Say goodbye to 2023 and hello to 2024 with this list of classic and unique New Year’s Traditions for children and adults of all ages. (First published December 29, 2020; this post is updated and republished to improve the content.)
Celebrate the New Year with these fun New Year’s Eve celebration ideas and New Year’s Day traditions from around the world. The New Year’s Eve traditions and New Year’s Day celebration ideas on the list below include a variety of rituals, customs, and folklore commonly associated with the New Year. Learn more about traditional New Year rituals (and find new and unique ways to celebrate the turn of the year) with this list of fun ideas.
Below is a list of fun things to do on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day that will help you ring in the new year with style and grace. It will also help you prepare for abundance to flow into your life as one year transforms into the next. Fill your New Year celebrations with meaning, joy, and good fortune using these fun New Year’s ideas. You might also enjoy learning about Samhain, the Celtic New Year.
Most Popular New Year Celebration Ideas and Traditions
Common New Year’s traditions include toasting the new year, going to a New Year’s Eve fireworks show (as shown in the photograph above), kissing a loved one at midnight, making resolutions, setting goals, and eating a traditional New Year’s Day meal.
So, if you ever question why people kiss at midnight or why people sing Auld Lang Syne after the clock strikes midnight, this article explains the hows and whys behind many of these strange NYE rituals, customs, and traditions.
Best of all, several of these New Year’s celebration ideas can be done at home (or without involving a crowd) if you are not really into the New Year’s Eve party scene this year. And even better, most of these New Year’s ideas for kids and adults are FREE! Several New Year activities on the list below are also appropriate for a kids’ New Year’s Eve party if you are celebrating New Year’s Eve with kids. Happy New Year!
“May there be peace in your heart, peace for humankind, peace to Mother Nature’s many varied creatures, and peace to all as one.”
Nell Regan Kartychok
34 New Year’s Traditions and Celebration Ideas
In ancient times, New Year’s celebrations typically happened during the spring equinox, on Samhain, or the winter solstice. But today, the Gregorian calendar holds sway over the day most people celebrate the new year. According to this calendar, December 31 is New Year’s Eve, and January 1 is New Year’s Day. The Chinese New Year (also called the Lunar New Year) is another new year celebration in February. Information about the Chinese New Year can be found HERE and HERE.
People around the world ring in the New Year in all sorts of fun traditional ways, and, as a result, there are lots of fun things to do on New Year’s Day. And because there are so many fun things to do on New Year’s Eve, we have divided this article into two parts. The first list of ideas includes New Year’s Eve traditions, while the second list of celebration ideas shares New Year’s Day traditions or things to do on New Year’s Day.
Both lists include modern and classic New Year’s traditions for kids and adults of all ages and a bit about the reasons behind them. But neither contains mandatory New Year’s rituals or customs you MUST do. We don’t do everything on this list of fun family New Year’s ideas–and you shouldn’t have to either. Make your family’s New Year celebration memorable by choosing at least one new tradition to start or do on New Year’s. But remember, it isn’t worth it if it isn’t fun. You may also enjoy these lists of Christmas Traditions and Easter Traditions.
2024 New Year’s Eve Traditions: 17 Things to do on NYE
Our first list of New Year’s celebration ideas includes seventeen fun things to do on New Year’s Eve. And, if you are looking for fun things to do in the first few days of the New Year, scroll down to see our second list of seventeen ideas to do on or for New Year’s Day–and into 2024.
Related: Winter Art Projects and Painting Ideas
Here are a few classic New Year’s Eve ideas and a few new and unique New Year’s Eve traditions you can try.
1. Host or attend a New Year’s Eve party.
Hosting or attending a New Year’s Eve party is a fun way to celebrate the New Year with lovers, friends, and family. Host or attend an in-person New Year’s party (if you can do it safely) or invite friends and family to attend a New Year’s Eve Party on Zoom as a fun and unique alternative to a crowded in-person party.
2. Dress to impress.
In many parts of the world, it’s traditional to dress to impress and wear your best clothes for Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. For example, in Brazil, it is customary to dress in white on New Year’s Eve. (See #3 below.)
