New Year's Eve Ideas
Tips for Starting Your Own New Year's Rituals
Relationship Advice Expert April Masini
Advice Seeker: Dear April Masini,
My family is so bored of the usual New Year's parties and rituals. We don't want to go out and stay up till midnight, watch the ball drop, and go to bed. We want to do something different and start our own yearly tradition. Do you have any tips for what families or people in relationships can do this New Year's?
Sincerely,
Bored with the Ball
April Masini's advice:
Dear Bored with the Ball,
If you can't or don't want to do the traditional New Year's, I have some ideas for you to go a different route.
Ways to start your own traditions and rituals within your family or relationship:
1. Think outside the box. If you want to celebrate your family being together at a particular time of year, then pick a date, a time and an event. This can be as simple as everyone making pizza together, or as complex as making up a "service" that your family enacts together on a particular hillside followed by a particular meal.
2. Incorporate traditions from all sides of the family and make them work in one day or one weekend or one week.
3. Look outside your family. As a ritual or tradition give back to the community by spending the holiday volunteering and giving to charity — not just with money, but with time and experience.
Some great New Year's celebrations for families and couples:
1. A family hike on New Year's Eve day -- or New Year's Day. This is a great way to start the new year off with a healthy, nature experience, together. If you live in a snowy area, make it a snowy day hike or a snowman building day.
2. Throw an open house! It can be pot luck, catered, or anything in between. The important thing is to involve the entire family. Have one member send invitations, another collect RSVPs, another decorate and another clean up. Or you can all do all of those chores. Make it an annual event.
3. Spend New Year's Eve day or New Year's Day volunteering for people less fortunate than yourself. While your children may grumble, the most important thing is that you're guiding them and setting an example for a way to live that is not selfish, but selfless and generous.
You may also be interested in:
Dating Advice for Women, Dating Tips for Guys, Ideas for a Fun Date, Romantic Date Ideas, Better Sex, Kissing Tips
April Masini -- nicknamed "the new millennium's Dear Abby" by the media, is author of the best-selling books Date Out Of Your League and Think & Date Like A Man, the two (just released) step-by-step dating and relationship manuals, Ideas for a Fun Date and Romantic Date Ideas, and the critically acclaimed dating and relationship online magazine www.AskApril.com.
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