Forget going out celebrating at home can be just as much fun
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Here are ideas to get your New Year’s Eve off to a running start, whether you are celebrating with family, friends or that special someone.
A party with food, family and fun
To dodge public meltdowns and appease bedtimes (albeit later than normal), families may want to stay home on New Year’s Eve. Spend it alone with your children, or invite their friends over. Whatever you choose to do, do it with a couple of bottles of sparkling apple cider or grape juice. The cool factor on faux champagne has no age limit.
You’ll also need food, movies and games.
Video theme: The kids no doubt are itching to play the new video-game console they got for Christmas. Make it a family event. Flip on the Nintendo Wii for a few minutes (that quickly will turn into hours) and organize a tournament among family members. Or plug in the latest edition of Guitar Hero ($50-$60) and stage a concert in your living room. Videotape it. The footage will be priceless in a few years, when you are suddenly “so uncool” in the eyes of your kids.
For snacks, do finger food. Think pizza rolls, chicken wings and veggies with dip. Keep sports drinks on hand for refueling after the heated competition.
Creative theme: For the younger set, there is nothing better than getting messy. Buy pizza dough (or make it, if you have time) and let the kiddos roll it into personal pies. They can make a heart, star or blob. Let them add toppings and bake.
After dinner, burn off the calories by laughing through a game of charades. Earlier in the day, prepare slips with movies, people and places and throw the slips into a hat. As it gets closer to 2008, get on your hands and knees and help the kids build a fort in the living room. Roll out sleeping bags in the fort and let them crash there once the celebration is over.
Brainy theme: Keep those minds clicking all night by organizing a scavenger hunt. You can keep it to your house or alert a couple of neighbors that the kids might come knocking in search of cotton balls and paper clips.
After you’ve crowned a winner, provide a chance for redemption by playing Cranium ($24.99 at discount and toy stores). Some of the questions are tough for younger kids, but most can participate in some way. And when they get one right, they’ll feel supersmart. If Cranium is too difficult, try a classic card game - everyone loves Uno ($7.95).
Wind down by popping in an intellectually inspiring movie. Say, The Simpsons Movie, released earlier this month. Laugh yourself the rest of the way to midnight.
- Lisa Nicita
A romantic new year
Sometimes the very best parties have a very small guest list: just you and your special someone. To truly reconnect for a few hours, leave the television off and focus on each other.
If it’s too late to run out and buy a special dessert, you can whip up a chocolate fondue together from ingredients you probably have: 1 cup chocolate chips and 1/2 cup cream. Melt the mixture slowly in a small saucepan over low heat. If you don’t have chocolate chips, you can use a can of chocolate frosting. Remove the lid, place the can in 3 inches of water in a small saucepan and heat gradually until melted.
Once the fondue is ready, dip pieces of cake, marshmallows or fresh fruit.
After dinner, while you’re cuddling in front of the tree, spend time reconnecting. Write your love story: when and where you met, what you did on your first date, where you first kissed, how you knew you were in love, and if you’re married, where the proposal was and when you got married. If you want to be creative, you can write in a fairy-tale format: “Once upon a time . . . ” You could even make a PowerPoint presentation.
For something spicier, try the online Loveplay game at lovingyou.com. Each click on the “spinner” brings up three categories: action, body part, for how long. One spin might be “kiss,” “neck” and “1 minute” or “tickle,” “ears” and “as long as it takes.”
- Mary Beth Faller
Combine forces with neighbors to have 1 big party
In Deb Van Vliet’s Tempe neighborhood, families gather in their front yards every New Year’s Eve, bringing a dish to share and gathering around a communal fire.
Some years, the neighbors pool their resources to buy a keg of beer and rent an inflatable bouncer. Everyone on the block is invited, so there’s no one left inside to complain about loud music or screaming kids.
And all the guests walk to the party, so no one drives after having a few drinks.
When the children were younger, parents would set the clocks ahead and - after a rousing round of hollering and pot-and-pan banging at pseudo-midnight - send the kids to bed at 10 p.m.