Even if you will only be ringing in the New Year in the comfort of your own home (in-person or Zoom New Year’s Eve party or not), wash off the OLD year, clean yourself up, and dress to look your best for 2024! Whether you wear all white or dress up in your best cocktail dress, do it in style!
3. Wear white.
It is traditional to wear all white in Brazil on New Year’s Eve. People participating in this NYE tradition wear white to symbolize new beginnings, peace, purity, and good luck. Start the year in pure white to bring peace, prosperity, and luck into 2024.
4. Decorate your home or party space for New Year.
Decorate your house to celebrate New Year’s and party like it’s 1999–lol! Add sparkle, shine, and traditional New Year decorations to your holiday decorations for your New Year’s celebration. Even if only the members of your household will get to enjoy them.
Spruce up the house with evergreen foliage as they did in ancient times. Or string lights, rich patterns, and modern, vibrant colors such as sparkling blacks, golds, silvers, or whites. Decorating for the New Year gives us something to do during the dark days of winter and makes the house look spectacular!
5. Place coins on the windowsill.
Place coins upon a windowsill to receive abundance in the new year. Many historians believe this is an Irish New Year’s Tradition, while others claim this New Year’s custom hails from Italy. Give this traditional NYE prosperity ritual a try to increase your abundance in the new year!
Place money on a window sill outside before midnight on New Year’s Eve. Then, open the window and bring the coins into your home on New Year’s Day. The action of opening the window and bringing money into the house symbolizes receiving the abundance you deserve. Try this traditional New Year ritual to experience abundance flowing your way in the New Year.
6. Watch the ball drop in Times Square (Virtually or in Person).
Here’s a fun idea for anyone planning to be in New York for the New Year. Watch the ball drop in Times Square on NYE. The ball drop in New York’s central square has become a classic New Year’s Eve tradition in the modern world. The ball is dropped at 11:59 PM ET and when it comes to rest at midnight, it signals the beginning of the new calendar year.
Learn about the NYE ball drop in Times Square, including fun facts about its history HERE. For more details on how to safely enjoy the big night’s festivities or have other questions about NYE in Times Square and the Ball Drop, you can learn more HERE–>NYE-FAQ.
7. Light up your celebration.
Several winter holidays, including winter solstice, Christmas, and New Year’s, are considered a celebration of light by many cultures. Fortunately, there are lots of fun and creative ways to light up your New Year’s celebrations. Hang up a sparkling disco ball, enjoy the relaxing movement of a lava lamp, put fairy lights in mason jar lanterns, decorate with tealight candles, or hang beautiful globe string lights throughout your home, yard, and garden. Or bring light to the darkest time of the year with any of the other light-filled NYE ideas that follow.
8. Enjoy fireworks.
Bring light to your New Year’s Eve celebration with fireworks. Some people set fireworks off at midnight to ring in the New Year with a bang, while others can’t wait and start early. Because we live in an area where wildfires rage yearly (we lost our family property in the Paradise, CA wildfire of 2018), we know that fireworks are not safe or legal in many locations. Gather a few legal fireworks and find a safe spot to set them off. But please be prepared and remain vigilant should you choose this New Year’s Eve activity. “If you light it, be prepared to fight it.” Check local rules, regulations, and recommendations in your city, county, state, province, or country.
9. Light sparklers.
Here’s a family New Year’s tradition for young and old alike. Sparklers are a classic NYE tradition that children and adults of all ages enjoy. So, light sparklers with the kids and the young at heart to celebrate the New Year. If you are looking for a safe alternative to sparklers, a light-up stick with fiber optics makes an excellent choice. Or, make a few DIY sensory bottles for the kids, especially if the sound of fireworks makes them feel overwhelmed or anxious.
10. Watch a New Year’s Eve fireworks show.
Watching a New Year’s fireworks show live and in-person or on the television on NYE is another fun tradition for young and old alike. Children and adults of all ages enjoy watching fireworks burst into the sky to celebrate the new year. Make plans to attend a New Year’s Eve fireworks show near you. Check your local listings for more information. Or, try any of the other light-filled fireworks NYE suggestions found above.
