Five tips for planning the perfect New Year's Eve at home

by Helen Barbour October 22, 2019

Spending New Year's Eve at home can be even more fun than going out. These five tips will help make it a magical evening.

1. Send out your invitations well in advance

You need to know everyone can make it and whether you are going to have a huge crowd or a small select bunch. If you are planning a murder mystery game then you need to know numbers! And the kinds of people who can come will also impact on the type of game you choose.
We recommend sending out your invitations at least 6 weeks in advance - so about 15th November.

2. Make sure you have activities planned BEFORE midnight

It's so easy to get fixed on midnight but there's a lot of evening before that. We suggest have people arrive at least 1/2 hour before your first activity - whether that's dinner, canapes or a game. That gives people time to get a drink and settle into the evening.

3. Research, download and/or buy any games early

Do your research for games and activities early so that if your guests needs to dress up in fancy dress they can get what they need. It also helps to create a sense of anticipation and fun.

4. Be specific about what food or drink you would like each guest to bring

It will help you to plan and prepare if you know exactly what drinks, snacks or parts of a meal are coming. It's tempting to say 'Just bring what you like" but you run the risk of ending up with 10 bottles of red wine that will take you forever to use. Work out what you need and then parcel some of that out to guests. They will expect to bring something so why not make it fit with the whole group's needs for the evening? You could even get each guest to bring a specific dish - this works very well if you are doing a murder mystery party since there are usually recipes in the host notes that you can send around and allocate.

5. Decorate

Take the time to get some special decorations. If you aren't going out NYE is still an occasion so buy some balloons, invest in banners and streamers, set the scene and you will be half way to a magical evening that will take you into the excitement of a new year.