“No one’s the wiser and every one is better rested in the morning,” Van Vliet says.
A mile away in Kim Naig’s neighborhood, the dads take the kids on the block to do something to tire them out, such as bowling or attending the Phoenix Zoo’s annual Noon Year’s Eve, featuring tons of snow, music and games from 9 a.m. to noon. (Details: 602-273-1341 or www.phoenixzoo.org.)
The kids burn off some energy and arrive home content to wind down in the living room of the chosen host house to watch movies. The adults mingle in the other room, talking and nibbling on appetizers.
For a last-minute neighborhood gathering, make a run to the nearby convenience or drugstore for noisemakers, or make do with the clanging of pots and pans.
If there’s not enough time to rent an inflatable bouncer, somebody in the neighborhood is sure to have a trampoline. Pick up sodas and a huge bag of popcorn from the grocery store to go with leftover Christmas cookies for the kids.
For older kids, transform a backyard into a hangout just for them, setting up a sound system and putting out plenty to eat. They can dance or play video games. Have the kids’ friends stay the night. And leave all the doors open (if it’s not too cold) so you can check on their antics inconspicuously.
The best part of a neighborhood gathering, Van Vliet says, is knowing that everyone is in one place and safe.
- Karina Bland
A little alcohol strategy can help prevent bad morning after
We all know the best way to prevent a New Year’s Day hangover is to not drink lots of alcohol the night before.
Still, plenty of people will choose to ring in the holiday with bubbly and other booze. They’re courting a hangover, but experts say planning can help prevent misery the next day or at least ease the symptoms, from headache and nausea to fatigue and the shakes.
Even before the party starts, being smart about what you drink and eat will improve your chances of a hangover-free New Year’s Day.
“The major thing is prevention, rather than treating it when you have it,” said Dr. Loretta Mueller, director of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey’s headache center in Stratford.
At the top of the list: Avoid dehydration, and drink on a full stomach. Also, some folklore hangover remedies actually can help some people.
Besides drinking in moderation, Mueller urges avoiding straight alcohol in favor of mixed drinks, which are diluted and help with hydration.
Experts also advise alternating booze with water or other non-alcoholic, caffeine-free drinks, a strategy favored by Rose Matson, a clerk at Martin’s Liquors in Mount Laurel, N.J., who works as a bartender at night. But she said that can be tough to do.
“Once I start drinking, I don’t want to drink water,” she said.
Drinking tomato juice or eating some honey on crackers, because of the high sugar content, can help the body eliminate alcohol quicker, Mueller said. And fatty foods slow alcohol’s absorption into the bloodstream, preventing quick intoxication.
Geri Brewster, a registered dietitian and nutritionist with Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, N.Y., also said people should eat before they start drinking, but she disagreed on what’s best.
She said many foods served at parties are high in the sugar, salt and fats that can exacerbate a hangover. Before heading out, she advised eating a healthful meal - lean protein and complex carbohydrates such as vegetables, brown rice and whole-wheat pasta - to prevent big fluctuations in your blood-sugar level while slowing absorption of alcohol.
“The faster and the quicker the buzz, the more likely you’re going to feel it the next day,” Brewster warned.
Some drinkers believe a Bloody Mary helps the next morning.
Robert Swift, associate director of the Brown University Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, sees the alcohol infusion helping, and Brewster noted the celery and tomato juice replenish sodium, potassium and B vitamins depleted by alcohol.
Experts recommend against the once-popular raw egg “cure,” because of the danger of salmonella.
They agree hydrating before bed and in the morning - whether with water, sports drinks or vegetable or fruit juice - is crucial. A little caffeine and aspirin or anti-inflammatory pills in the morning can cut a headache and should be followed by a light meal.
Anti-inflammatory drugs also can help if taken before bed.
And if none of that works?
“Just rest,” Swift said. “Don’t tax yourself - and (swear), ‘Never again!’ ”