11. Countdown to the New Year.
Have a New Year’s Eve countdown! Count down to midnight aloud for the final ten seconds of the year. Counting down to the stroke of midnight or the moment the year changes to the next is a classic NYE Tradition that kids and adults of all ages enjoy!
If you have young children at home such as babies, toddlers, and preschoolers that shouldn’t stay up that late. Invite your family to countdown to the New Year at an earlier hour of the night. You don’t have to wait until midnight. It’s the new year, almost every hour somewhere in the world on New Year’s Eve!
Find the name of a city, or a location on the map, and pretend that you are celebrating the New Year with the people in that location when you countdown to midnight. Children love this fun New Year’s activity.
For example, if you live on the West Coast (or in Hawaii) and have a toddler at home, watch the ball drop LIVE in New York City. This way, your child can count down to the new year and still get a good night’s rest. Afterward, the adults can stay up and count down to midnight once the children go to sleep. If you can make it that far–lol! As parents, my husband and I find it much harder to make it to midnight than before having children!
12. Make some noise.
Get out the New Year’s Eve noisemakers and make some noise to celebrate the turn of the year. Even if you don’t join a party of others doing the same, we can all still enjoy the celebratory sound of a community bing, bang, and boom when the clock strikes midnight. So, join everyone in your neighborhood in the sound of celebration! Make some noise with any of the ideas from the list below.
New Year’s Eve Noise Makers:
- Blower noisemakers
- Metallic gold and silver noisemakers
- Beistle squawkers
- Classic wooden noise maker
- Cowbell
- Or bang on pots and pans! (see below)
13. Bang on pots and pans.
Turn spoons into drumsticks and pots and pans into drums and tambourines to make your own NYE noisemakers. Banging on pots and pans to ring in the new year is one of my favorite childhood memories. When I was a child, I remember making noise every hour on New Year’s Eve. It’s a New Year celebration somewhere in the world, so why not make some noise?!
I loved banging on pots and pans with my brothers on the front lawn. We were even known to march down the street with our pot and pan marching band led by a few of the crazy ladies and odd fellows my parents had over for NYE. One of them happily pumped his baton (umbrella) up and down in the air in front of him as he blew on his harmonica marching down the street to lead us all.
Best of all, many of our neighbors grabbed their noisemakers and followed us down the street to join the fun. Want to join us? Get out the pots and pans, musical instruments, and other New Year’s noisemakers (see the list above) to make some noisy NYE memories this year. And don’t forget to have a banging good time!
14. kiss at midnight.
Start the year with a kiss from a loved one at midnight on NYE. Kissing at the stroke of midnight is a classic New Year’s Eve tradition for lovers, families, and friends of all ages. So, pucker up and kiss someone as the clock strikes midnight on NYE 2023, even if it’s just an air kiss from a distance, across the yard, over FaceTime, or at a Zoom party with friends and relatives.
Why do we kiss at midnight on New Year’s Eve?
Many people believe you will have a special relationship with the first person you kiss as the clock strikes midnight. Worst of all, if you are single and don’t kiss anyone when the clock strikes twelve, you’ll be lonely for the entire year. This New Year’s superstition explains why so many people pine for that special someone to kiss at midnight, or demand a kiss from their lover on New Year’s Eve.
Who do you kiss at midnight on New Year’s?
According to English and German folklore, kissing your lover at midnight ensures a New Year filled with their affections, sets the tone for the remainder of the year, and strengthens the ties you wish to maintain into the future.
How did the tradition of kissing on New Year’s start?
The tradition of kissing at midnight (a kiss at midnight on New Year’s Eve) originated at the Scottish end-of-the-year party called Hogmanay. At a Hogmanay party, it is customary to kiss everyone in the room at the stroke of midnight. In ancient times, Hogmanay was a pre-Christmas festival associated with the winter solstice, while today, many celebrate Hogmanay on December 31.
Another reason kissing at midnight came into vogue is to evade evil spirits and misfortunes. Europeans went to masquerade balls to celebrate the New Year wearing masks symbolizing evil spirits. And the person that removed it must kiss the wearer to symbolize purification.
15. sing “Aude Lang Syne.”
