Friday 1 January 2016

New Year’s Eve: Avoiding feeling empty or overly-emotional

New Year’s Eve is over and I can’t say I’m feeling too sad about it. However with my evening this year being unusually enjoyable, I thought I would share my guide to celebrating the arrival of a new year in a manner that is as a pain
less as possible.

This year my NYE involved close friends, watching fireworks from the warmth of a living room, wine and then more wine. We decided that a quiet evening of cheese and chat was more appealing than other prospects.

New Year’s Eve plans typically fall into three categories:
1.     Slightly miserable in the cold, standing for hours waiting for fireworks to start.
2.     Slightly miserable at home with a large number of family members where either someone is likely to get too drunk or no one gets drunk enough.
3.     Slightly miserable in a club with a big group of friends where someone is definitely going to get too drunk.

So the fourth plan is the attempt at bringing together the family atmosphere with friends and the excitement of the countdown and fireworks but in a warm environment where the cheese and bed are both easily within reach.

Once the setting is arranged the other elements fall into place… and they are the following:

Stock up
Come midnight when the champagne has hit and you’re feeling a little sad remembering the errors of the year, it is very necessary to have readily available: crisps, hummus, chocolates, cold meats and umm oh yes, cheese.

Have a drinking plan
Two/three bottles of champagne/Prosecco (for normal people) and then a further two/three bottles of wine is just the right amount for the ‘close friends’ scenario. A few glasses of each is a good place to start. Just avoiding charging in with every beverage under the sun is a good enough plan, really.

Do not think too much
If you are reminiscing as a group, keep it light and fun. Discussing the year’s best, or funniest, or even the most embarrassing moments is fairly safe territory. Just stay clear of the obvious categories that could lead to bad realisations, these include: worst moments of the year and the biggest regrets. It’s simple stuff really. Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you enter into thinking about the future or all the things that you are yet to achieve in your short existence.

Remember everyone else is feeling pretty miserable, too
This is perhaps the most important element of NYE preparation. This year someone told me, ‘either people admit they hate New Year’s Eve or they lie.’ This is, I think, a fair assessment. New Year’s Eve is never going to be the best night of the year because there is always the lingering thought of what everyone else is doing and whether they are actually having the perfect, ‘When Harry Met Sally’ NYE experience. Well they aren’t. They just aren’t.


So there you have it - a few pointers of how to attempt to enjoy this annual, pointless event. Good luck and remember - where there’s cheddar, things couldn’t get much better.

No comments:

Post a Comment