New Year's Eve Party Ideas

With Christmas fast approaching, new year is just around the corner, so why not celebrate 2025 by hosting your own party?

If you’re not sure where to start, don’t worry we have plenty of ideas to ensure your celebration is memorable long after it’s over – we’ll help you make sure everyone will remember your New Year’s Eve Party!

>> Hire an Entertainer

To make things simple, we’ve categorised our suggestions under three headings: décor, food /drink and entertainment.

Before the party

Once you’ve decided who to invite it’s time to send out the invitations. While you could dispense with formal invitations by messaging your friends, we think eye-catching printed invitations set the tone and get guests excited about the forthcoming celebrations.

Shop bought invitations tend to be undistinctive, and anyway it’s much more fun to create your own. Adobe Express and Canva both offer party invitation templates that are free to use and easy to edit – absolutely no design skills are needed. Alternatively, you could purchase either printed or printable invitations from etsy.com.

Outside Décor ideas

Make your guests feel welcome from the moment they arrive with these New Year’s Eve Party Decor Ideas.

Wreath

Wreaths are not just for Christmas they are perfect for New Year too. There’s no need to spend a fortune on one either; customise an existing wreath by adding 2025 in gold numbers and tying in some plastic champagne flutes (with battery powered lights inside), or shiny gold baubles and you’re done.

Lighting

Light paths with LED lanterns and drape plants with outdoor lights. If you don’t have outdoor lights, hang fairy lights inside on front facing windows. If you have trees at the front of your house, wrapping the trunks in string lights creates a fantastic column effect.

Inside décor ideas

Decide on a theme before you buy any party decorations and limit the colour palette to a maximum of three colours to keep your décor coordinated. White with gold and silver, rose-gold and white or black and gold all work well together and are perfect for adding glitz and glamour.

Room décor

Balloon arch or wreath in your chosen colour scheme.
Large clock or clocks – place over your mantelpiece or create a wall display with several clocks ready for the big countdown!
Paper and foil rosettes with 2025 on the centre – use mixed sizes for best effect.
Helium filled balloons add height, look fabulous and don’t take up any floor space.
Create a magical effect by placing jars filled with battery operated fairy lights windowsills and other surfaces – mini star shaped lights are particularly effective.
Hang a foil fringe door curtain for guests to walk through as they enter the room.

Table Décor

Place a large New Year poster or banner on the back wall behind a buffet table.
Sprinkle table confetti between food dishes.
Transform empty bottles with wine bottle cork lights and use as table lighting.
Cover the table with a metallic effect disposable cloth or use a sheet and add a sparkly runner.
Use cake stands to avoid everything being on one level.
For an elegant dinner party table choose a white tablecloth, silver or gold chargers under plain white china, and place cards; accessorise with candles and simple white flowers.
Place a mini favour box at each place setting and fill with sugared almonds or a single chocolate.

Food Ideas

Exactly what you serve will depend on the theme of your New Year’s Eve party and whether it’s formal or informal. If you’re providing a buffet, why not consider ordering pre-prepared party platters from a supermarket so you enjoy the party without getting too frazzled? Other than that, just keep it simple and follow our suggestions for transforming the simplest of items into perfect party fare.

Mini is perfect – think sausages, pizzas, sausage rolls, toad in the hole etc.
Mini fish and chip cones – buy frozen from a supermarket.
Create a taco board with an assortment of fillings, flour tortillas and dips for guests to create their own customised tacos.
Create a fruit platter.
Create a dessert trolley with mix and match items.
Add 2025 or clock shaped picks to small cakes or sandwiches.
Place food in paper cones on a stand
Use a tiered stand to display cupcakes or other small items.
Add a sparkling sugar rim to glasses by dipping in lemon juice and white granulated or coloured granulated sugar.
Add edible glitter or sparkle drops to drinks.
Set up a drinks trolley with extras so guests can help themselves.

Entertainment ideas

Hire a professional for your New Year’s Eve Party:

Caricaturist
Hire a professional caricaturist and your guests will not only have a good laugh, but they’ll also have a concrete memory of 2023 to take forward into the New Year! A caricaturist can usually manage 10-15 caricatures within an hour, and they will usually theme your drawings too if asked.

Balloon Modeller
Balloon modelling is often associated with children’s parties, but modellers can tailor their makes to suit theme of your party. Guest can also try their hand at creating their own models, something which often produces hilarious results!

Magician
Whatever the size of your party, a magician can tailor their performance to suit the number of guests. This is a good choice if you’re holding a formal dinner party; your magician can either entertain your guests while they’re having coffee at the end of the meal, or between courses.

New Year’s Eve Party Games

Countdown

Print and cut out cards (like landscape shape greeting cards) with the hours leading up to midnight on the front face (7.00, 8.00, 9.00 etc) then write a task inside the card for guests to complete. All guests should participate in all tasks. The last card should read 11.45 as it will be opened before midnight. The task on this card should be something like: ’head outside for fireworks / into the living room to watch the countdown on TV or whatever’s appropriate for your party. These are some suggestions for the earlier tasks:

Give someone a kiss.
Eat some jelly using only a fork.
Tell everyone your New Year’s resolution and insist they help you keep it.
Sing at least one verse of a Christmas carol or song.
Demonstrate your best dance moves.
Swap an item of clothing with someone in the room.

Scavenger Hunt

Before the party starts, hide several items around the house and create clue cards to help guests find them and a list to tick them off. The team or person who ticks everything off the list first wins.Don’t have time to create the game? There are several printable versions of online, some of which are free. Just search ‘printable scavenger hunt’.

Trivia Quiz

Hold a New Year trivia quiz with themed questions. Guests can play in pairs or as two teams. Find free questions and answers online or purchase a ready-made quiz.

Emoji Pictionary

Like Pictionary, but everyone has a printed sheet of emoji clues which they must decipher to come up with the correct answer. You can find several printable versions of this game on Etsy.com.

Time Capsule

Fancy doing something a little different? Why not create a time capsule? Items could include a coin from 2024, a photo taken in the last year, a current newspaper or magazine clipping and something from your party, such as an invitation. Include a signed letter to the person who will open it and then place your items in a sealed container. Mark the date it should be opened on the exterior of the container and then put it in a safe place (possibly an attic or basement). You could retrieve it as early as next year, but five or ten years on will prove far more interesting!