One of the most popular and classic old-school New Year’s Eve traditions is singing “Aud Lang Syne” to greet the new year. When the clock strikes midnight on December 31, one of the first things likely to be heard amongst the sound of bursting fireworks and loud cheers of “Happy New Year” is the classic song “Auld Lang Syne.”
Although most people are baffled by the lyrics and wonder what they mean, 2024 is a perfect year to honor this age-old New Year’s Day tradition because the words ring as accurately today as they ever did.
Opening "Aud Lang Syne" Song Lyrics: Should auld acquaintance be forgot And never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot And days of auld lang syne?...
…the phrase “auld lang syne” is not recognizable to English speakers because it is a Scottish phrase, not an English one. Translated literally it means “old long since,” but the meaning is more like “old times” or “the olden days.”
(source)
16. Toast the New Year.
Starting the year off with a New Year’s toast is one of the most traditional ways to ring in the new year. Some like to have a traditional champagne toast as the twelfth bell chimes, while others traditionally pop the cork at the stroke of midnight.
Many NYE partygoers believe it is essential to clink glasses while looking others directly in the eyes as you toast to the New Year at the stroke of twelve. In contrast, others wait to make their toast at a traditional New Year’s Dinner celebration. (Look at the traditional New Year’s foods list in the list of New Year’s Day traditions and celebration ideas in the next section!)
No matter how you toast the New Year, do it with gusto, a few words of wisdom–if only spoken silently–and peace in your heart. Happy New Year, 2024!
17. Eat 12 grapes at midnight.
Eating twelve grapes at midnight is a New Year’s Tradition common in Spain and Latin America. This New Year’s Tradition brings good luck to each of the twelve months of the year. On the first stroke of midnight, eat one grape and consider the fortune it will bring in January; on the second stroke, eat a second grape and think of the prosperity it will bring in February, and so on.
But, be mindful, one must concentrate fully and finish before the final stroke of midnight, or ill fortune will come to fruition. Forgive the pun–lol! Follow the steps below to try the tradition of eating 12 grapes at midnight on NYE:
- At the first stroke of midnight, pop one grape in the mouth.
- Continue with one grape for every clock stroke until the final stroke of twelve.
- As you pop each of the twelve grapes into your mouth, think about the abundance each of the twelve months of the year will bring.
Eating twelve grapes each time the clock strikes makes it almost impossible to kiss at midnight and toast to the new year at the same time–lol! Which will you choose? Or will you rise to the challenge and attempt all three of these fun NYE traditions at the same time? If so, we wish you good luck! Learn more about this traditional New Year’s Eve ritual HERE.
New Year’s Day Traditions: 17 Fun Things to do on New Year’s Day and into 2024
This final list of New Year’s celebration ideas includes fun things to do on New Year’s Day and in the beginning days of the New Year. In other words, this list is full of traditional things to do at the beginning of the year or the start of 2024. From classic New Year traditions–such as making New Year resolutions–to the modern and unique alternative of choosing an inspirational word for the year, you can find it all here!
1. Go on a polar bear swim.
If you dare to brave the cold water, here’s a fun thing to do on New Year’s Day (and a challenge for the whole family). Go on a polar bear swim! People all over the world jump in the cold water to participate in this fun New Year’s Day tradition to refresh and invigorate the body and mind. As a retired ocean lifeguard, I have watched and enjoyed the follies of completing a New Year’s Day Polar Bear Swim several times.
Polar bear swims are a great way to wash off the old year in preparation for the New Year. Traditionally held on New Year’s Day, polar bear swim participants plunge into a body of water and brave the low temperature as a rite of passage into the following year. Think of a Polar Bear Swim like a giant “reset” button or baptism of sorts, to rejuvenate and refresh the body, mind, and soul.
Invite your household, family, and friends to hit the water and determine the “rotten egg” of 2024! Either find a Polar Bear Swim near you or take your family to your favorite body of water and jump into the New Year with this crazy tradition. Even if only the pool in your backyard, jump in to hit the reset button and cleanse away your sins!
