I didn't celebrate the New Year's until after my sons were born. I wanted to share my excitement with them even though they didn't understand. So each year I would purchase whistles and I would open a window and we would blow our heads off.
New Years Eve or New Years Day has never been much of an event in my life. I grew up in a time and area where alcoholic beverages were not acceptable, and didn't much like the experience the few times that I've tried it, so I'm not into the kind of parties that characterize New Years Eve parties, and I can't imagine why anyone would want to hang around in the crowds in Times Square, particularly without an available bathroom, so it's been nothing more than a brief acknowledgement and reminder that I have to change the dates on my websites. My wife always buys non-alcoholic champagne, but there have been New Years Eves when I've gone to bed before midnight.
Same here we never celebrated New Years Day during my childhood, my father always said the the New Year would come in without him being up to see it in. It still doesn't mean much to me, and we always thought of it as a Scottish celebration, but more recently it has become widespread throughout the UK.
I'm going to bed early. My daughter and SIL are going to their country club for a party. I don't know what my 16 yr old grandson is doing. The 12 yr old will be staying in with me. Long ago I sometimes went to or had New Years Eve parties...fun at the time.
When I was growing up, we didn't do anything special at New Years either. My folks tried to have everything done, and be home and off the streets before it got dark and drunk drivers might be out on the roads, and they usually watched television for any festivities that they had that night. As a teenager, I always looked forward to listening to Kasey Kasim and his year-end countdown of the top songs of the year. There were always some songs that I had forgotten about, and was happy to hear again, and other songs that rated really well, and I didn't like at all. When we got closer to that number one song, it was always fun eliminating the guesses one by one, until we finally got to see which song was the winner for the year. As an adult, it was pretty much the same thing, except the kids and I would stay awake long enough to go outside and holler "Happy New Year ! " at midnight. Now, I don't care about the newer music, and I have no idea if they even have a countdown anymore, not that I would listen if they did. We are sitting here and looking at the people in Times Square, and (like Ken) wondering why on earth anyone would even want to be there and do that. So, Bobby will probably watch a movie, and I will probably read something, just like we usually do. There are things I want to learn about, don't you know......
The new year tradition here is the firecrackers and fireworks that people buy to be used at midnight when the year changes from the old to the new. Filipinos have the so called media noche which is the midnight dinner although the term media noche means midnight. As early as dinner time, the never-ending sound of firecrackers can be heard. But last night, it was not much because there was a shower. For our food, we had the usual fare of pasta - spaghetti in tomato sauce, pork barbecue, hot native chocolate. That's our midnight dinner which made our stomachs full, hahahaaah. By the way, we also have the new year table setting of fruits, sweets and snack food. That's the New Year shot, take note of my dogs in the backdrop...
New Years Day in my world is traditionally celebrated with a gathering of family for a healthy snack buffet, fire in the fireplace, good music or the Macy Parade or TV specials and just small talk. Very relaxing.
Our New Years is steeped in tradition of special foods and toasting the American way. We cook and get ready for the new years to come, put up the festive things like Kadomatsu to welcome the new year-give strength to the home an protection for the home and mochi for good luck, endurance and strength and cook our speicial foods like nishime that must have 7 or more vegetables in it with a soy based stock, open a can of black sweetened soy beans for good health and buckwheat or soba for bringing closeness to the family. We usually watch some new years festivities and parades if any, my Mom loves to watch parades. Then feast and toast a toast at New Years a little past midnight. Happy New Years! These are elaborate Kadomatsu. Ours are smaller version hung on the side by the doorway. Image from http://goinjapanesque.com/06501/. We put the mochi in various places in our homes.
We ended up not staying up until midnight, since we were both tired, and we were probably in bed by around 10PM on New Year's Eve. At midnight, I was (rudely) awakened by the loud bangs and booms of what I presumed to be fireworks or firecrackers going off; and some seemed to be right outside of the front bedroom window. Tootsie was barking, although she does not normally bark at the sound of firecrackers, and I heard Bobby out in the front room and telling her that it was okay. Later, the booms stopped, Bobby came back to bed, and I dozed off again for the night. The next morning I asked him about all of the firecrackers, and why he was up. He said that none of that was firecrackers. It was gunshots. Some were from a shotgun, and he said others were from a regular gun. He was making sure that no one was shooting close enough that it might come through the walls of the house. We are used to hearing gunshots around this neighborhood; but this was apparently a New Year's celebration. McVay street style ! !
Those may be the so called indiscriminate firing. That is the problem in Metro Manila during the new year revelry. Some people are not content with firecrackers, they still fire guns that can kill. Like last year, there are several cases of gun injuries mostly hit by stray bullet that were fired into the sky. As the police general explained in an interview, a gun fired upwards will send the bullet upward and later on will fall down with the same velocity as it went up. So when the bullet hits a person, it is as if the person was shot by a gun.
My New Years traditions have evolved over the years. When I was a kid, it was just pork and sauerkraut for a meal, and not much else. Never a special day. Later like when I was a young mom, I made it a point to see midnight arrive and even hosted a party a time or two... never been a drinker, so always just small intimate parties with fun and food. As I got older, sometimes I stayed up with Dick Clark and sometimes I didn't... all depended on the mood of the moment. This year... well THIS year I was sound asleep by 10:00 and sleeping REALLY deeply when BOOOOOOOOM. I mean REALLY loud something or another. Still not sure what it was. The neighbors always shoot off guns at midnight and this wasn't a gun. Never found out what it was... it was close! So I got up to see if I could see anything and saw a beautiful fireworks display in the next town (we're on a mini-mountain ridge so can see over there.) I heard those booms, too, but not nearly as loud as the first one. So... well I guess I've regressed and it's never a special day again. (But I *do* still have my pork and 'kraut every year!)
When my boys were in their early teens, they were friends with the son of a neighbor who farmed. They had dynamite for blowing up tree stumps or something. Every New Years at midnight, they would set off several sticks of dynamite. They would do it way back in a field but I could hear it like it was in my backyard. My boys loved being there when he set it off. Later, when they could drive, they or my daughter drove to South Carolina and came back with a trunk full of fireworks. They would have a crowd over and set them off in my back yard. We never worried about the police bothering them because they were out there watching.