and dips.

Don’t be shy to ask your guests to bring some snacks as well. Most will be more than willing.

Part Food, Cont.

Or you can just open up a few bags of chips and call it a party. Seriously, most of your guests will probably be OK with this…as long as your bar is extremely well-stocked.

TJ's Mini Apps

Another awesome party food idea is to stock up on the mini appetizers from Trader Joe’s. They have a big variety…and people might even think you made them yourself! Really, they just require some heating in the oven. Perfect!

New Year's Cake

I love an excuse to get a pretty cake. And most people love an excuse to eat cake. So make sure to pick up (or make!) a New Year’s cake that can either be eaten all night long or saved for when the clock strikes midnight. Either way, the cake pictured above is probably the cutest New Year’s cake I’ve seen and would be perfect for your party!

Party Music

A party is nothing, I repeat NOTHING without party music. If you have no music, your guests will be bored and awkwardly quiet. If you have bad music, your guests will be pissed and will sit around looking grumpy.

The kind of music you play at your New Year’s party completely depends on your guests and what you think they’re into. If all else fails, look up a top 40 list and play that. Also add in a few 80s hits and party favorites.

If you have the right music playing at your party, your party could end up looking like this. Everyone dancing, having fun, and remembering your New Year’s party as the greatest in history.

Party Games

Some parties can be pulled off fabulously with just a bunch of people standing around and chatting while sipping on some wine. And some need a bit of extra stimulation. Just in case your party is the latter, you should stock up on a few party games and put them out on a table.

Games are always a good time at a party, especially if you know how to pick the right ones. You could even create a tournament with different teams. Boys versus girls? Or why not just turn a innocent board game into a drinking game? Hey, it’s New Year’s after all!

Twister

Twister guarantees your party will be one of the year’s greatest. Even if you don’t really like playing, watching other party goers play is always a blast. And it’s always good to have the Twister game in your closet…just in case. Help your party guests get to know one another and break the ice a bit. Trust me, it works.

Minty Gum

It’s always a good idea to have some gum on hand at your party, for all your guests who have someone to smooch at midnight.

Calling Cabs

Let’s be honest, your guests are going to be drinking a lot at your party. And you are not going to want them driving home. So you have two options. Either let them sleep over (Whoo! Slumber parties are fun!) or make sure a cab is readily available for them to take home.

Have the phone numbers to a few cab companies written down in an easy to access spot and remind your guests that you can easily call them a cab when they’re ready to leave. Your guests will thank you the next day!

The Next Morning?

If your guests choose to spent the night (and you allow it), you may want to have some food on hand for the next morning. Your guests are going to be hungover and tired and would surely greatly appreciate a big greasy breaksfast.

So break out the eggs and bacon and wake your guests up to the delicious smell of breakfast on the stove.

Or you could probably just pick up some bagels for your over-nighters. Seriously, they’ll appreciate it way more than you think.

If you’re picking up bagels, you should definitely make sure to pick up coffee for your guests as well. Trust me, they will need it. The Box O’ Joe is perfect for when youhave a big bunch of people you need to serve.