If you dare to try this age-old New Year’s Day tradition, use caution, be uber-mindful, and please make sure you follow any local safety rules and regulations. I was an ocean lifeguard for 20 years, and Polar Bear Swims are not very safe. Especially if you brave the waters without safety personnel. I’ve rescued many polar bear swimmers over the years who were too cold to save themselves. Please use the buddy system and have plenty of extra dry clothes, towels, blankets, and warm drinks to bundle up and enjoy when you get out of the water after your New Year’s swim!
2. Make wishes on a New Year’s wish tree.
A wishing tree is a lovely New Year’s tradition for children and adults. Make a DIY wish tree with bare branches (similar to a thankful tree or Easter Tree), decorate a twig tree, or transform your Christmas tree into a New Year’s wish tree on NYE. If you would like to use your Christmas tree, remove the ornaments and leave the lights in it to prepare for wishing decorations.
Once you have decided on the tree you will use to decorate as a New Year’s wish Tree, invite friends and family to write their New Year’s wishes onto wishing star ornaments, gift tags, or scraps of paper tied with twine. Encourage everyone to write their wishes for the future onto your wishing ornaments. Make wishes for yourself, and wishful prayers for others, your community, and the environment. Next, hang your wishing ornaments on the tree to help bring these wishes and prayers to fruition in the new year.
3. Enjoy a traditional New Year’s Day meal.
A common way to celebrate the New Year is to prepare and serve a traditional New Year’s Day Dinner. Cultures worldwide have different ideas about which foods should be consumed on New Year’s Day and why. In many cultures, anything that is round or circular is worth (pun intended) eating on New Year’s Day.
So, eating circular foods that are round-shaped on New Year’s Day is a common tradition around the world. Circles resemble coins, representing money and abundance and the continuous circular nature of all things. Therefore, consuming round foods is thought to bring wealth, good fortune, and prosperity to those who eat them.
Hoppin’ John with Greens is a classic example of a traditional New Year’s Day meal. Many Southerners believe eating this classic New Year’s dish containing black-eyed peas, pork, and rice will bring peace and good fortune into the new year. Some more traditional foods to serve on New Year’s Day are listed below.
4. Share and eat traditional New Year’s foods.
Another fun thing to do on New Year’s Day is to eat traditional foods. Share, eat, and enjoy any of the traditional New Year’s Day foods below with your family and friends to celebrate:
12 Grapes at Midnight:
- As mentioned in the list of New Year’s Eve traditions above, it is a tradition to pop one grape in the mouth for every stroke of the clock until the stroke of midnight is reached.
- This New Year’s Tradition is thought to bring luck to each of the twelve months of the New Year.
Black-Eyed Peas:
- Believed to bring prosperity and good luck in the south, black-eyed peas are often served on a bed of collard greens called Hoppin John with Greens on New Year’s Day.
Greens: (Collards, Kale, Green Beans, Brussel Sprouts)
- Eat greens on New Year’s Day to symbolize health and good luck.
- Green symbolizes luck in many cultures and is thought to bring health to those who eat it.
Cabbage:
- Because it resembles the color of money, cabbage has long been associated with luck and good fortune in Ireland, Germany, and parts of the US.
Lentils:
- Due to their coin shape, eating lentils on New Year’s Day is thought to bring good fortune to the year ahead.
Pork:
- Eat pork on New Year’s Day as a symbol of wealth and prosperity.
Fish:
- Since they swim in schools (abundance) and only swim forward, eating fish symbolizes abundance and good luck and can help you move forward into the New Year.
Noodles:
- Many Asian cultures eat long noodles on New Year’s Day to symbolize a long life. But be mindful not to break the noodles as you slurp them up. A broken noodle is thought to break one’s lifespan. So, eat with care!
Pomegranate:
- In Turkey and the Mediterranean, pomegranates are eaten on the New Year as a symbol of fertility, abundance, and good luck.
5. Go for a New Year’s Walk.
In the New Year, a traditional thing to do is to go for a walk into the new year. Say goodbye to 2023 and hello to 2024 with a family walk in the great outdoors. If you are looking for fun things to do outside on New Year’s Day, check out this list of outdoor activities to try with the kids!
