Easy New Year’s Eve Party Ideas to Keep You Sane
These super easy New Year’s Eve party ideas will help you host a fun event at home this year! It doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Use my simple tips to host a small group to ring in the new year with ease. You may even enjoy yourself.
These party ideas for New Year’s Eve will help you plan a fun night without all the stress.
The new year is fast approaching, and people are starting to make plans for the big night. While some people like to go out to celebrate, others, like us, prefer to stay at home.
With the craziness of the holidays finally over, it’s ok to not get crazy with an over-the-top party.
An Easy New Year’s Eve Party is Possible
With entertaining at home, your main goal is to make sure that your guests are taken care of and enjoying themselves. This means providing delicious food, fun music, and games and/or activities for everyone to participate in.
The party doesn’t have to be complicated. But it should be fun and exciting enough to keep people awake until midnight (a few cat naps here or there never hurt anyone…)
Skip the extras like complicated decorations or homemade food. Look for shortcuts and keep it easy.
Related: Fancy But Casual New Year’s Eve Ideas at Home
Most often, my family has a low-key fancy night at home. And if we are inviting friends over, we prefer to keep things totally casual.
Let’s normalize having people over and enjoying their company instead of trying to show off our elaborate party skills and stressing ourselves out.
Easy New Year’s Eve Party Food Ideas
Food may be one of the most important parts of any party no matter how many people you invite. If you’re trying to keep things super simple, choose recipes that are not only easy to make, but also fun to eat like these Walking Tacos.
You can be as creative as you like with your New Year’s Eve party menu. Just don’t wait until the last minute. That adds so much extra stress to your night!
One of my favorite easy appetizers is this garlicky Roasted Cherry Tomatoes with Burrata Cheese. You can make this ahead of time so that you’re not stuck in the kitchen once your guests get there.
It’s also great for leaving out at room temperature. Plus its ALWAYS a total crowd-pleaser!
Or make the World’s Best Cheese Ball. Not an exaggeration but it is a self-appointed title. And this Bacon Dip is always requested by my family.
I like to make a few things and then set out some store-bought items that are easy to grab and ready to serve.
Some healthier party appetizers are a great way to fill out your food table for those people who are getting a jump on their New Year’s resolutions. I hate those people.
Or DO wait until the last minute and just order pizza.
New Year’s Eve Dessert Ideas
Don’t forget the sweets! Desserts make the world go around! You don’t have to make them yourself if you don’t want to (but you should make this Caramel Corn).
If you’re feeling really crazy, maybe host the party later in the evening and do just an all-out dessert table!
Prosecco Cupcakes are a fun idea. Or any other boozy cupcake.
New Year’s Drink Ideas
Keep things easy and do beer and wine. It’s self-serve and usually makes people happy. It might be fun to set out a few types of champagne or sparkling wines and do a little taste test.
Browse fun New Year’s Cocktails and Mocktails for festive ideas for the night.
If you want to do something a little bit extra, make this easy champagne punch recipe. SO good and you can get away with using a cheaper wine.
Sauvignon Blanc Jello Shots are a fun idea for New Year’s parties too!
If you want to get really cute, make these DIY Drink Stirrers! And if you REALLY want to focus this party on your bar, check out this cute festive bar cart idea.
New Year’s Eve Party Music
Having a playlist to act as a background to your party is a great way to get your guests in the mood for some fun. Music is a great way to create a vibe and control the tempo of the party.
Start off kind of low-key and then, as you get closer to midnight, pump up the energy. You can either create one yourself or check with the major streaming service who probably has their own themed playlists for the night.
While these were not created for New Year’s Eve, here are some of my playlists that you may enjoy:
- 90’s Music Playlist
- Sounds Like the 80’s But It’s Not
- Rap and Rosé (for earlier in the evening – it’s a more chill vibe).
If you have kids attending this party, use your best judgment. My family learned the hard way that not all families are as tolerant to some of the language used in the songs…
Easy New Year’s Eve Party Games
I’m not a party game-type person. But depending on your guests, they may LOVE them. Whether you play actual games or create activities to keep people engaged, it should be based on what you can handle as the host and the types of guests you have.
Kids might be able to just play board games. Adults might want to just sit and chat. Here are a few ideas for your easy New Year’s Eve party that will keep your guests entertained without too much effort.
Match the Song | This game gets started as soon as your guests walk through the door. Have them write down the first few lines of one of their favorite songs on a small piece of paper. Once everyone has written down their song lyrics, cut their pieces of paper directly in half and place them in a large bowl for later.
When you need to get people moving again, pass out the slips and have your guests find the party guest that has the piece of paper that completes theirs. The first to do so wins the game! This could also work with movie lines and is a great icebreaker if you have a lot of people who don’t know each other well.
New Year’s Scavenger Hunt | Hide an item in your home for the guests to find before they arrive. Hide it in plain sight, you definitely don’t need your guests tearing apart your home looking for this thing. Let everyone know what they are looking for. Have a collection of really inexpensive things, like a certain type of candy or a small trinket that the person who finds it gets.
Have that person hide it next. Continue the game throughout the night so you have multiple winners. Over the hours, people will forget about it but get reinvigorated when someone finds the item.
Do you know the Pickle Pickle game at Christmas? It’s a similar idea to that. I just did that with the boys this year and it was so much fun!
Hourly Countdown Bags | To keep kids entertained, bring out a new bag of mystery items each hour! This could get pretty expensive with a lot of kids. Read about the types of things I include in my Hourly Countdown Bags and then modify it to fit your party needs. It’s one thing that my kids look forward to every year and your other little guests would love it too!
Don’t forget to take pictures at your party. And don’t forget to provide photo opportunities for your guests. Use my free printable photo booth props! People love to share party photos online.
If you play your cards right, you’ll end up looking like you threw a mega rager when in fact you put together a super easy New Year’s Eve party.