Our first year in the Netherlands, our landlords woke us up near midnight knocking on our door and dragged us out in our sleepwear into the neighborhood where people were setting off fireworks and drinking like crazy people. Many of the houses there had thatched roofs. Every year we read about fires and people who died. We were always concerned about our Aussies who got very spun up from the noise and were trapped in the house without us.
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I once spent NYE in Prague and I was literally afraid for my life.
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#hardcoreNYEinYURP 
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We lived around the corner from certain Hell’s Angels and some years NYE were scarily similar.
I didn’t mention that the week between Christmas and the new year I get ready for the new year by:
• cleaning the house
• getting the car washed (hopefully not on a mushy,
slushy day!)
• getting some personal care appointments out of the way
• put the paperwork tasks, pay bills and such in order
• purchasing one new article of clothing or shoes
• taking some time for me, me & me
Then I can jump into the first week of the new year with somewhat of a clean start!
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A lot of Greek families in Toronto have a big meal on New Year’s Day, which happens to St Basil’s day, so the name day for all the Vassilis, Vasilis, and many Bessies and Bills. ( I know Ernie knows this)
I’ve brought a Karidopita to a New Year’s Party. Sometimes we made galaktoboureko for NYD, when though Vasilopita would be the traditional cake for NYD.
Ernie does know this, because his mom is Vassilia, called Bessie. Yiayia made the vassilopita on her annual baking day before Christmas, along with koulourakia, kourambiedes, and (yes) phoenikia.
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Our Holiday baking was usually galaktoboureko, Karidopita, diples, baklava and kourabiedes. We would prepare them between Xmas and Jan 1, and deliver them sometime before Epiphany! Mostly so that people receiving the treats would have already finished their Canadian Xmas baked goods by New Year’s Day, and be ready for more baked goods!
I was just working on my 2024 budget and estimating my 2024 taxes.
I’m going to pull out my 2023 estimated tax payments and get a jump on my 2023 income taxes. The process always seems to go better if I do a little preliminary work on them before I actually do all the filings.
At some point after the 1st, I’ll step on the scale… see how much damage I did and start the process of losing weight. Ugh. 
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Jeez, now I feel even worse about my general tendency to loll about, not having a clue about what date or weekday it is, and doing almost nothing.
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I’ve been sleeping a lot, it’s been raining the past couple of days and I’m bored. Haven’t been out of the house since Christmas Eve. Had to ask my husband what day of the week it was. I guess tomorrow is Friday.
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I have no New Year’s traditions, other than watching the ball drop. Maybe I should get some.
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Think of it as a ‘Live-it’, not a ‘die-it’.
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New Year’s Eve is most often horse doovers (*) (frozen premade stuff like PF Changs, TGIF) late afternoon or at least a few hours before dinner, with dinner being lobsters in the monster stockpot that I only get down once or twice a year.
New Year’s Day is usually some kind of pork/cabbage dish. We’ve never really had a particular dedicated recipe and usually make something different each year, although a couple of times it’s been as simple as kielbasa, cabbage, and green beans.
Your thread prompted me to start looking, so I think I’ll make this one, except I’ll likely tinker with it as I can’t seem to simply follow a recipe. For sure I’m going to keep the cabbage pieces larger, more like fettucine or wider, instead of the floss-like shreds she suggests.
(*) Slim Pickens in the movie Never A Dull Moment as a gangster, pretending to be a waiter at a black tie affair.
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Our tradition for New Year’s, as Alan707 mentioned earlier, is Oshogatsu, the Japanese observance. We usually make a variety of celebratory foods, including various types of sushi and sashimi, nishime (a stew of mostly root vegetables), sweetened black beans, gobo (burdock root), kamaboko (fish cake), miscellaneous Japanese pickles, and teriyaki. We would invite friends and family over for an open house that starts mid-day, and peeps could come and go as they please.
I have no plans to do it this year, for several reasons. Brother and Dad have both passed away, kids and many friends have scattered to the four winds and are no longer in the area for a casual drop-in, and the friends who stayed local have mostly died, too. Plus, I’m scheduled to work on both NYE and NYD. To mark the day, I may just make some ozoni (New Year’s mochi soup) for Mrs. ricepad and me and call it done.
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I haven’t read it all, but here’s more Japanese traditions.
Japanese American New Year’s Food Traditions Transcend Time
Should be a gift link
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One that I did every year for 15 years, and miss greatly, is the “Dog of the Year” award. We’d save the Tbone bones , and at midnite I’d have a presentation. My kids absolutely loved this event. We’d all get in the kitchen and I’d ask everyone to quiet down for just a minute aas it was time to name the dog of the year, who would sit at attention until the award was announced. Once I made the proclamation that he indeed was, once again, the dog of the year, he’d calmly get up, meet me in the middle of the kitchen, and gently take his award, and consume it. Lil things mean a lot.
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Koreans eat dduk (can also be spelled tteok) guk for Lunar New Year but we also eat it on 1 Jan. It’s a soothing mild rice cake soup that can be supplemented with mandu (dumplings). I like stirring in some kimchee. Was one of my childhood favorites and still is. We’re away this weekend and I didn’t have a chance to get to the Asian market for the necessary ingredients so we’ll have it sometime this week. We’re also still working through never ending Xmas leftovers (which B loves). Later today, we’re going to attend a NYE celebration in Providence that sounds awesome. It starts at 7 pm, with fireworks at 8:30 pm, which is great because we’ve got a 9-year old and the grownups like going to bed early. We like celebrating every moment we have together. Happy 2024, everyone!
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Urrr-muh-gurrrrddd. A friend I used to play softball with in Germany back in the day just posted the link to the famous Dinner for One sketch. She’s long moved to the US as well, but nobody who grew up with this could ever forget. #IYKYK