6. Rest and do no work.
Many cultures consider it bad luck to work on New Year’s Day. For these cultures, work includes cleaning your house, sweeping, and washing your hair. Doing work (such as cleaning or sweeping) was believed to clean, sweep, or wash good luck for the year away.
So, rest and do no work on New Year’s Day. Even better, don’t even waste your time thinking about work. Rest easy knowing that you don’t need to lift a finger until tomorrow. Your luck in the New Year might depend on it!
7. Watch the Rose Parade (or another New Year’s Day parade).
Here’s a fun thing to do on New Year’s Day that the whole family can enjoy. Children and adults of all ages–from babies to toddlers to teens–love going to the Rose Parade or watching it on television. As such, the Rose Parade is the quintessential New Year’s Day parade in America. It begins at 8:00 AM PST on January 1, 2024, in Pasadena, California.
So, get a ticket and head to Pasadena, California, to see it live, or tune in from the comfort of your couch. Here’s more information about the New Year’s Rose Parade–> Tournament of Roses. Or, attend a New Year’s Day parade in your city or town to enjoy this exciting New Year’s Day tradition.
8. Play and watch football.
For many families and several neighborhoods, playing and watching football is their favorite way to spend New Year’s Day. So, turn on the tube to enjoy watching the games, or invite neighbors, family, and friends over for a friendly scrimmage on the field. And don’t forget the genuine leather pigskin and flag football set!
Look at the New Year’s college football game schedule–>HERE.
9. Call or send New Year’s greetings to friends and family.
New Year’s is a great time to send greetings and wishes of joy and good cheer to friends and family. So, if you haven’t already sent Christmas cards, the New Year is your second chance to send holiday greetings to your family and friends!
And, if you have already sent out your holiday cards, New Year’s is also a great time to send Thank you cards to thank family and friends for gifts–material or otherwise. Make homemade fingerprint snowman thank you cards or “Thumb-buggy” thank you cards with your children and send them to loved ones.
10. Meditate or practice yoga.
Set the tone for 2024 by meditating or practicing yoga on New Year’s Day and resolve to continue your practice. Even just two minutes a day can have numerous health and wellness benefits for the body, mind, and spirit. Encourage the whole family, or everyone in your household, to join you in this powerful life-changing habit.
Get your first quarter off to a mindful start. Practicing meditation or yoga can give our daily rhythm a strong foundation from which to flow. A regular yoga or meditation practice can help us see ourselves more clearly, and into the days ahead. So, take a seat or get on your yoga mat to shed the old and make room to receive a glorious New Year. Here’s a list of YouTube’s best FREE Kids’ Yoga Videos you can enjoy with children from toddlers to teens.
11. Make New Year’s resolutions or goals.
A New Year’s resolution is when a person resolves to make a positive change to improve one’s life or to accomplish a personal goal. Making resolutions often has to do with changing undesirable traits and implementing new positive behaviors and good habits in their place.
In other words, a New Year’s resolution is a promise. A promise that you will change something and do it differently in the new year. The primary goal is to improve life in the coming year. Some common New Year’s resolutions include exercising or working out, losing weight, quitting smoking, or eating less junk food.
Making resolutions for the new year is a tradition that has changed much over the years. The problem with New Year’s resolutions is that most people fail to accomplish them. One of the primary reasons people fail to keep their New Year resolutions is that they are not specific enough.
For a New Year resolution to be effective, turn it into a goal with a plan to accomplish it–instead of making an arbitrary statement that one merely hopes to achieve. Learn how to set SMART New Year’s Goals instead of resolutions HERE–> How to Set SMART Goals.
Related: How to Create an Action Plan to Accomplish Goals
12. Choose a word for the New Year.
Choose a “word of the year” to stay motivated and keep you on the road to success in 2024. Choosing a word to represent the new year is a fun way to stay energized to reach your goals and dreams. Instead of making a New Year’s Resolution that you can’t keep, a word of the year can be a constant yet gentle reminder to focus on creating positive change in your life. Download this list of inspirational words to choose your word of the year!
13. Set intentions.
New Year’s resolutions and lofty goals can make us feel pressured to perform while setting intentions and positive affirmations can help align us with our higher purpose. Our unconscious habits will cause us to fail if we don’t consciously overcome them.
Setting positive intentions can help alter our negative thought patterns, and changing these self-limiting patterns is the first step toward changing your life. Limit negative thinking with the power of intention. Next, turn these intentions or goals into positive affirmations and live the life of your dreams.
14. Make a plan.
Make a plan for the new year to start 2024 off on the right foot. First, plan your daily routine or rhythm. Get started with our FREE QuickStart Weekly Planning Guide.
Next, do a goal review. And finally, set SMART Goals for each 90-day quarter. If you don’t begin the year with a plan, how do you expect to get where you want to go?
Use the Dream Life Tool Kit to help design a life you LOVE! Use it to plan each quarter of the year and write down your intentions, affirmations, priorities, habits, goals, and more!
15. Create a vision board for 2024.
Once you have set SMART Goals and have a solid action plan, it’s time to create positive affirmations and make your vision board for 2024. A vision board is a collage or artwork with your visions for the future.
A vision board is a visual representation of your dreams and goals. In other words, it is a physical collection of ideas, images, pictures, photos, art, drawings, magazine clippings, inspirational words, quotes, etc., representing your future vision. Create a vision board to harness the power of visualization (see the things you want in your mind’s eye) as a way to open up, receive them, and bring them into your life.
To make a vision board, get a bulletin board with push pins, and grab a bunch of magazines and photos of the things you want to manifest in your life. Or, get out your favorite art supplies and create your dream life on paper or canvas with pencils, pens, or paints.
Creating a vision board for the New Year is a great way to start the year off on both the right and left feet. It’s always best to have both feet firmly planted and know where you’re going before moving forward. Steven Covey writes in The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People that if you want to get where you want to go, you must “begin with the end in mind.” So, create a vision board for 2024 to get there!
16. Begin the year with an attitude of gratitude.
The quickest way to feel better about your life is to be thankful for everything already in it. Do your best to find gratitude for everything in your life. The good, the bad, and even the downright ugly. Believe it or not, many good things can come out of tragedy.
My family has had the good fortune of learning from several tragic events in the last ten years. And I can honestly say that I am grateful for every one of them. In my experience, anything terrible can become something good. In retrospect, my life is better because of each lesson learned from each mistake. And today, I know firsthand the healing effects that gratitude can have on the body-mind.
So, if you want to be happy and have everything you’ve ever dreamed of, thankfulness and grateful thinking are surefire ways to open yourself to receive everything you want. In our home and classroom, we use gratitude activities and crafts to provide a simple way to help cultivate an attitude of gratitude. Use gratitude journal prompts, grateful worksheets, and gratitude crafts to bring more joy, happiness, love, health, wealth, and abundance into your life!
17. Radiate Peace
New Year’s is the perfect time to reflect on the power of radiating peace and love. Choosing to emit serene and loving energy can create transformation in a chaotic and uncertain world. Peace is more than just a lack of conflict; it’s a state of harmony that starts within ourselves and extends to those around us.
Love, in its purest form, is an unselfish regard for the welfare of others. Radiating peace, love, and light can inspire hope and bridge divides. It can help foster a sense of unity and create empathy for the experience of others, regardless of their actions, beliefs, or behaviors.
So, as we step into the New Year, let us commit to being beacons of peace and love, illuminating the path for others and creating a ripple effect of positivity that transcends borders and differences. Doing so can enrich our lives and help contribute to a more compassionate and understanding world.
New Year’s Eve 2024 Celebration Ideas
As you can see, there are lots of fun things to do to celebrate NYE. Use the lists of ideas above to ring in the new year in style, or have a relaxing evening getting the rest you deserve to get the most out of the new year! Happy New Year!
Denise Smith says
My family usually does the New Year’s Day meal on New Year’s Eve. If there’s any leftovers (which there usually is) we have them on New Year’s Day. I may switch things up this year to see if we have better luck in the new year.
Nell Regan M.A. says
Hi Denise! Thank you for sharing your New Year’s family traditions. I love hearing about the different ways people celebrate. And, I can’t wait to hear how the change works for you into 2022—wishing you unlimited joy, endless fun, and massive amounts of abundance in the New Year!